Girl Talk : Congress Theater; Sat 8

Photo: Andrew Strasser

You have to give the kid kudos. In the last year, Gregg Gillis, a biomedical engineering student from Pittsburgh, has hotfooted out of the research lab straight onto the headliner stage at Lollapalooza alongside Mark Ronson and Gnarls Barkley. In Chicago, he’s gone from playing to 300 people at the Empty Bottle to 3,800 at the Congress Theater. And he’s developed an Internet following so loyal that fans post YouTube videos forecasting the weather at each show as he tours across the country.

So what’s with the hype? Gillis insists he isn’t a DJ: He takes original tracks from artists as wide ranging as Yo La Tengo, Missy Elliott, Radiohead, Lil Wayne, Jimi Hendrix and the Jackson 5; mashes, remixes and alters them; and then keeps the hits rolling while the audience rushes the stage. He is, by his own account, a sound-collage artist, not just a party master cashing in on the efforts and talent of other people. “A lawsuit waiting to happen” is how The New York Times described his most recent album, Feed the Animals. Each track features bits from a couple dozen recognizable hits, but the 27-year-old skates around the legal trouble with a loose interpretation of U.S. copyright law’s fair-use principles.

It’s not original, but Gillis has struck gold with his very simple, very clever idea: slice out the gems from other musicians’ songs. He keeps the classic indie-rock rolling rapid-fire with just enough low-down hip-hop dirtiness to get the hipster girls grinding, as everyone peacocks across the stage and shows off metallic American Apparel hot pants. Gillis is like the John Hughes geek turned stud. He’s found the formula and is running with it—after all, the joke’s not on him.