Kim Gordon
Black Cat, Washington DC, March 23, 2024
I never listened to Sonic Youth a lot. Much too cool for me. Individual moments I liked, including “Bull in the Heather,” were mostly the showcases for Kim Gordon, who was able to convey sexiness and rage and astonishing levels of hauteur in the same vocal. But the guitar heroics of Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo? Not my thing. Full stop.
So I didn’t listen to Sonic Youth in the 1980s and 1990s, and decades later I still don’t. When Thurston and Kim’s divorce and the ensuing ugliness brought them some unpleasant publicity in recent years, it didn’t mean much to me personally, but Kim Gordon’s single
“BYE BYE” just rightfully took music criticism by storm on its release early this year. It’s an industrial-trap song — I thought it sounded a bit like EMA —with a deadpan recital of a packing list and tedious chores, interpolating the banal and the high-fashion. To me, it had the crushing finality of someone leaving a home, and perhaps a relationship, for good. I found it riveting and strange and really quite unforgettable. The whole album
The Collective has similar sonics and tone, although not as memorable as “BYE BYE.”
Anyway, I would not have been at this show if a friend hadn’t gotten two comp tickets, but I’m glad I went — and not just because Gordon did “BYE BYE” twice in the set, opening the show and closing the encore. Her band, The Collective, performed all of the album
The Collective, I think, and four songs from a previous solo album,
No Home Record. None of I knew, of course, and I found it weirdly hard to see what was going on. Kim Gordon is not tall, and it was difficult to see her or make out the lyrical content at a distance over the crowd of bros and art punks. But what I saw was impressive; she looked better at the age of 70 than I have ever looked. Without knowing the material, however, it was hard to discern other than fragmentary moments of especially cool noises or cutting vocals, like “Paprika Pony.” But mostly it was vibes; aggression and cool and poppy and abrasive all at once.
Bill Nace, a guitarist for Gordon, did an opening set that was mostly weird instrumental noises and recorded percussion.
