Friday Night, Mele and I went to see Girl Talk at the Ottobar, and it was probably the most awesome thing in the history of awesome.
Reason 1: Opening act Cex had as much fun as a man can have with a laptop; climbing onstage in a wheelchair, claiming to be a Make A Wish recipient, faux-howling along to his own ‘lectronic samples, and eventually mostly-undressing and freaking out onstage while waving a phallic trophy in the air.
Reason 2: Girl Talk’s energy was unbelievable. A full house pumped fists while singing along to “C.R.E.A.M.” cross-faded with “Carry On My Wayward Son.” People flooded the stage, huddling around the boy and his little PC and laptop, dancing like idiots and stage-diving. It was basically an extended DC set; with Girl Talk playing no real “song” structures but using a vast collection of Night Ripper and newer samples to mix and match up on-the-fly. Much, much better than I expected. Oh yeah, but it also got really hot and everyone was superdrunked.
Reason 3: A man named Dan Deacon, wearing big yellow glasses and a too-tight Fred Flinstone shirt, was sandwiched between Cex and Girl Talk, and blew’em both away. Setting up his rig in the middle of the crowd, he played a 45-minute set of spazz-o-riffic insanity with a few simple electronics, a microphone, and one green, glowing skull. His weird Disney-ride melodies and manipulated vocals sound totally new, totally bizarre, and they really work once you get over the sheer hyperspeed of it all. Crowd-participation was key, too: Dan handed out lyric sheets for one of the closing numbers, and then led us in a ridiculous count-down before rocking the place with the Saturday-morning freakout ‘Big Big Big Big Big’. “We are all Opie,” he reassured us, “Opulent opals. There’s no way other way to say it!”
Mele and I are instant fans. Download a few:
Dan Deacon - Crystal Cat
Dan Deacon - Big Big Big Big Big
Dan Deacon - Splish Splash
Oh yeah: And he has a new album out on May 8th.
(A few other great videos: “Silence Like The Wind” at SXSW, Dan on NBC Morning in Savannah Georgia)
the high point: the excellent music and crazy cex wheelchair stunts and the dance-y atmosphere. the low point: when aforementioned atmosphere became oppressively hot and the audience became drunk, stinky, stupid, and aggro. dear drunk girls: you are not cute when you dance with your drink in my face. thank you. i left feeling old but also…superior.
weirdly, anna was also at the show and said the crowd was all underage and that there was never a line at the bar. she complained that she was the oldest person in the room.
but perhaps she was the drunk girls! (could be.)
Those people had to be on SOMETHING. I dunno.