06 May Girl Talk: Be Here Now

Frenetic, intelligent, hilarious and provocative, Girl Talk turned in SunFest’s most exhilarating set so far.

As stated earlier, Girl Talk, aka Gregg Gillis, makes mashup music—his music comprises innumerable samples of others’ music, layered and collided into something transcendent and encompassing. Yeah, it’s just one dude with a laptop, but for his live performances Gillis wisely incorporates the crowd, often playing on the floor of the venue or, as he did tonight, inviting 30 or so audience members on-stage to dance with him. His solo project became an all-inclusive dance party and he made sure the entire audience was alongside, too.

“SunFest are you with me tonight?” he called out while taking the stage, a massive hip-hop serving as his walk-on music. Suddenly, toilet-paper guns unspooled reams of floating ribbon, stage lights spelled out GIRL TALK, those amateur backup dancers filled the wings, and the show began in earnest. It didn’t let up for 90 minutes. The FPL stage was transformed into a dance party, thousands-strong, surreal and celebratory: choreographed drunken ballet, dangerously fast twirling, pogo bouncing. A longhaired guy attempted a mosh pit and was thwarted; minutes later the circle he carved out of the crowd was filled by a pair of badass breakdancers.

Throughout the night, Gillis repeated the line over and over: “Where are you right now, SunFest?” and “Southern Florida, are you with me?” (His erring on “Southern” was endearing.) He climbed on top of his computer table, shirtless, to exhort the crowd. “Is this Saturday right now? Is this SunFest right now? Are we outside right now??” Beyond the mind-tease of the recombined nature of his music—a major component of it, for sure—Gillis’ bigger MO is a Zen-like mindfulness. Time and place, here and now—recognize the joy and glory and mystery of it all. Here’s a massive hip-hop beat, a classic rock chorus and a skyful of confetti to help you get there.

Of the countless samples Gillis played, the Beastie Boys were dropped at least three times. Twice  Gillis gave props to Adam “MCA” Yauch, who died yesterday at 47 years old. He ended the night with a double-whammy, the WHYYYYYYYYYYYY scream from “Sabotage” and the steel-barrel drums from “So Whatcha Want.” The debt is clear. Like the savvy hip-hop head he is, Gillis recognizes those who came before.

Here’s a rundown of samples I recognized, in chronological order and by no means a complete:

Spencer Davis Group, Lil Wayne, A-ha, MIA (“Bad Girls” and “Paper Planes”), Ice Cube, the Ramones, Missy Elliott, Elton John, Biggie Smalls, 50 Cent, Vampire Weekend, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Wu-Tang, Beck, House of Pain, Beyonce, Beastie Boys, Skee-lo, DJ Smurf, the Strokes, Iggy Pop, Beastie Boys, Cheap Trick, Busta Rhymes, Lady Gaga, BellBivDevoe, DJ Kool, Eminem, Micheal Jackson, Adele, Nirvana, Tone-Loc, Missy Elliott, 2 Live Crew, De La Soul, Young MC, M83 (thanks Cassie), Tag Team, the Who, Van Halen, Steve Winwood, Dee-Lite, Kelly Clarkson, Waka Flocka Flame, Isley Brothers, Blur, 69 Boyz, Basement Jaxx, Radiohead, Queen, Birdman, Guns n Roses, Black Sabbath, Ludacris, Mystikal, Beastie Boys

Stay tuned for a video interview I did with Gillis, which will be posted here as soon as our production staff completes the edit.

Photos by Chris Salata