Ashnikko astounds fans new & old in Nashville

I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t walk into Marathon Music Works on May 1st as an Ashnikko fan. I’d heard a couple of tracks floating around, enough to recognize the name, but I was there primarily as a photographer. I’d seen images of her online: the electric blue hair, the theatrical costuming, the almost alien quality to her visual presentation; I thought to myself, this woman is going to photograph beautifully. And I was right about that. What I wasn’t prepared for was leaving as a fully converted, unabashedly devoted fan of her music.

The sold-out crowd at Marathon was already buzzing with an electric anticipation I hadn’t seen in that room in a while. Ashnikko didn’t just walk out onto the stage; she exploded onto it. She was so performative in her space, the way very few artists can.

Ashnikko filled every corner of the stage with energy much like a circus. 

Then came “Sticky Fingers” and I nearly forgot I was supposed to be shooting. The track hits differently live — rawer, almost confrontational, with a bass that you feel in your chest before your brain can process it. I found myself grinning behind my camera like an idiot. “Stupid” next had the entire floor losing their minds. There’s a reason that song made her a household name;  it’s an adrenaline shot wrapped in a pop hook and, performed live, it is absolutely unhinged in the best possible way. The crowd knew every single word. I think I hurt my voice screaming “stupid boy think that I need him!”. 

When Ashnikko slipped into “Daisy”, the room shifted. It was tender and devastating and strange all at once, since underneath all the theatrics lives a genuinely gifted songwriter. And “Weedkiller” was perhaps the best moment of the night for me; it was sprawling, anthemic, and deeply weird in a way that felt entirely intentional and entirely her.

I came to Marathon Music Works for a great photo op; I left with a new favorite artist. Sometimes the best concert experiences are the ones you never saw coming!

Photography by Derek Jones

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