Pitchfork

Awkward and nerdy, Girl Talk's Gregg Gillis was as unsmooth and uncooperative as his clunky Dell laptop. "What's up losers? Have you ever seen a guy playing a laptop before? I think you guys got ripped off," he announced after he changed into a three-piece suit for the show. Pieces of Juelz Santana's "There It Go (The Whistle Song)" worked up the audience, who bumrushed the stage before Gillis had even started playing. There were periodic breaks every time a dancing fan yanked out Gillis's power cord. "I don't mean to be a nerd, but someone unplugged me, and my batteries are running out," he said, without apologizing for the dead air. Not that anyone cared. By the fourth song or so, when the "Tiny Dancer" / "Juicy" collage hit, kids threw their arms up like they were casting fishing lines.

Predictably, the audience was more excited to hear hits than especially clever transitions and selections. Notorious B.I.G.'s "Hypnotize" incited dancing and more: nipples hardened, girls made out, and Gillis clung to his Dell in the middle of the Bacchanal. "Around the World" led into his only bad transition, but he smiled through it and wiped his lips with his tie, his joke-to-jerk-to-stud transition complete.

Gillis dove into the crowd during a show-closing (and truly awful) cover of Nirvana's "Scentless Apprentice", the only song with live vocals. He clambered onstage, and after a congenial "Thanks, you poseurs!" he skipped away. Pumped up and ripped off is a dizzying combination, so it was hard to tell whether I had a good time, or even if I was supposed to have a good time. One of the most ambitious dancers left the Mercury Lounge wearing discarded pieces of Gillis' stage outfit. So there was a response to at least one of Girl Talk's taunts: No, Gregg, you got ripped off.