GIRL TALK W DAN DEACON & WHITE WILLIAMS
September 12, 2007
Phoenix Concert Theatre
Quick review this morning. Last night was my second time seeing Girl Talk (first was in Buffalo, see posts from April). What a huge difference a summer makes. Last time we saw him, the venue was a tiny bar in the basement of a gallery, capacity couldn't have been more than 300. Last night, Greg/Dan and the boys from White Williams were able to sell out the Phoenix, no small feat for two laptop/electronic musicians (and a band that only played their first live show about two weeks ago). The venue last night was packed, and extremely hot (hence my lack of photos, I didn't feel like battling the masses to get close to the stage). We arrived at 9pm and headed to the balcony for drinks. Due to the crowd being much thinner upstairs we decided to watch White Williams from there. I've listened to their debut Smoke (release date is November 6th on Tigerbeat6) a couple times and overall have enjoyed it. Live, they couldn't pull me in. Maybe it was the poor sound on the balcony, or the fact that I wasn't familiar enough with their material, but I wasn't sold. They are back in Toronto November 10th at Lee's Palace opening for Battles.
Dan Deacon was up next. In typical fashion, Dan set up his bank of electronics/laptop and DIY lighting on the floor of the venue in front of the stage. From the first electro bleep Dan had the entire venue in his hands. The hype surrounding his live sets is 100% justified, he worked the audience up into a hot mess, dropping tracks from his latest album Spiderman of the Rings
(The Crystal Cat, Woody Woodpecker) and incredibly fun tongue in cheek tunes such as Under the Sea from the Little Mermaid soundtrack. Hilarious. He finished with an extended version of Wham City, with the bulk of the crowd chanting along with him.
Greg Gillis aka. Girl Talk's set was less exciting for me. Although an entirely different set from the Buffalo show, I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. I think it had something to do with the fact that it was so hot and crowded. The crowd really seemed to enjoy it, within minutes the stage was crammed with at least 75 people. Fern, Cara and I were in the centre of the room and in typical fashion, I had to use the washroom 5 minutes after Greg started. What a terrible mistake. I lost them for the rest of the night, which defo added to my disappointment. Greg did two encores, one featuring tunes from Night Ripper (highlight: Elton John's Tiny Dancer versus Biggie) and a second set featuring new "rock" remixes (didn't recognize any of it).
Overall impressions: Dan Deacon was really fun. High expectations will lead to disappointment, especially on a Wednesday night.
September 12, 2007
Phoenix Concert Theatre
Quick review this morning. Last night was my second time seeing Girl Talk (first was in Buffalo, see posts from April). What a huge difference a summer makes. Last time we saw him, the venue was a tiny bar in the basement of a gallery, capacity couldn't have been more than 300. Last night, Greg/Dan and the boys from White Williams were able to sell out the Phoenix, no small feat for two laptop/electronic musicians (and a band that only played their first live show about two weeks ago). The venue last night was packed, and extremely hot (hence my lack of photos, I didn't feel like battling the masses to get close to the stage). We arrived at 9pm and headed to the balcony for drinks. Due to the crowd being much thinner upstairs we decided to watch White Williams from there. I've listened to their debut Smoke (release date is November 6th on Tigerbeat6) a couple times and overall have enjoyed it. Live, they couldn't pull me in. Maybe it was the poor sound on the balcony, or the fact that I wasn't familiar enough with their material, but I wasn't sold. They are back in Toronto November 10th at Lee's Palace opening for Battles.
Dan Deacon was up next. In typical fashion, Dan set up his bank of electronics/laptop and DIY lighting on the floor of the venue in front of the stage. From the first electro bleep Dan had the entire venue in his hands. The hype surrounding his live sets is 100% justified, he worked the audience up into a hot mess, dropping tracks from his latest album Spiderman of the Rings
(The Crystal Cat, Woody Woodpecker) and incredibly fun tongue in cheek tunes such as Under the Sea from the Little Mermaid soundtrack. Hilarious. He finished with an extended version of Wham City, with the bulk of the crowd chanting along with him.
Greg Gillis aka. Girl Talk's set was less exciting for me. Although an entirely different set from the Buffalo show, I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. I think it had something to do with the fact that it was so hot and crowded. The crowd really seemed to enjoy it, within minutes the stage was crammed with at least 75 people. Fern, Cara and I were in the centre of the room and in typical fashion, I had to use the washroom 5 minutes after Greg started. What a terrible mistake. I lost them for the rest of the night, which defo added to my disappointment. Greg did two encores, one featuring tunes from Night Ripper (highlight: Elton John's Tiny Dancer versus Biggie) and a second set featuring new "rock" remixes (didn't recognize any of it).
Overall impressions: Dan Deacon was really fun. High expectations will lead to disappointment, especially on a Wednesday night.
posted by Daniel Josef at
9:07 a.m.
1 Comments:
I just have to say that the B.O factor at this show was much, much lower than when Cara and I saw Girltalk in Montreal last fall.
I really do prefer the smaller venues and intimate crowds but as Girltalk's popularity grows, he will no doubt be playing bigger and bigger venues.
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