NXNE Day 5: Girl Talk at the Sound Academy

Day 5 of NXNE promised to be a massive fun night at the Sound Academy with Key ‘n Krates, Kidstreet, and headliner Girl Talk.

Gregg Gillis (stage name Girl Talk) is a laptop artist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who specializes in sample based remixes, by using at least a dozen elements from any song you can think of, to create a new one. I got to speak with Gregg before his show about his music and his not so new obsession with collecting Air Jordans. You can find my interview on Embrace’s site coming soon.

Keys ‘n Krates:

Kidstreet:

After a quick introduction and Girl Talk chanting, in a grey hoodie and sweatband Gregg steered away from the chit chat and let his mashups do the talking. Gregg plunges right away into a various selection of cuts from “Night Ripper” and “Feed the Animals” and getting people to come on stage to party with him and his toilet paper throwing sidekicks. There was plenty of new samples thrown into the mix to keep his mashups fresh, hearing songs from the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, Major Lazer, Phoenix etc.

The night was sweaty, dance-filled and very exhausting. I think I was a little bit over dressed for that night and decided to wear the most uncomfortable (but cute) heels ever. I’ve never been to a Girl Talk show before and didn’t know what to expect. I chose style before comfort and it was clearly a big no-no. While I was at the side of the stage complaining about how much my feet hurt, I watched the crowds jammed right into each other, elbows flying, and the temperature go sky high as the Sound Academy got ridiculously sweaty. Everything looked so much fun as there were big beach balls bouncing around, confetti everywhere and people crowd surfing etc I was kicking myself for the stupid heels decision.