North by Northwestern

The stereotype holds that Northwestern kids are a gaggle of overachievers more focused on cumulative GPA than good times. The ho-hum party scene and lack of campus spirit don’t help to counter the haters.

Greg Gillis, however, knows exactly how to work the Wildcat masses.

As part of Niteskool’s winter concert on Friday night, Gillis, aka Girl Talk, whipped students into a frenzy not seen since whenever NU last won a big football game. Over a continually thumping set, Girl Talk delivered not only one of the finest concerts in recent Northwestern memory, but the most pure fun a musical act coming to campus could create.

Armed with only a laptop and a few pockets of confetti, Gillis sliced and diced popular tunes into new, energetic shapes on the spot. His basic strategy is to poach popular rap refrains and drop them into alien beats, ranging from hip-hop to indie-friendly fodder to big, dumb rock songs. The NU show opened with the Notorious B.I.G.’s lyrics to “Juicy” colliding with the twinkling piano of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer,” and the energetic mix crammed the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Kanye West, Guns N’ Roses, Three Six Mafia and Tears for Fears (among a hard drive’s worth of other artists) into the same universe.

Girl Talk’s secret, and the reason Friday’s show maintained a high-octane pace, is Gillis’ short attention span. No musical combo lasts longer than a minute or two, instead transforming into something new just as fast as it arrived. Many mash-up artists ride out the entirety of their mixings, hoping a novel pairing can entertain for three-plus minutes. Girl Talk volleys ideas out at a breakneck pace, forcing the crowd not to focus on the actual sonic coupling, but just dance like crazy before it vanishes. Gillis’ pace kept the NU crowd pumped all evening long, leaving the audience wanting to know what was next, even if their feet slowly tired out.

The set’s highlights turned the surging crowd into a force of pure human awesomeness. Small details struck powerful blows: a snippet of Justin Timberlake’s “My Love” threw the crowd into a tizzy, while the indie crowd got a kick out of Gillis sneaking Grizzly Bear’s “Knife” into the chaos. The biggest suprise of the night went to Len’s “Steal My Sunshine,” a track popping out of nowhere to amplify the feet-moving. And, of course, Soulja Boy’s “Crank That” appeared, but Gillis’ handled it so well that the kids doing the Superman dance looked serious, not ironic.

Gillis danced manically onstage, bobbing his head and throwing his arms up at appropriate moments, urging others to join him. And they did. As oppossed to the usual Northwestern show, where crossed arms and silence are the norm, Girl Talk commanded the crowd to move, and got it. Students rushed the stage a minute into the show, and tried to get closer to Gillis throughout the night, thwarted by a police presence that even spoke to Girl Talk mid-song about the situation. But Gillis came to the fans at various points, jumping into the fray or being carried above it. The show didn’t feel like an audience watching an artist as much as it felt like a bunch of people having fun to sweet music.

Girl Talk’s music isn’t high art: It’s brainless dance music, and who cares? Anything capable of turning academic squares into gyrating, screaming fun-seekers is amazing, and sure beats a dumb frat rager any Friday night.