Ashnikko at the Manchester Academy.

By Nic Howells

There’s electricity to match the stormy weather in Manchester when the Smoochies tour rolls into town. Ashnikko has been selling out venues in this city for years now, to the point they’ve had to do a double bill at Manchester Academy this time around.

SUPPORT FROM AMELIA MOORE

On this night, opening duties fell to Amelia Moore. Bathed in shifting washes of blue and red, Moore arrives with an R&B voice that instantly silences chatter through pitch changes alone. The look on stage is minimal, with iconic red-orange jellyfish haircut and a desk/ binder combo that wouldn’t go amiss at all for a Uni student taking an exam in this same room in the summer. Though on this night she has a folder specifically for us in Manchester. Moore begins strongly, the crowd visibly taken with their musicality whilst also going ape for the reference to the wildfire “Bear vs Boy” trend from a few years ago. Intriguingly the song soon after that is heavily influenced by being “in love with the boy next door”, a neat encapsulation of the duality she seems keen to explore. By the final stretch she loosens up, ad-libbing and playing more with her range, the set ending on a reminder that her greatest weapon is still that voice.

ASHNIKKO

A short changeover later, and Manchester is plunging headfirst into the Smoochie-girl universe. The set begins with pre-recorded comedy, as a voiceover of Ashnikko rummaging through a handbag to find lip gloss, a baby carrot, spare panties and eventually a tiny door that leads directly to the Manchester stage. That tiny door becomes a recurring portal, and from the moment Ashnikko steps through it with a headset mic (freeing her for full choreography), the performance is as much staging as it is setlist, and first in the running order is ‘Sticky Fingers’ from the latest album.

There’s a kiosk-like frame for second song ‘Working Bitch’, though the track is quickly curtailed due to the mix being too loud in the singers in-ear monitors. Once this has been remedied, Ashnikko takes a moment to take in the Manchester crowd, calling out many of the trinkets and signs in the crowd. Standouts of this are the chain of tiny plastic men about halfway back the room that eventually makes its way to the front, a flag with the singer's face on it, and a cardboard sign stating “All hail pickle”. She also riffs on the direction of the new album, with it leaning towards libido, autonomy and the evolution of her artistry, speaking on the new album as “time to think clitorally” after being “so horny all the time” and so into a person they want to climb up their nose and squeeze their brain, then get right into their bloodstream like the next song, ‘Microplastics’ .

After ‘Lip Smacker’, the audience is invited to throw the aforementioned trinkets onstage during a ginger-tea break for a lingering flu. One handmade junk journal from a fan named Kia visibly moves her, as well as her asking people to kiss and “Human trinkets” they may have dragged to the show tonight. It’s this oscillation between chaos and sincerity that gives the show its shape, and the direction into ‘Trinkets’ that has the crowd apoplectic, but not quite like the pop that comes from them when Ashnikko’s pre-song banter about being “allowed to be a cunt” did wonders for her, especially with how her ‘Skin Cleared’. A mash-up of older material, including a splice of ‘Toxic’ and ‘Invitation’ expresses love for her earlier material and her younger self, while costume changes signalling new chapters and a tongue-in-cheek guided meditation leading into ‘Manners’.

We are also treated to a full saga of Halloweenie’s III-IV as the set creeps into the final third. It becomes increasingly unhinged in the best way, primarily because the ammunition the setlist has left is all absolute bangers, starting with ‘Chokehold Cherry Python’, ‘WEEDKILLER’ ‘Possession of a Weapon’ from the 2023 album, and eventually the transformation into the Smoochie Girl Club. A front-row attendee is invited on stage and bestowed a sash and crown for their outfit, though the crown is put on in tilted fashion due to their handmade hat having a small crow on it called Niko, that Ashnikko (see what they did there?) was terrified of hurting. 

No Niko’s were harmed in the crowning of best dressed.

The final triumphant run of songs rule the room from the latest album, first of which is ‘Wet Like’, and the equally popular ‘Full Frontal’. The Smoochie Girl Club gets friskie as Ashnikko prefaces the next song by asking those in the crowd to neck on a little bit, before playing ‘I Want My Boyfriends To Kiss’. As well as this trio of tracks go down, they pail in comparison to the shot-through ‘Liquid’, and the armageddon-like ‘Itty Bitty’, which kicked off the Smoochies era as well as hard launched Ashnikko’s run as a newly single woman.

For all the surreal lore, props and costume changes, what lingers most is the slightly deranged, iconic energy of the DEMIDEVIL era. So it makes perfect sense that the final two shots of the night came in the shape of ‘Slumber Party’, which despite the past-curfew timestamp, still has the full near 3,000 fans bouncing and screaming, and finally, ‘Daisy’. The track that launched her into viral infamy closes the event, while the mix is a smidge refreshed and different from the days of it playing from peoples tiktoks, it absolutely enraptures Manchester Academy for the final time before sending the crowd on their way, likely to many a bar to let the chaos inspired in the crowd takes its next form. It’s clear this isn’t just a concert, but a fully realised world.