summer smoke

Last Saturday evening there was something pungent in the downtown sea of hipsters and kids-in-the-know. It wasn't the mixture of mud and hay on the ground, but for a brief moment the smell of a generation, not just a specific subculture, was unexpectedly perfumed through the air. It smelled of policed hedonism and an urge for technological immediacy that satisfies the quicker the better. Who might you ask is responsible for all of this? Whatever you want to call him, Girl Talk brought his brew of pop music wizardry to the Belevedere and what a display it was. The idea of what he does is a very fresh, intelligent way of subverting the masses but lovingly acknowledging it and allowing it to inspire him and move music in a different direction. In a way he's justifying the existence of Top 40 music that is so easily scoffed at by the archetypal neo-hipster that is more preoccupied with absorbing a Can boxset. However, the spectacle of Girl Talk's pop vision doesn't really translate so impressively in a live format. It was less interesting and consistent when you and a crowd of 500 in a mud pitare pressed together like a fresh grilled cheese trying to move and experience the music. I knew of the theatrics that would ensue on stage, but by the end of the hour or so set I felt like I hadn't witnessed anything mind-expanding related to the artist himself but instead those in attendance and their relationship to the music.

The clouds parted just in time for Mr. Gillis to work his magic and within seconds of his show the crowd charged the stage to join the wild, untamed party that he encourages on his otherwise bare stage. The entire show is played off of his laptop, so perhaps this is giving the audience something to look at other than some maladroit mixing beats for an hour. However, security intervened quickly and the crowd on stage soon dissipated. There was still some mildly chaotic action to look at but my idea of a dance party is not watching shirtless kids (it was an all ages show) with a faint trace of rhythm gyrate in front of me, but instead be very much apart of the melee. The security didn't allow for such truly untamed hedonism. For the rest of the show it felt like I was watching the show behind a thin shield of glass. Matters weren't helped when Girl Talk only made an appearance from behind his computer and slew of dancers only a handful of times, each time progressively less and less clothed. How are we to know that he wasn't duping us all and getting everyone hot and bothered over a pre-made playlist? I don't completely doubt his skills, but through the layers of crowd surfers, security, and revelers on stage it was difficult to pinpoint the artist himself. The other issue was the lacking sound quality. The closer you are to his music the more it grabs at you and makes you punch-drunk off his near volatile love of popular music. Standing away from it the sound is muffled and disengaging. This could have been anyone's fault but I hope for future shows on the scale of an outdoor music festival he can think of more creative ways to include the entire audience and make the back of the audience feel just as included in his bizarre world of Elton John and Notorious B.I.G mashups.

Technical glitches and crowd issues aside, I did appreciate the music. Most of the performance sounded more organic and less of a complete regurgitation of his wonderful album, "Night Ripper." His music functions as an aural reminder of the great pop songs of my generation that form a schizophrenic mixtape to our still young lives. Pairing a Three Six Mafia song with a Smashing Pumpkins classic makes me think of my misspent middle school days in comparison to current pop landscape where three guys from Memphis are now Oscar winners. "Night Ripper" also speaks to a generation raised on music downloading and instant technology. The jumpy nature of the album is not out of sync with the everyone's-a-dj mentality my generation has come to represent as a result of the accessibility of deejaying programs and other downloadable software that over night can turn any Joe Blow with an arsenal of music into the next "it" DJ. Conscious of it or not, Girl Talk is emblematic of a internet obsessed generation that has very little true sense of anti-establishment ideology due to their collective apathy and bloated self-perception. The audience that appreciates what Girl Talk does thumbs their nose at the mainstream and need him to recontexutalize and repackage it for them to even consider the possibility of merit in a Lil Wayne or Young Jeezy hook, but if they listened hard enough they could tell that Girl Talk staunchly champions commercialism and conventions if anything. Has Mr. Gillis duped his audience or are they not perceptive enough to be in on his joke whilst they dance merrily in their finest American Apparel? From this fan's prospective it was the initial pull of hearing a Wings song married with a Ying Yang Twins song. Now that's what I call music for the masses.