Concert Spotlight: Girl Talk
Dancefloor euphoria in Baltimore
by Wesley Case
Issue date: 4/10/07 Section: Mosaic
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April 6, 2007
The Ottobar - Baltimore, Md.
Gregg Gillis, the mastermind behind Girl Talk, is leading a double life. Last year, he revealed to Pitchforkmedia that he was a biomedical engineer by day and a performing artist by night. What Gillis does is simple and complex - he takes Top 40 radio hits and meticulously blends, crushes and pulverizes them into brand new compositions. Gillis' results are some of the most thrilling party music ever created.
His latest album, the masterwork "Night Ripper," fuses classic, universal pop and rock songs with contemporary Hip-hop choruses and verses. The album opener, "Once Again," pairs the Ying Yang Twins' "Wait (The Whisper Song)" with The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" only to transition to Noel Gallagher's acoustic strumming on Oasis' "Wonderwall" under Slim Thug's deep Southern drawl on "I Ain't Heard of That." This isn't child's play - Gillis isn't a "mashup artist" or a DJ (his T-shirts say so), but rather an artist creating something brand new with established material.
Gillis, who is a white, skinny, gyrating machine on stage, sold out Baltimore's Ottobar Friday night. The club is quaint - tiny floor space, small balcony area - and was a perfect house for the dance party waiting to commence. After drinking beer and dancing on stage to opener Dan Deacon, Gillis came out and tested the levels of his laptop. He quickly excused himself, telling the crowd he had to stare at himself in the mirror and think about what his life had become. He didn't need much time. Within five minutes, Gillis transformed into the mythological Girl Talk and was on stage in Wayfarers and a gray hooded sweatshirt.
"Baltimore, are you with me," Gillis screams into a microphone.
Then the party began: an a capella version of Rich Boy's "Throw Some D's" hit the speakers over a thumping bass line. The crowd, a mixed bag of hipsters, drunk girls and everyone in between, imploded - from the top of the balcony to the bottom of Ottobar, not one person stood still. The dancing ranged from male-to-female grinding, stereotypical ecstasy-induced spazz outs and general rug cutting. It wasn't long before the party goers rushed the stage to dance and sweat next to Gillis.
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