Kim Gordon at Koko

Kim Gordon

Crimewave

Koko, 25 June 2024 

Can you believe I got to see both Kim Gordon and Kim Deal doing incredible live shows within days of each other? How lucky am I? But this show from Ms Gordon really was something spectacular and I feel blessed by the punk rock gods to have witnessed it. 

First though came the opening act, Crimewave, a beret-clad lad called Jake Wilkinson who hails from Manchester. His set up is very simple, he just has a laptop and some mixing equipment and sports an electric guitar, while the backdrop plays continuous videos that look like CCTV footage. His sound is a full-on noise assault of electronica, shoegaze and punk, with splashes of noisy guitar and vocals that either blended into the music or were almost spoken word. It was loud and brash and surprisingly entertaining. It was certainly a good fit for a Kim Gordon show and seemed to go down well with the audience.

We were all there though for the former Sonic Youth star. I've seen Kim Gordon perform with her old band about four times before, the first time in the mid 90s and the last time in 2009 (which I wrote about on this blog), but this is my first time seeing her solo. The impetus this time was hearing her incredible new album, The Collective, which had me and my friends buzzing: how could a 71 year old woman still be producing music that was jarring and on the edge, mixing experimental rock with beats and rap sounds, making something that sounds entirely different. It's incredible really and so exciting. 

I actually had tickets to see The Breeders on this night, as they were also playing The Troxy, and felt gutted when Gordon announced her London show. How could I choose between the two greatest indie rock Kims? But then The Breeders' announced a much more enticing tiny club show at The Garage, a warm-up for their UK tour, and when I managed to get tickets for that, I sold my Troxy ticket and bought a ticket to see Kim Gordon. So, yes, I managed to see both Kim Deal and Kim Gordon this week! 

Kim Gordon walked onto the stage still in the shadows but when the light finally revealed her, she looked every bit as iconic as I had hoped for. She looked incredible really, her hair a short stylish bob, her outfit, a black shirt and satin striped shorts. She was even wearing kitten heels. I hate to go on about age, but how does she look so great still: she doesn't look like she's trying to look young and she doesn't look like she's had a tonne of surgery, she just looks like Kim Gordon and of course, looks damn cool. Like seeing the Deal sisters a couple of days ago, it does give me hope about getting older, although of course I have no hope of obtaining their level of cool, I can still strive for their natural elegance and youthful energy. 

And Gordon has plenty of energy, picking up her guitar and launching into the industrial rap of BYE BYE, swaying and providing her distinctive snarled speak-sing, before going into a full-on noise assault with her electric guitar. Her all-female band (I assume they all identify as female, forgive me if I'm wrong, it's tricky ground these days), is incredibly cool too: there's black-suited guitarist Sarah Register, a white vested bassist called Camilla Charlesworth and drummer Madison Vogt, looking smart in a white shirt and tie, all fantastic musicians who fit perfectly with Gordon's sound. 

She puts down the guitar then and pretty much takes us through all 11 tracks on the new record, sometimes hanging onto the microphone stand and other times taking the microphone and going right to the edge of the stand and almost singing directly to the audience. She does have a stand next to her at all times that obviously has the lyrics on it, but this in no way diminishes the performance. She also doesn't say much other than "thanks" even when people scream "I love you Kim!" to her, she doesn't blink an eye, but really it just adds to that icy cool she has going on and it makes me love her more. 

Highlights include her ode to toxic masculinity, I'm A Man, where she's at her snarling best, and The Believers, where she straps back on her guitar, for a pure punk rock assault. 

After playing the entire new album, she just says "thanks" again and the band leave the stage. It's probably only been an hour at this point, and I wondered if that was it, because to be fair, it was pretty awesome just hearing all these fuzzy, pounding beats and noisy melodies live, it was just 60 minutes of pure exhilaration. But happily, there was even more, and the band returned to the stage after a couple of minutes, with Kim making a rare quip about it being a New York set of two halves. 

To be fair, that was an accurate description, as this encore consisted of about six songs, most from her previous album No Home Record, so made up a good part of the show. The first song, Air BnB, had real Sonic Youth vibes, with coming right to the edge of the stage in front of me and lunging towards us as she swaggered and swayed and spoke-sang, sounding absolutely snarling and sexy.

Paprika Pony slowed things down but had a menacing almost trip-hop vibe and then there was the pure punk energy of Hungry Baby, with Gordon pacing around the stage to its driving riffs. Picking up her guitar again, we got the feedback-driven glory of Cookie Cutter and a fantastic song I hadn't heard before called Grass Jeans. 

Apparently this was released a couple of years back to Fund Texas Choice, a charity that helps women access abortion clinics and indeed, the only time she speaks tonight she tells us the song was inspired by Texas and the anti-choice laws currently being implemented now. "It's a big state full of small-minded people," she rightly tells us. The song itself is incredible, with a fantastically fuzzy riff and Gordon's distinctive vocals. It's so cool to watch her play guitar I must say and she looks like she is really at home behind an instrument.

The show ends just as it started with the band playing BYE BYE again. Which is joyfully bizarre and somehow appropriate. Looking at their setlists, I can't see anywhere else they did this, and I almost wondered if I had imagined it but they definitely did this at Koko. I particularly remember it because I enjoy the way Kim says "vi-bra-tor" in the song, and was so happy to hear her sing it again. The whole thing ended with Gordon crouched down by her pedals making lots of feedback and noise and the band happily joining in on the fun.

What a thrill to see Kim Gordon still making interesting and innovative noises and pushing the envelope (as Lindsey Buckingham always likes to say!) yet again. She has a stage presence and stature that is unlike anyone else and it's utterly mesmerising. At the end I felt like I had been shook up in the best way possible. I'm just glad I was able to see her live and experience this icon (her book was called that and it's just a perfect description really) prove just how vital and thrilling she still is.