Girl Talk at The Lyric Oxford

I didn't think we'd find tickets to the sold out Girl Talk show at The Lyric Oxford Friday night (2/13/09). But Brian (Leah's fiance) hooked us up with tickets just a few hours before the show. Brian, thank you so much because Girl Talk was definitely a show not to miss!

Girl Talk (aka Gregg Gillis) does mash-ups. But the thing is, he's really good at it. Think Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" together with Jay-Z's "Roc Boys" and you have my personal favorite Girl Talk song: Set It Off.

I had my reservations about seeing this "live". I mean, how could one dude on stage with a laptop actually be something to watch? But I knew I wanted to check this show out.

The night started out not so great. I think the entire population of Ole Miss sorority & fraternity kids bought tickets, which is part of the reason it sold out so quickly. They were all dressed in 80's outfits (for fun? or maybe some kind of swap? I don't know why), which was hilarious to us because most of them were born in the 90's. Hard to believe. The only good thing about that was that the line at the bar wasn't long because they were (mostly) underage.

We found an EXCELLENT spot upstairs on the balcony, left side of the stage. I wish I had photos to show how close we were, but Leah and I both left our phones in the car. The great thing about being close was that we kinda had a bird's-eye view of what Gillis was doing with the laptop. Before the show started, we got a good look at the set-up. Basically a table weighted down with sandbags so that it wouldn't get pushed off stage with a laptop taped down to it. That's about it.

And now, the show. The good: this show was so much fun! I freaking love to dance, and I don't get to do it enough. Jackson, Mississippi dance clubs = trash, and I will not go in Jackson. I can't even begin to name all the songs in the mash-ups he put together for Friday night's show. Whoomp There It Is, Single Ladies, Tiny Dancer, Jackson Five, Since U Been Gone (and I don't even like that song), Three Six Mafia (they are from Memphis y'all), Nirvana, Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine (yeah). You name it, it was there. By all accounts, Gillis loves pop and hip-hop music and knows how to put it together to get people PUMPED.

Right when the show started he started pulling people up on stage, then of course those kids all started pulling their friends up, etc until the stage was packed with dancing kiddos. Ok, young adults. Whatever. I felt so bad for the four Cobra Security guys up there on stage. There were only two on each side, and two of the guys were holding down the table so it wouldn't fall off the stage. They had their work cut out for them.

The bad: he didn't overlay as many songs live as he does on the record. Like, on the record you can almost always pick out 3 songs at once. Sometimes even 4 or 5. But live, it sounded like there were 3 tops. And sometimes, just one. One's just not impressive.

Because I'm not 20 anymore and because I had to be at work with a nimble brain at 7 AM on Saturday morning, I did not stay the whole time. We left at about 12:30 AM, so I missed the last 30 minutes of the show.

I am so glad I got to go to this show! The crowd was great. Everyone was TOTALLY into it. There was barely a still body in the place. I had so much fun!!