Girl Talk showed Houston how to party on Thursday night at Verizon Wireless Theater. | Kendra Berglund/The Daily Cougar
Girl Talk’s Gregg Gillis took the stage at Verizon Wireless Theater on Thursday night and gave Houston the dance party of a lifetime.
Gillis opened to a sea of barely legal — this is a liberal estimate, mind you — fans dressed in American Apparel who were likely on a wide range of substances and were foaming at the mouth to have a chance to dance on stage with the mash-up phenomenon himself.
He isn’t your average DJ, either. He’s a sweatsuit-clad, bearded man who sports a headband — which appears to be made of toilet paper — and Nike Dunks while he gives fans a reason to dance their pants off. Gillis combines the vocals of your favorite ’80s rock songs with the basslines from rap, hip hop and R&B songs (and vice versa.)
Girl Talk released his fifth and most recent album “All Day” in November of 2010. Surprisingly, however, most of the songs played were from previous albums.
The crowd erupted in dance as soon as the show began and we were lucky enough to secure a spot on-stage for the entire set. Gillis also turned a lot of his mash-ups upside down and mixed different tracks on the spot, which is the best part about going to his shows — as Forrest Gump would say, “You never know what you’re going to get.” Gillis explores the potential of his work as a mash-up artist as he’s performing in front of a thousand screaming, dancing fans. He also employs typical rave-scene things like confetti, balloons and strobe lights. Oh, and the handheld toilet paper blowers were pretty awesome, too.
The show was closed with “Every Day” from the “All Day” album, which features a looped track of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” This was one of the best shows at Verizon in a while, and we can only hope that Gregg Gillis returns soon.
