Ashnikko has turned NOS Alive into their own personal fantasy world. On-stage, they’re flanked by huge thorned sculptures and mythical imagery appearing on the screens as they perform; the drama upped as the scorching Lisbon sun drops in the sky behind the festival’s mainstage. It’s a fairytale that Ashnikko builds through their words too: “Reach inside your ear, and I want you to grab hold of the very long centipede that lives inside your brain, and wear it like a necklace,” they encourage the crowd at one point. ”I’ve ripped my own ribs out and turned them into knives…and I’d like to invite you to fight the Weedkiller,” they assert later on – namechecking the titular beast of their debut album.
Greeting the audience with a grin and revealing it’s their first show in Portugal, they add: “For those who don’t know me, my name’s Ashnikko, and me and my girls are going to put on a show.” It’s a promise that’s lived up to – despite the artist’s recent illness that sees them swigging ginger shots on stage – as they welcome NOS Alive to the “fantasy DND realm” of the artist’s debut album ‘Weedkiller’.
It’s a record The Forty-Five said was “the work of an artist, unafraid to experiment”, and new life is breathed into these tracks in the live setting when accompanied by slick and experimental choreography and very real emotion. The crowd is encouraged to jump and rage during the feral industrial beats of ‘Chokehold Cherry Python’, while during the bouncing electronic-trap of ‘WEEDKILLER’ Ashnikko and their dancers ominously twirl baseball bats.
Tracks from previous releases shine too. Fan favorites like the deliciously salacious ‘Slumber Party’, nu-metal laced ‘Cry’ and high-octane ‘Daisy’ all induce giddy reaction, but the most powerful moment comes midway through the set. “This song is very special to me, it’s on my setlist and for my demidevils,” Ashnikko tells the audience before ‘Invitation’, it’s chorus of “This is not an invitation/Fuck you mean you need it?/Fuck you mean you RSVPed?” a powerhouse moment. “I keep it on my setlist to show love for my younger self…this is my younger self reclaiming my autonomy.” For this song, Ashnikko cuts a solo figure onstage, in an emotive statement of defiance.
Throughout the set Ashnikko commands the crowd, whether they’re breezily making quips about them being unwell (“if I cough in the middle of the song, no I didn’t…it was flawless”), offering moments of poignant resistance, or conjuring up the dystopian world of their imagination. Today Ashnikko welcomed the audience to their “fantasy DND realm” – you won’t want to leave.
READ MORE: Ashnikko interviewed: “I feel grief and heartbreak for my country”
