Mr. Pacman & Girl Talk @ Bluebird

Several years ago I’d heard my friend Jim Compton had formed a band called Mr. Pacman, and that he played the Commodore 64 in it. Nice.

My recent 7-day stay in Denver intersected with a Mr. Pacman date at the Bluebird. Well well well.

So what would you expect from a show billing “Mr. Pacman” and “Girl Talk”?

I expected entertainment galore from the former, and not much from the latter based on what I knew: he/they is/are a DJ (and well, that’s it).

Here are photos of the Mr. Pacman / Girl Talk show.

Mr. Pacman was an automatic Yes, I’m there. And Jim got me on the list, so Thanks, Jim. Not that I wouldn’t have forked over the $15 at the door, but I digress

Jim’s a fun, unconventional, smart, creative guy, and as an ex-Commodore 64 user, I knew those PCs could bring the sound. They really are regarded as having fantastic sound capability for a early 80s computer.

From Wikipedia’s Mr. Pacman entry:

Mr. Pacman is a bitpop/gamewave (or as the band calls themselves, “8-bit hero gangsta rock”) band from Denver, Colorado. Described as a performance art project as well as a band, Mr. Pacman’s live shows include martial arts fighting with monsters, outrageous 1980s-style retro-futuristic outfits, and their signature Commodore 64-inspired electronic music with a rock attitude.

But could they rock a crowd… a crowd much larger than the previous night’s Bluebird show, Lymbyc Systym and Album Leaf?

With songs like Gangsta Pac, Turbo Attack!, and (porn) Star Hustler, easily. The band’s interaction with the audience was off the scale. Denver’s got a creative renaissance going on right now, and this band is certainly a cause/effect of it. The crowd loved them, and I pitied the foo’ coming on after them.

It’s not all electronic sounds… au contraire. As a matter of fact, it’s heavy drums/guitar-driven, with keytar and PC sounds decorating the melodies. And then there is the lyrics: hilarious, 80s pop-culture-idolizing frivolity. Perfect.

Then Girl Talk took the stage, and I didn’t pity him… not one bit. It’s a guy from Pittsburgh named Gregg Gillis and his Mac PowerBook. That’s it… no turntables, no instruments, no other members. He only used the mic 3 or so times to interact with the audience.

From Wikipedia’s entry on Girl Talk:

Girl Talk is the stage name of electronic music producer Gregg Gillis. He has released three CD albums on Illegal Art and vinyl releases on 333 and 12 Apostles. He began making music while a student at Case Western Reserve University. He specializes in sample-based remixes where he uses at least a dozen elements from different songs to create a “new” song. At his early shows, Gillis became infamous for his exhibitionist antics on stage, spontaneously removing most or all of his clothing mid-performance.

He attacked the crowd from a completely different direction. I was certain the crowd was going to be let down after Pacman. Certain. They were that good. But then Gillis started playing and the place went into double-digit madness, fueled by Gillis’ signature move of inviting the crowd onto the stage at his first song. It was rock/rap/hiphop-fueled bedlam, and it was awesome.

Gillis “played” head in his screen style during his set, ignoring the Class A Dance Party going on all around him. My normally very domestic friend and his wife liked the show so much they stayed till the end, staying up hours after their normal bedtime. You just couldn’t leave.

From what I’ve gathered, Mr. Pacman doesn’t tour much, but if either of these acts are near you, I strongly suggest grabbing your joystick and going.

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