Kim Gordon is Still the Coolest Girl in The Room
She doesn’t need the band
I saw Sonic Youth play the Roseland Ballroom in NYC in 1996. I was 21 and there with my roommate, who was admittedly a much bigger fan than me. Oh sure, I knew all the hits, but really I was just there for the experience.
Thurston Moore spotting in our Lower East Side neighborhood was all but a full time hobby for we baby hipsters slowly infiltrating the still grimy ‘hood. Everyone loved the local band done good in lower Manhattan especially.
As we breathlessly waited for the band to take the stage, I remember my friend saying “Kim is like so old, but she is still the coolest.”
And she was right. Kim Gordon, who was younger than I am now at the time, was an unadulterated rock goddess. I had never seen anything like her. Sure, I was into pretty feisty rock girls like Liz Phair, Ani Difranco, and Sinead O’Connor. But Kim Gordon was on another level.
In a band full of loud “noise rock” dudes, she was arguably the loudest, the punkiest, the driving force. She played her bass with fierce aggression and snarl whispered into the mic like a snake charmer.
She owned the stage; it was like looking directly at the sun while trying not to go deaf all at once. I felt my spirit leave my body during that…
