Review: Ashnikko at Metro City

Ashnikko’s Smoochies Tour at Metro City
Tuesday, September 29, 2026

There are concerts you attend for the music, concerts you attend for the spectacle, and then there are concerts where you spend the first ten minutes looking around the room thinking, ‘Oh, we have all understood the assignment.’

Ashnikko’s Smoochies Tour at Metro City was a tasty, chaotic swirl of all three.

The crowd was a swarm of Barbieheimer besties, dressed to the absolute nines. The creativity on display was almost as much of the show as the show itself, with fans turning up in increasingly elaborate interpretations of the Smoochies universe. Ashnikko rewarded five particularly committed Smoochie Girls by bringing them onstage to show off their outfits and presenting each with a sash. The crowd cheered them on enthusiastically, making the whole thing feel less like a competition and more like a celebration of everyone’s willingness to go completely overboard.

Opening the night was Melbourne pop artist Robert Baxter, who brought a warm, approachable energy that made them very easy to love from the outset. Their electronic pop set included a gorgeous cover of Lorde’s Ribs and a particularly joyful performance of I <3 GIRLS, a song written as a love letter to the girls who have supported Baxter throughout their life.

There was something genuinely lovely about Baxter’s presence. They seemed grateful that people had turned out on a Tuesday night to see them, and that warmth carried right through to the end of the evening. When the concert finished, Baxter came out to the main entrance of the venue and stayed there taking selfies with fans, putting their arms around people, laughing and chatting with everyone who approached. It was a small gesture, but it left a big impression.

Then came Ashnikko.

Her entrance was pure theatrical brilliance. A recorded voice played through the venue as she rummaged through her purse, checking for the essentials: phone, wallet, lip gloss and, eventually, a tiny door at the bottom of the bag. That tiny door was built into the stage, and Ashnikko promptly came bursting through it.

The production was surprisingly elaborate, with a stage full of props and visual gags that made the entire performance feel like stepping inside the world of Smoochies. There was an oversized heart-shaped locket, a wonderfully ridiculous paper-doll costume sequence around Smoochie Girl, and a giant hypodermic needle that featured in the Full Frontal lobotomy.

Then there was the crow. Not just a crow. A superbly evil-sounding crow wearing a tiara. She became something of a supporting character, with Ashnikko repeatedly having little exchanges with her throughout the show. She was menacing, regal and completely ridiculous, and I was delighted every time she appeared.

The set drew heavily from Smoochies, moving through songs including Sticky Fingers, Microplastics, Lip Smacker, Trinkets, Chichinya, You Make Me Sick! and It Girl.

STUPID brought the kind of reaction you’d expect from a song that has been living rent-free in people’s brains for years, while Slumber Party and Daisy gave the older catalogue their deserved moments.

But the choreography was one of the biggest surprises of the night.

Ashnikko and her two dancers were ridiculously tight. The routines were considerably more technically demanding than the general chaos of the show might suggest, with several moments where being even slightly out of position could have resulted in somebody receiving a fairly serious kick to the head—or somewhere else far more sensitive.

But nobody missed, not one damn beat.

Ashnikko has that particular kind of stage presence where everything looks gloriously effortless: the wild hair, the attitude, the ridiculousness, and the sense that she might spontaneously decide to do something completely unhinged. But underneath that apparent chaos was meticulous preparation and extremely precise execution.

It was basically: Here’s the effortless chaos you came for. I have practised the absolute hell out of it, and I’m going to deliver it right on the beat. Her two dancers were phenomenal, and together they made the choreography look both dangerous and completely under control.

Ashnikko was equally entertaining between songs. Early in the night she told the crowd about a fan whose dad had apparently been horrified after she attended a previous Ashnikko show and saw “girls scissoring”. Ashnikko’s response was essentially, ‘If you thought the scissoring was over, think again.’

It wasn’t. There were going to be girls scissoring for the whole show. Consider us warned.

Metro City itself became part of the spectacle. Looking out across the venue’s multiple balconies, Ashnikko described the audience as looking like we were stacked in “tiers of cake”. It was ridiculous but also completely accurate. She seemed genuinely impressed by the way the venue allowed so many people to have such a good view, and the balconies gave the room an unusually intimate, layered feeling.

Perhaps the most genuine moment came when Ashnikko thanked the crowd for supporting her and allowing her the freedom to choose what kind of art she gets to make.

That sentiment seemed to sit at the centre of the entire night.

For all the enormous props, absurd costumes, sexual humour and elaborate choreography, the show never felt manufactured. It felt like Ashnikko was having a genuinely good time making exactly the kind of strange, maximalist art she wants to make—and inviting everyone else to be weird with her.

That authenticity is probably the secret to why she is so loved.

It was particularly lovely to look around Metro City and see so many young, creative people being completely unapologetically themselves. The costumes, the energy, the commitment to the bit and the sheer joy of seeing everyone cheer each other on made the audience feel like an extension of the show itself.

And then, after all of that, Ashnikko left the way she came in: dragged back through that same tiny door. Leaving the Smoochies universe for that crazy thing we call reality.

It was theatrical, hilarious and exactly the right final image for a show that had spent the previous two hours being completely unrestrained and deliciously unhinged.

The vibes were, quite simply, vibing.

No crumbs.

Except, obviously, the ones at the bottom of her purse.

LIANA KELLY

Photos by Marion Grnc