A black silhouette stalked across the Brisbane Powerhouse's stage last Sunday (21 July).
Flashes of light erupted, revealing a black-clad Kim Gordon. Beneath her bleached-blonde hair, her blue eyes pierced through smudged black eyeliner, delivering an icy gaze at the crowd."So hot, Kim!" a fan shouted, but the compliment withered in the air before thudding against Kim's cool aura.
Since 1981, Kim Gordon has been an icon of cool. Within the ranks of Sonic Youth, Kim's low, cigarette-worn drawl launched the band's already very cool noise rock into the stratosphere of coolness. Tracks such as the Kim-led 'Kool Thing' and 'Bull In The Heather' helped turn the band from underground heroes into revered tastemakers for the rest of the band's life.
Once a frequent visitor to Australia, Gordon's visits are now rarer. Her last visit to Australia was 2022 as a Dark MOFO exclusive, while her only 2010s visit was in 2015 as part of her improvised noise duo with guitarist Bill Nance, Body/Head.
Finally, Kim made her long-awaited return to Brisbane as part of the Powerhouse's Open Frame festival, a celebration of challenging music from across the globe, curated by Brisbane artist Lawrence English.
Now 71, Kim's cool mystique remains strong and a packed crowd gathered to feel her presence. Drummer Madi Vogt tapped a hi-hat beat, and the crunch of a distorted electronic snare vibrated through the floor.
As the beat stuttered, Kim recited the lyrics to opener 'BYE BYE'. In her emotionally detached rasp, she listed items to pack for a trip: "Advil, black jeans, blue jeans, cardigan, purse, passport, pyjamas, silk." Punctuating the list was a noise breakdown, with Kim and Sarah Register scratching and scraping at their guitars, the theatre bursting with noise.
The set came entirely from Kim's second solo album, 'The Collective'. The album follows her 2019 debut solo album, 'No Home Record', and saw her collaborating once again with producer Justin Raisen (Charli XCX, Lil Yachty, Sky Ferreira).
Fans hoping to hear 'Kool Thing' or even covering Robert Palmer's 'Addicted To Love' would've been disappointed. However, Kim's refusal to stray into the past reflected what a forward-thinking artist she is, and her merging of trap beats with her guitar-noise aesthetic is another bold step into the future.
After the opening song, Kim's guitar rested at the back for much of the set. Handsfree, she grooved centre stage, flipping her hair to Voigt and bassist Camilla Charlesworth's industrial grind.
It's a sound that translates brilliantly live, sending tremors of low-end noise through the floor, making it one of the few albums released this year that warrants a live performance like this. The theatre shook from the stomps and claps from the crowd, accompanying their cries for an encore.
Upon Kim and her bandmates return, the crowd were treated to a slight step back in time with selection of cuts from her debut solo album. It's in this encore set that came closest to '90s Kim.
'Air BnB' reintroduced the no wave fury of old, but it's on 'Cookie Butter' that the sharpest vision came. As Kim crouched on the floor at her pedals and warped her guitar's growl, Sarah armed herself with a screwdriver. She wielded the tool like a butcher's knife, hacking and slashing at her guitar strings like she was gutting a cadaver. It couldn't get much cooler than this.
