When Kim Gordon Dances
Last night, Sonic Youth played their landmark 1988 Daydream Nation double album at McCarren Pool in Brooklyn, and the Williamsburg crowd reacted as if this were an evening at the symphony. Daydream Nation actually is the classical music of the indie nation – cerebral, canonical and hailing from a very distant, very different era. But Sonic Youth do, in fact, make rock music, and singer-bassist Kim Gordon aimed to remind everyone. Over the past year or so, during the encores, she’s taken to putting down her massive Gibson Thunderbird and just singing, then dancing during the instrumental breaks on hooky Rather Ripped songs “Reena,” “What a Waste,” and “Jams Run Free” (with the line “I love the way you move”).
Now, Kim is a paragon of detached cool, and letting go and dancing took the crowd by surprise. She did the Swim, she shimmied and shook, she twirled from one end of the stage to the other. It was like anyone dancing in their livingroom, with no one else watching; from such a famously reserved person, it was revelatory. But Kim was just doing what we were all doing in our hearts and minds, because we were too crowded together — or too cool, or too reverential – to do it out in the open. She wasn’t so much engaging the audience, but demonstrating what this music is really all about.
Sonic Youth has always explored the many varieties of ecstatic abandon, and as ironic or flippant as their lyrics can be, their music always uses the visceral to attain the transcendent. In between Kim’s songs, Thurston sang, “Do you believe in rapture, babe?” Yeah, man, I totally do.
I saw SY open for Pearl Jam at Jones Beach. The best part of the night was Kim Gordon, bassless, doing “Cool Thing” and hopping and shimmying across the stage just as you described.
One of my favorite concert memories ever…..
She did it out here in LA at the Greek, too. Went nuts. The difference is, the pit here was already shimmying its ass off. She was joining in on the party. I was so jealous. Us seated folk were very very boring that night.
Man, NOBODY dances at shows in New York. Granted, it was pretty hot at McCarren Pool. It really is a pool — a really, really vast, disused one from the ’30s. The audience stands in the pool and the massive stage is on the lip. On the hot concrete, packed with lots of people, it gets sweltering down there. Still, it’s a great place to see a show.
Hey Michael and Yancey: Did you see Gogol Bordello on Letterman last night? While cruising around the band’s website, I thought it would be great if you could get Eugene Hutz to do a “My Dozens” guide to some of the Eastern European music available on eMusic.
I love Sonic Youth.