Kate's Point of View

On Friday I had the pleasure of going to the Girl Talk concert with Wonder Boy, the couple behind Chaos and Loving It and NinjaDad. I’d never been to a concert done by a DJ so I had no idea what to expect. I thought it might be like a rave, I think we all did, but I’ve never been to one of those so its a funny comparison to make.

Here’s what I can say. We walked in and immediately saw girls in tutus, people wearing all sorts of glow things and sunglasses that I haven’t seen actively worn since I was in the fourth grade. Also, the place was packed to the gills.

Son into the show the male half of Chaos, NinjaDad and I decided to head down the main floor of the crowd to see how close we could get and better enjoy the true Girl Talk experience.

Now let me pause here to tell about this bar I went to a lot my freshman year of college. It was called The Greenery, though often referred to as The Cheese, and it openly served underage folks. Because of this, its patron consisted mostly of underage people, a few locals who drank at the downstairs bar and creepers – older guys looking for some young girl to grind on.

I entered freshman year coming off of a four-year stint in an all-girl Catholic high school. I had had one boyfriend, and I use that term very loosely since we dated for two weeks, twice. I hot the Athens campus with wide eyes, 100% enjoying the male scenery. When my friends and I discovered The Greenery, I are it up. (I look back on this and wonder about my taste.)

We use to go up there in tight jeans and tank tops, regardless of the weather. If it was cold outside, we would don a flannel shirt and tie it around our waist as soon as we got inside the bar. I remember one week when I proudly went to the bar 5 nights in a row. Ladies night, brain freezer night, quarter draft night… When I would go, I would have a few drinks and head straight to the crowded dance floor. The floor was covered with a layer of sludge, certainly a mix of spilt drinks and bodily excretions, and the music played was pretty much the same every night. Knowing how to dance was unnecessary. There was no room for real dancing on the dance floor so it was all one big grinding, jumping mass. (This phase of my life stunted my dancing ability and explains my current dance floor moves.)

Jumping back to present. Walking into the crowd at Girl Talk, weaving in and out of sweaty flesh and inhaling pot smoke and feeling strangers up against you on every side … it took me back to college. And I loved it.

I thought the concert was great. Gregg Gillis, the man behind Girl Talk, had an onscreen show that was being updated in real time with images from the crowd. It seemed like there was always water, toilet paper, confetti or balloons being shot into the crowd. Up on stage there were people dancing for the whole show. (Of note: One boy had on a basketball jersey and basketball shorts. Another girl had on a dance leotard with no pants.)

By the end of the show my hair was slicked back into a sweaty ponytail and confetti was stuck to my sweaty shirt. Obviously I should have worn a tank top, despite the frigid air outside. Didn’t I learn anything in college?

Aside from the last image, all of these were taken by NinjaDad:

The craggy cough you hear in my house and the awful smell emanating from my hair are the only remnants from the Guided by Voices Concert Friday night, aside from a poster and T-shirt that Wonder Boy had to have. This was my first time seeing the band, although I did see Bob Pollard play a few years back.

Wonder Boy and his band of misfits love GBV. The self-proclaimed leader of their group of friends is self-proclaimed GBV Super Fan #1. They’re all from Dayton and over the years I have heard countless times about how good GBV is, how they used to play with GBV, how some member of GBV was spotted in the local Waffle House. Obsessed.

After the show last night I can definitively say that Wonder Boy’s friend is not Super Fan #1. I saw that guy and frankly, he looked a little mentally deranged and, as he tried to grab the feet of every person on stage, I think the band thought so too.

The boys were excited to watch me watch GBV for the first time. (The Bob Pollard show had been an abysmal experiment since I found him to be a sad, sad drunk and was barely able to last through the show.) I had the history of GBV explained to me by several folks and the significance of the Classic Lineup was made very clear. It was made even more obvious when the band took the stage.

Someone said that GBV plays anthem rock. That’s a new phrase for me but I understand it perfectly now. To each song GBV played, there were several hundred people singing along with their fists pumping in the air. Every GBV song is super short so the band was able to play something like 40 songs during the concert and I think the crowd knew the words to every song.

In my very unbiased opinion, as someone who has not been exposed to GBV for their entire life and doesn’t feel a hometown connection to them (on that point GBV, I think you insulted a lot of Daytonians at the concert when you kept saying that Cincinnati and Columbus are your hometowns), I thought GBV was great. I think Bob Pollard is an excellent songwriter and his band is great, especially the guitarist and bass player. I am not certain the Bob’s voice is that great but he is an entertainer to the nth degree. (He’s about as a much an entertainer as he is an alcoholic…)

To anyone who has not seen them play, do so. It doesn’t matter if you know their music or not. The experience is worth it.

Note: Kentucky, I know you will be one of the last states to do it, but please go smoke-free. Concerts in your state leave me feeling like an old dishrag — dirty and used up.