In the hour or so leading up to Kim Gordon’s set at Austin Psych Fest, The Far Out Lounge went from comfortably busy to packed. And it came as no surprise. Excitement hummed through the sandy venue; we were about to see Kim Gordon in the flesh. A ripple went through all of us when the prolific artist strutted to the stage in fishnets, booty shorts and a Gulf of Mexico shirt. Yeah, we were about to see stars.
Backed by an all-female band, Gordon weaved through her new, funky music with ease. Gordon’s set was stacked with the heavy, experimental tracks from her solo efforts; she stopped only to take a swig of water, groan and say hello to Austin.
My favorite from the set was the punky “I’m A Man.” Blending a somehow SoundCloud sound with the experimental rock she’s known for, Gordon brought even the hesitant to her side with this one. But Gordon didn’t let that pulsing sound drown her out. Soaring over a wall of cheers was that deep voice chanting: “I’m a man!” There wasn’t a woman in the crowd who didn’t feel a little of that Kim Gordon rage after that track.
Frankly, words aren’t enough to distill Gordon’s anxious-yet-untroubled, frenzied-yet-cohesive set. Just give her sophomore solo album, The Collective, a listen and prepare to go nonverbal for an hour. All I could muster up for Gordon’s set was a garbled, “God, I want to be her when I grow up.”
Check out some stills from Kim Gordon's set here:
Photo by Anya Gupta.
Photo by Anya Gupta.
Photo by Anya Gupta.
Photo by Anya Gupta.