Standing in line at Girl Talk’s Oct. 24 performance at St. Antonio’s Dance Hall, it was hard not to listen to the anxious crowd in attendance spilling along the side of the venue. “I don’t think any fights will happen here tonight,” said one attendee. “Girl Talk makes pretty intelligent music and he has intelligent fans.”
It’s kind of hard to support this argument when you have groups of girls jumping up and down screaming “I love having sex, but I’d rather get some head.” But it wasn’t the last time Girl Talk’s genius would be discussed this night.
Starting the set off early was Rich Aucoin with a chunk of his live band. Although having fewer instrumentalists on stage in comparison to his Deerhoof opening slot last year, Aucoin certainly had one of his best opening performances of his career thus far. The half-filled venue was jumping up and down and going crazy for Aucoin’s upbeat mixture of Sufjan Stevens meets a pep rally.
Once the crowd filled out a bit more and the balconies became packed, the lights were dimmed, followed by a deafening scream from the crowd. Girl Talk came through the curtains hopping up and down while addressing the crowd. As quickly as the mic was put down, fans charged the stage in an attempt to get close to one of their favourite musicians. Security helped a large array of girls clad in American Apparel and thrift store rejects onto the narrow stage to begin the dance party.
Girl Talk soon lost half of his clothes ripped off by girls clamouring around his laptop as he mixed Jackson Five, Jay Z, segments from “Footloose” and Daft Punk into semi-coherent mash ups. The crowd surged back and forth, trampling on the smaller girls in the crowd more than once.
Girl Talk head banged his way through the majority of his final songs, ending with a screaming ode to Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” and a slowed down version of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” that had the whole crowd switching between verses by Elton John and Notorious BIG.
As soon as the concert had begun, it was over. The dehydrated crowd filtered to the front in search of water. Some in attendance resorted to throwing ice at each other and getting cups of water from the bottom of beer coolers. Mascara bled from girls eyes and some of the jocks in the crowd couldn’t stop high fiving each other and proclaiming Greg Gillis as their savior.
A small crowd of 10 to 20 people were centered near the front of the venue where a sweaty and shirtless Gillis stood, answering questions and taking pictures with fans.
“I love you so much!” exclaimed one girl. This was followed by a humble “Thanks,” and a smile from Gillis.
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