Girl Talk Was Bananas

Girl Talk went through about a million tracks in the hour or so he was on stage, every thirty seconds dropping in a new song element to get the crowd going. As expected he ended up shirtless, but it was easy to see why that's the case - he sweats buckets (the crowd was dripping as well). On a couple of occasions he left the stage to go run through the crowd, starting a conga line to jumpstart the party in the more calm rear of the club. We knew things were getting out of hand when someone started to crowdsurf to Depeche Mode. Seriously crazy stuff, topped only by Girl Talk's stage diving during his cover of Nirvana's "Scentless Apprentice."

For the week prior to the show Seattlest encountered a lot of banter regarding the ultimate worth of an act like Girl Talk. While he eschews the term "mashup," Girl Talk's act centers around some ADD-addled mixing, taking bits and pieces from "the hits" of the last twenty years and blending them together into an aural stew. Many critics focus is on what this music's legacy will be or the fact that Girl Talk isn't the first to deal in such musical juxtaposition, but that seems to miss the point entirely. This is party music not just produced, but engineered for maximum consumption. We had some doubts, but Seattle responded within expected tolerances. Way to go. Considering Girl Talk is off to tour with Kanye West and Gnarls Barkley it's safe to say that even if he does return it won't be somewhere as small as Chop Suey (although one can hope!), so this was truly a show for the ages.