A night out with sample-happy psycho Girl Talk (AKA Gregg Gillis) is never gentle.
Imagine your brain being force-fed 36 hours of music in 36 minutes, pushed to the brink of seizure, and then fucked by a superpowered laptop that's been wrapped in plastic to protect it from all kinds of bodily fluids, like spit and sweat and, um, other stuff.
Basically, the live Girl Talk experience is a manic mashup of outsized arena spectacle and orgiastic rave. And after 22 consecutive sold-out shows, Gillis is extending his pheremone-soaked North American spree by scheduling another 38 sweaty encounters, including a gig at the Fillmore Miami Beach May 19.
A former biomedical engineer from Pittsburgh turned professional master of mischief, Gillis's recorded product is just as spastic, oversexed, and gloriously brutal as the stage performance. But it's also executed with an almost inhuman level of precision.
Searching pop music's every orifice for fresh free samples, Gillis collects and catalogs hundreds of song snippets on his laptop before feeding them through the sonic hadron collider that's housed inside his skull. It's a simple, magic method. And so far, it's spawned five albums.
Last year's freely downloadable full-length, All Day, is the newest and most intricate experiment that he's ever pulled off. Released via Gillis's own Illegal Art label, the record's a 71-minute miracle maneuver involving a grand total of 373 individual samples (2 Live Crew to Miley Cyrus to Devo), all forced into ingeniously perverted, promiscuous pairings.
And as always, Gillis didn't pay for any kind of copyright permission. So this whole Girl Talk project isn't just "orgiastic," "spastic," and "magic." It's criminal too.
Download: Girl Talk's All Day
Girl Talk. Thursday, May 19. Fillmore Miami Beach, 1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach. The show starts at 9 p.m. and tickets go on sale Friday, March 4 at 10 a.m. for $20 plus fees via livenation.com. Call 305-673-7300 or visit fillmoremb.com.
Girl Talk North American Tour Dates
Thursday, February 24 Terminal 5, New York City, NY
Friday, February 25 Lupo's, Providence, RI
Saturday, February 26 House of Blues, Boston, MA
Monday, February 28 State Theatre, Portland, ME
Tuesday, March 1 Metropolis, Montreal, PQ*
Thursday, March 3 Compuware Sports Arena, Plymouth, MI*
Friday, March 4 Congress Theater, Chicago, IL*
Saturday, March 5 Congress Theater, Chicago, IL*
Monday, March 7 Alliant Energy Center, Madison, WI*
Tuesday, March 8 First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN*
Tuesday, March 9 First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN*
Friday, March 11 Ogden Theatre, Denver, CO*
Saturday, March 12 Ogden Theatre, Denver, CO*
Monday, March 14 The Wilma Theatre, Missoula, MT*
Tuesday, March 15 Showbox, Seattle, WA*
Wednesday, March 16 Showbox, Seattle, WA*
Thursday, March 17 Roseland Theater, Portland, OR*
Friday, March 18 Fox Theater, Oakland, CA*
Saturday, March 19 Fox Theater, Pomona, CA*
Monday, March 21 Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, CA*
Tuesday, March 22 Soma, San Diego, CA*
Wednesday, March 23 Marquee Theatre, Tempe, AZ*
Friday, March 25 The Pool at the Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas, NV*
Saturday, March 26 Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, CA*#
Saturday, April 23 Canopy Club, Urbana, IL#
Wednesday, May 18 Janus Live, St. Petersburg, FL#
Thursday, May 19 Fillmore Miami Beach, Miami, FL#
Saturday, May 21 House of Blues, Orlando, FL#
Sunday, May 22 Hangout Beach, Gulf Shores, AL#
Tuesday, May 24 The Lyric, Oxford, MS#
Saturday, May 28 Summercamp, Chilicothe, IL#
Sunday, May 29 Hookahville Fest, Thornville, OH#
Thursday, June 9 Bonnaroo Music Festival, Manchester, TN#
Saturday, June 18 Governors Ball Music Festival, New York City, NY#
Saturday, June 25 Whitewater Music Amphitheater, New Braunfels, TX#
Friday, July 8 Sound Academy, Toronto, ON#
Sunday, July 10 Quebec City Jazz Fest, Quebec City, QC#
Saturday, July 30 Wanderlust Music Festival, Lake Tahoe, CA#
*With Max Tundra and Junk Culture
#Newly added show
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