At the apex of Girl Talk’s set, Gregg Gillis took a moment to supersede the authorities that be at Northwestern and cancel school for the rest of the year. It was a typically brash and comical move from the Pittsburgh-born mashup extraordinaire, and one that brought out raucous applause from the crowd. This is Gillis’s specialty at events for schools like Northwestern: he can make everyone forget all their troubles, relieve the tension, get rid of all the pressure and replace it with confetti and toilet paper streaming off of leaf blowers.
Back in winter 2007, Girl Talk played the Louis Room for an event co-sponsored by Niteskool and A&O. It was an unmitigated disaster, despite Greg Gillis’s manic dancing and glitch pop gold blasting out of speakers. There was a bar for people over 21, but overly drunk patrons were dragged out at various points during the show. Though the concert started at 7, Gillis didn’t take the stage until 9:30 amidst a typically terrible Northwestern crowd. Last Friday at the Riviera, everything was different, and Girl Talk put on a bravura performance that equaled the best shows ever put on for Northwestern students.
Openers and indie darlings The Walkmen did not disappoint the early crowd, providing a jolt of rock energy mostly thanks to vocalist Hamilton Leithauser, who howled out a mix of tracks from last year’s well-received album Lisbon as well as some of their older material. But, members of the crowd were chanting “Girl Talk” before the openers had finished their set.
It’s all too obvious for any frequent concertgoer to notice just how impatient and rude Northwestern students can be at these, but a lot of that depends on what acts A&O brings. For the most part, indie rock isn’t well received no matter how high quality the band, although Passion Pit — last year’s headliners — managed to play right into the pulse of the moment on campus. Now that Gillis is the frontman of the still rising mashup movement after releasing All Day last fall, the time was ripe for another show at Northwestern. Hats off to A&O for making it happen; they grabbed the zeitgeist right when they needed to.
The Riviera was a perfect venue for Girl Talk in a lot of ways, most of all the extra space for his added visual dynamic. Confetti cannons, balloons, and a video screen that changed as quickly as Gillis’s beats made for an enthralling mass experience. Starting with the early cuts off of All Day and moving through samples of “Party in the USA,” Lady Gaga, and the best parts of his previous album Feed the Animals, Gillis built up, cooled down, and repeated his process, always with frenzied action, jumping everywhere and commanding the crowd to writhe along with him. He’s an addled Pied Piper, taking over a room with the authority to make anything possible for a few hours, to pack the largest amount of fun possible into the shortest amount of time.
By the end of the show, with the room exhausted, Gillis ended by playing John Lennon’s “Imagine” for a few minutes, bringing the lights up and imploring the crowd to sing along while balloons fluttered around with the last of the confetti. Through all the cacophony, it was hard not to feel serene in that long moment, everything dropping away and the crowd moving together. Gillis is a masterful performer, and this time A&O found the right venue and handled everything the right way. As Girl Talk’s image and popularity rose over the last four years, it’s wonderful to see that Gillis remains a kid in a candy store who just wants to play with everyone.