Girl Talk's closing night gig at the Halifax Pop Explosion festival played out like a cheesy Twisted Sister video. An hour before show time and St Antonio's Church Hall was sparely filled with awkward teenagers and twentysomethings mulling around waiting for something to happen. Then, as if someone yelled 'I Wanna Rock!' the place exploxed.

The crowd ballooned to bursting as Girl Talk -- Gregg Michael Gillis to his mom -- pulled into the makeshift DJ booth and pressed play on his laptop, firing up the dancefloor and filling the stage with local girls singing along to bits of pop hits mashed up to produce new ones.

Claiming to have not slept in "38 or 48 hours," Gillis spent most of his first Halifax appearance on top of the DJ table, jumping up and down like an over-caffeinated hyena and gradually going further into states of undress as the hall, not used to such intense body heat, became unbearably warm.

As one of two DJ headliners of Halifax's Pop Explosion festival, Girl Talk clearly bested the rather perfunctory performance by Toronto's MSTRKFT the previous night.


Whereas the latter's propensity for indie-cool -- mustachioed member Jesse Keeler was in Death From Above 1979, after all -- weighed their performance down, Gillis genuinely seemed excited to be playing Halifax, happily taking to the mic and interacting with the stage-invaders, making the evening a non-pretentious experience that even the least pop-culture savvy geek could enjoy.

While Canada's east coast is generally known for its love of Celtic music, the biggest cheer of the night was for Gillis' remix of Kelly Clarkson's 2004 pop-smash 'Since U Been Gone' which elicited a sing-along loud enough to drown out the music itself.

He may not be reinventing the wheel, but Gillis deserves credit for injecting energy into a festival that had disappointed previously on the dance music front and giving the Halifax Pop faithful a place to really let loose.