Girl Talk with Dan Deacon and White Williams
Phoenix Concert Theatre
September 12, 2007
Toronto, ON
I had high expectations going into the show of Girl Talk, aka Greg Gillis, the infamous party mix producer who has made a name for himself in a fairly controversial vein of music. Like precedent artist Dangermouse, Girl Talk takes the work of a plethora of artists before him, from genres all over the map, and creates complexly layered party anthems, that are about as much fun to dance to as they are to listen and try and pick out each artist he has used. I’ve been listening to his second album ‘Night Ripper’ for over a year now and still haven’t named them all. But like I said, I went into this show expecting one hell of a dance party, especially with Gillis bringing fellow DJ Dan Deacon and indie rockers White Williams alongside, and my hopes for a great show were blown away. Far, far away, to the point where I think this show can be placed in a category on its own. Let me try to explain…
The Phoenix was fairly packed when we got in, and openers White Williams had taken the stage moments earlier and hadn’t really even gotten any feet moving, much less heads bobbing. A shame, since these guys have a refreshingly different sound, not quite that same old Strokes vibe that so many bands these days have put a slight spin on and have called their own. Between mellow, but articulate, indie rock songs to more upbeat electronic almost Radioheadesque tunes, these guys were a pretty good time! They got some dancing out of us, and should have gotten much more, but Toronto scene these days is so uptight. Their set was short lived, but a good start to an unexpectedly wild show. I’d heard rumours of Girl Talk engaging with the crowd as much as possible, he’d bring them up on stage to dance with him while he cranked out song after song, somehow all the sweaty bodies shaking every body part possible to the beat didn’t throw him off.
Dan Deacon is the kind of guy you probably wouldn’t look twice at on the street, and you may suspect was the brunt of at least a few jokes in his high school days. He was tall and slightly chubby, was dressed very much like he was stuck in the ‘80s and had a pair of coke bottle reading glasses on (now if this is all part of the shtick to add to his charm, who knows?). But after a glance of him on stage he was soon amongst us; he set up his table and equipment right in the centre of the crowd with nothing but himself, his laptop and many other gadgets and a small reading lamp to get through his set. I was equally impressed and terrified for him at the same time. But once he kicked off his set with “Under the Sea� a classic you may remember from a hit Disney movie The Little Mermaid and the crowd went nuts, you could tell he had it all under control. At this point the intensity of the room started to rise, bodies were everywhere, clothing was being removed, and you were inevitably covered in sweat, beer, hair, saliva and god knows what else about 2 or 3 songs into his set. But this really didn’t put a damper on the evening, whatsoever. The show was 19+, which at most shows I go to in Toronto means the crowd will be a little more pretentious, a little more tense, but at least a little more mature. To my delight, this crowd was a great time, maybe all of the aforementioned or maybe not, the only thing that seemed to matter that night was dancing as hard as you possibly could. The tracks Deacon played somewhat all melded together, making for an exhilarating yet exhausting 40 minutes or so. At some point when I had taken off my sweater to try and escape the heat and passed the waist cinch I had had to a friend to hold for a second. This somehow got handed to another friend we had made at the show over our love of, well, electro and dancing I suppose, which then got tied to someone’s head and then tossed somewhere, and well, that was the last I saw of my belt. One lost article of clothing down, unfortunately more to come, but clearly these losses are all evidence of a pretty good time! I didn’t bother asking around for it to our new friends (at these types of shows it seems like everyone just loves everyone, and no, it wasn’t the E). Once Deacon’s set was finished and he had packed up and left it got a little roomier on the floor, and as sweaty and stuck together everyone was, at least you could have an inch to breath. His set took the anticipation level for Girl Talk’s to new heights, and there was a buzz of excitement around the room during the surprisingly short set change.
When the lights when dark and the screen on the stage lit up with the words GIRL TALK and some of his album art, everyone went nuts. All he had on stage was a desk with a laptop and he ran out grinning insanely at us and waving, and went straight to the computer and started playing with controls and buttons. The next few minutes were a little nuts, I swear this show was crazier than a lot of rock and punk shows I’ve been to. I have no idea what came first, the first track starting, Gillis pulling a few kids up onto stage with him who then brought their friends who pulled up theirs, getting pushed from side to side like we were in some kind of crazy mosh pit, or what. All I know is the shirtless, long haired, sweat pant sporting party animal who has coined himself as Girl Talk had made everyone’s night already, and it had been about five minutes, if that. He pulled us all up on stage, I found myself glad to be up there simply so I could have a little more room to breathe (I’m turning into a grandma in my old age, I know) but then realized it was pretty cool to stand on stage dancing like a fool and look out at the crowd like I was some kind of rock star. I had no idea where my friends were, I just knew the music was infiltrating our heads like a cancer and the only cure was…. More cowbell! Oh wait, no, that’s all wrong. We danced, we danced a lot, have I mentioned that yet? Soon the stage was just as packed as the floor had been and the bouncers quickly ensured everyone left Mr. Gillis in peace as he got to cranking out the songs, none of the ridiculousness of 100 plus kids crashing the stage seemed to faze him whatsoever. But once we were all off he still seemed to want to be as close as possible as every time he had a free moment to get away from the laptop he would come back out to the edge of the stage and grab as many hands as possible with this huge grin on his face as he danced wildly to his own anthems. Luckily I ended up in a pretty ideal spot, dead centre packed right up against the stage like a sardine, my arms flat out in front of me on it because they really had nowhere else to go. At one point he had requested a circle be made in the centre of the crowd and said one person at a time was going to dance and then tag another to come out and bust their best moves. I thought this was kind of hilarious and somewhat impossible, and after a girlfriend and I decided the people in the centre would be us but then somehow ending up on our asses, we quickly got up and escaped back into the crowd just in time for the music to kick back in and the circle to fill in, a cute very music viedeoesque idea gone bad. The rest of the show was killer, the fans made it back up on stage for his finale and he made his rounds giving hugs and high fives to all the overzealous fans. I realized I had lost both my ear tunnels as well as a pair of hoop earrings and everything I had holding my hair back, but I figured these small losses are simply a sign of a damn good night, like I said. To sum it up, if I can give you a word of advice, electro/DJ fan or not, going to a Girl Talk show is essentially a guaranteed good time.