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Tulum's Collection

Kim Gordon   07/24/2024

Northcote Theatre, Melbourne, Australia
Source Zoom H1n internal mics, bass rolloff @ 80 Hz, positioned in shirt collar
Media FLAC   19 discs
Notes Taped by Claire Laura Fredriksson (CLF, choc_eClaire, fuzzbluerain, etc.)
I was a kid when Sonic Youth broke up, so I'll tragically never have the chance to see one of the rock world's most iconic bands live. What I can do, though, is see some of the individual members as they engage in solo careers - and there's an obvious winner here. While Thurston Moore keeps recording LP after LP of meandering noise-lite guitar pieces, and Lee Ranaldo alternates between his singer-songwriter leanings and his desire for experimental improv, Kim Gordon's solo career has taken her into bold new directions of industrial rock and contemporary trap production. At times the music sounds like it's being made by someone half a century younger, and it's naturally being met with critical acclaim and sold out tours.

I liked The Collective, her 2024 record, on a first listen, but I hadn't gone back to it and I was curious to see how it would come out live. As it turns out, incredibly well - and a lot of that is due to how great her backing band is. The drums are loud and tight and push the melody along well, and both guitar and bass produced impressive amounts of noise and aggression (including some screwdriver attacks on the latter), with the occasional keyboard line to recreate the more electronic aspects of the record. There were a few pieces of no wave guitar skronk in there, but on the whole the sound was freshly in the 2020s and it translated excellently to the on stage lineup.
Kim was definitely happy to be there and she jumped about on stage with her band a few times, as well as climbing on top of the amps at the back during the finale to the encore of "old" songs. The whole show was a thrill and is one of the best performances I've ever seen, and I'm glad that I got a pretty good recording - there's a slight pop in 'Air BnB' because the mic fell out of my collar and I caught it before it hit the ground, and I had to reduce a screamer near the outro (you'll hear her - it was way worse originally), but it's generally a nice tight tape. Hope you enjoy.

Requests:
Please don't sell this - nobody, tapers or artists, will like you if you do.
Please keep this info file around if you post it anywhere else (which you're welcome to do!)
If you give this recording a remaster/matrix treatment, please message me before you do so.
I can be reached on Dimeadozen (fuzzbluerain) or Twitter (fuzzybluerain) most easily.
Tech Notes Position: front of balcony (behind VIP row), ~5m right of centre
Lineage: 24/48 .wav > Audacity (fades, tracking, brief sound fixes) > TLH (level 8 FLAC) > foobar2000 (tagging)
Trades Allowed Yes
Owned by Tulum · Last Updated Feb 1, 2025