Lollapalooza 2012 Countdown

Everyone has a bad day. Everyone gets frustrated. And Lollapalooza performers are people too.

Last Tuesday we ran a post about the 2011 Lollapalooza performance by Gregg Gillis, aka Girl Talk. In that post we gave a very candid review of the set from the perspective of someone who was there – which we were. We saw something we’d never seen before – an angry Girl Talk. We didn’t like it, and we said so. And our recap of the night got us quite a response – via email from Gregg Gillis himself.

Gregg asked that we don’t republish anything he wrote in that original email and we respect his wishes. But the email was so genuine and informative that we felt we had to say something. We wanted to share some insight. So, for the record, Girl Talk fans should know that Gregg’s uncharacteristic outbursts came at the end of a long and frustrating day with many factors outside of his control. And we feel that since that could happen to anybody we should be generous and give the guy some slack. So we are. Gregg, Chicago still loves you!

We want to thank Gregg for filling us in on the Girl Talk side of the story and for being such a genuine person. We’re all in this life learning as we go along and the main point is to have fun and stay real. That’s what we did, that’s what Gregg did, so… onward and upward.

Girl Talk’s next show is at the Jazz Aspen Labor Day Festival in Snowmass Village, CO, Friday 9/2. See him there if you can. And when he comes back to Chicago we’ll all be there!

Rock on Gregg, no hard feelings!

What has 6 legs, allure, blood, spits, is opening for Iggy & the Stooges in September and remains beautiful while fucking-your-shit-up? Praying-mantis rockers Le Butcherettes.

Front woman Teri Gender Bender’s dagger eyes, dirty chords and gritty triumphant outpourings combine with thrash bassist Jonathan Hischke and drummer Gabe Serbian to make this trio kill. Serbian’s stamina and spit along with Hischke’s chords hold down the important foundation for Ms. Bender to jump off.

It also takes a special band to play garage-rock in daylight and transform the show into night – darkness that is analogous with the sound. This transformation is no accident with Teri (born Teresa Suaréz) reportedly growing up surrounded by creatives. Her presence and performance is both raw emotion and polished entertainer.

Wearing a blood-drenched apron over her dress, Ms. Bender gracefully ran, jumped and danced in heels on-and-off stage while ripping guitar chords and playing keys. She thrashed around on the ground and eventually worked into a fury, launching her high-heals into the rowdy crowd. (One flew over my head here).

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Its Friday night. I’m leaving Perry’s Tent and heading to the the train to go home, and I am extremely disappointed. Earlier I was able to see the first 3-4 songs from Muse before I headed over to Girl Talk. Turned out I didn’t have to worry about missing any of Girl Talk because he was running late. At about 9:00pm the show starts. Only 15 minutes late, but already cutting his show to about an hour.

With the show underway I find myself being more and more impressed with GT and how he is able to mix all the samples I’ve heard on the albums in a completely different fashion. I have to admit, without a doubt, Gregg Gillis is damn good at what he does.

On top of that, the crowd was ready for him. All the way up on stage I see dozens of people flanking the table Gillis was behind. I was all the way at the back of the tent and the people around me seemed more excited about being there then people I’ve seen all the way at the front for some shows. I remember thinking, “if people are like this back here, what are they like up in the front?”. Well that might have been where the problem for the evening started.
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