While Tuesday’s performance offered everything you would expect of mash-up phenomenon Girl Talk, including
a crowd that resembled the aftermath of an American Apparel explosion, the
university venue show was quite different from a usual open-venue show.
The last time Girl
Talk’s Gregg Gillis was sweat-glued to his laptop in Milwaukee was election
night 2008, and Turner Hall Ballroom was a sardine-packed can of neon-tastic
Milwaukee hipsters with PBRs in hand. The crowd at that show was familiar with
Girl Talk, understood he was one guy and not a group, had a sense of the party
they were in store for—and unlike the Marquette students on Tuesday, they
understood crowd surfing is out of the question at a mash-up dance-a-thon show
like Girl Talk’s.
The show was in
perfect timing with Marquette’s recent distinction by Playboy magazine as the Best Catholic Party School. Tuesday’s show
at Marquette’s Alumni Memorial Union drew inebriated freshmen girls and dazed
and confused students who took advantage of the day’s “holiday.” It also hosted
hostility, which radiated from those who weren’t aware that one of the key ingredients
to a Girl Talk show is simply letting loose and having fun.
Gillis has been traveling from university to university as of late, performing
his hodgepodge mash-ups that mix the most innocent, teen-bop of songs to the
crudest and heaviest rap. One second you’re singing along to “Since U Been
Gone” by Kelly Clarkson and the next you could be singing, “What’s Your
Fantasy?” by Ludacris. Gillis did an utterly sublime job of intermixing songs
recognizable from his previous albums such as “My Drink ’n’ My 2 Step” with
newer songs such as “Tik Tok” and “Rude Boy.” The show affirmed Gillis’ ability
to mix old with the new, and to keep up with the ever-changing charts.
Some critiques resonating from attendees include the show’s short duration, which only ended up being close to an hour. But for the $15 price tag on tickets, an hour’s worth of innovation and mash-up perfection is nothing to complain about. Time flies when you’re having fun, especially when it’s with the kingpin of the mash-up.
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