Kim Gordon - Rialto Theatre (Tucson) - October 3, 2024

All photos by James Broscheid
For the past three decades Kim Gordon has worked congruently across several artistic endeavors including: art, design, writing, fashion (X-Girl), music (Sonic Youth, Free Kitten, Body/Head), and film (both in acting and directing capacities). What these artistic disciplines have most in common is Gordon’s uncompromising style that ultimately challenges consumers of her collective works.
Touring in support of her latest LP The Collection on Matador Records (her second with producer Justin Raisen), Gordon and company rolled into the Rialto Theatre for the first stateside date before embarking on a European tour after the Form Acrosanti festival. Gordon along with Camilla Charlesworth (bass/electronics), Madi Vogt (drums/effects), and Sarah Register (lead guitar), began the set with album opener “BYE BYE.” Charlesworth’s tense key pulses along with Vogt’s above and beyond replication of the record’s machine beats on a live kit, set the perfect foundation for Register’s brutal leads and noise washes. Gordon commanded center stage, often times backlit by a lone white light, an imposing figure even standing still, shoulders shimmying to the dub beat. Three-quarters of the setlist was comprised of tracks from The Collection, played in sequential order.

Gordon’s delivery throughout the set ranged from spoken word to blood-curdling screams, with catchy phrasing and abstract word combinations covering a breadth of topics from toxic masculinity (“I’m a Man”) to traveling through her hometown of Los Angeles (“Psychedelic Orgasm”), layered over explosive dub and trap beat foundations. The bulk of The Collection material proved to be just as enticing by its glitchy industrial beats and noisy, no-wave/post-rock.
The encore of “Hungry Baby” and “Grass Jeans,” was a change to more alternative guitar-based rock yet with just enough avant-garde noisy elements baked in. The latter, a song from 2021 that Gordon recorded with J Mascis to benefit the abortion nonprofit, Fund Texas Choice and proved the perfect platform for Kim to assure attendees to vote. Of all the Sonic Youth alum, Gordon is no doubt the more alluring and daring of the four. Sonic who?

For more information or to have a listen, visit Kim Gordon’s Bandcamp or Matador Records

Setlist

BYE BYE
The Candy House
I Don’t Miss My Mind
I’m A Man
Trophies
It’s Dark Inside
Psychedelic Orgasm
Tree House
Shelf Warmer
The Believers
Dream Dollar
Air BnB
Paprika Pony
Cookie Butter

Encore:
Hungry Baby
Grass Jeans

Tour Dates

October 4-6 – Acrosanti, AZ – Form Acrosanti 2024
October 22 – Luxembourg City, LU – Den Atelier
October 23 – Paris, FR – Elysee Montmartre
October 26 – Budapest, HU – House of Music
October 28 – Milan, IT – Alcatraz
October 29 – Bern, CH – Dampfzentrale
October 30 – Munich, DE – Muffatwerk
October 31 – Brussels, BE – Bozar
November 2 – Malmo, SE – Plan B
November 3 – Stockholm, SE – Slaktyrkan
November 4 – Oslo, NO – Vulkan
November 5 – Gothenberg, SE – Pustervik
November 7 – Utrecht, NL – Le Guess Who
November 9 – Ciutat Vella, ES – Mira Festival
November 11 – Lisbon, PT – Capitollo
November 17 – Mexico City, MX – Corona Capital 2024