The first time I saw Girl Talk was probably in 2003… Maybe 2004. I was managing the Gaskets and we took one of our first shows to NYC. We were playing an Electro showcase at the Delancey. The night before the show we parked about 15 feet away from a fire hydrant. The next day the car was gone. We had no idea how to get it back. After freaking out in a bagel shop someone told us to call 311. We did that and they told us it would have been towed to the Brooklyn Naval Yard. We could get the car back if we paid $250, the only problem was that it was my friends sisters car and he didn’t know her license plate, or model year or really anything about the car. His sister was at summer camp and we couldn’t reach his mom. Several hours later it was getting late, we had no luck and then his mom called us. She for some reason was in whatever state that Mt. Rushmore is in and was visiting the giant stone presidents and did not get service. Unfortunately she didn’t know the plate number, but she knew it began with a J and what the model of the car was. This was not enough information for them there, but some how my friend talked them into telling us what the rest of the license plate was over the phone. We were told to take some train there and then walk over a mile through the projects to the impound. When we got there it was closing in 30 minutes and we had no proof that we owned the car somehow we convinced them to let us have the car. It was a miracle, but we had to pay another $250 for the parking ticket. Had we not gotten the car out right when we did we would have not have been able to get it out until Monday.

Anyway, that was a wondering long story and I am watching Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds, while I write this so it probaly was not the most well told yarn. So I will get to the point. We ended up playing a show that about 30 people showed up for with Girl Talk and the son of Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth from The Talking Heads/ Tom Tom Club. Chris Frantz was actually there. Girl Talk was pretty nuts even then. He was jumping around the crowd, playing a bit of a song and then going nuts and the coming back to change the song. I didn’t really get it, but it was clearly punk rock as fuck.

After spending $500 dollars on the car, a tank and a half of gas, and tolls, we made exactly $27 dollars. Amazing.

We played with him a few more times in Richmond with Krames but it was never more than a hundred or so people. So it was pretty fucking nuts to see him play in front of 2000 or so screaming fans. I just wish the Gaskets could have played that show. 3 sold out shows in a venue as big as Terminal 5 is pretty amazing. The show was pretty mind blowing with fake money, beach balls and toilet paper guns. He got progressively more naked as the night went on, and when he took his shoes off, these girls started kissing them and dancing around with the shoes. It was intensely weird. I had a lot of fun though. I probably would have had a lot more fun if I didn’t fill up my memory card. Luckily Nicky came to my rescue and let me borrow one of his.

Okay, I will stop rambling and tell you just to look at the photos, (Or at the Voice here) there are some pretty great ones.

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