It’s not often I find myself amid a raging crowd having toilet paper fired at me out of a leaf-blower, but last night I certainly got my fill. Girl Talk (Gregg Gillis) took over the Outer Harbor yesterday as the kick-off concert for the newly redesigned venue. A diversified age group flooded the usually serene lakeside space for a few solid hours of blinding strobe lights, crowd-surfing and a DJ known for his skilled button-pushing-mixes that range in artists from ACDC to Wiz Khalifa.

Though the tailgating and opener were uncharacteristically mellow for a Buffalo concert, the second act, a band called RootsCollider resuscitated the crowd and had everyone ready to go by the time (almost 10 p.m.!) Girl Talk actually took the stage.

After a few pretty standard crowd-pleasers like “Play Your Part” and a few other mixes that resembled those on his wildly successful album, Feed the Animals, Gillis pumped out some truly creative combinations (Metallica and Busta Rhymes?) that literally offered something for everyone. As one song blended and flowed into the next, you started to recognize people’s tastes in music, clusters of five or six heavy-metal fans would make themselves known as classic-rock fans faded out and put down their air guitars.

This cycle continued about two hours, and by the end of the night everyone was noticeably exhausted (including the button-pushing prodigy) and ready to leave. Two encores later, everyone was nearly deaf and still ready to leave, for real this time.

At the end of the day, I still love Girl Talk, but I feel like he fits better into a headphones-at-the-gym-type atmosphere (where stage presence isn’t exactly necessary). The Outer Harbor on the other hand, is definitely on track to getting added to the list of rockin’ Buffalo venues for summertime shows.