Review: SASAMI brings the viciousness of "Squeeze" to 7th St Entry
by Macie Rasmussen and Stephanie Nardi
April 04, 2022
Inside the 7th St Entry on Saturday, we were all “ugly little rodents” — at least according to Sasami Ashworth, the Los Angeles musician who goes by the stage name SASAMI.
With new music and an aggressive stage presence, SASAMI turned the downtown Minneapolis venue into a space for a vicious, hedonistic ritual. If someone familiar with her past work considered her strictly an indie-rock singer-songwriter, the show eradicated that idea. SASAMI delivered a set in which she wasn’t just singing the songs; she acted out each track in a way that expanded their significance beyond lyrics and sound.
The night differed drastically from the last time SASAMI headlined a show in the Twin Cities. In April 2019, she took the Amsterdam Ball & Hall stage to introduce her debut album, Sasami. Those who attended that show may remember a spaced-out audience with little movement in the crowd. This time, SASAMI presented a cathartic experience: one seemingly meant for processing anger and frustration.
Clocking in at just over 40 minutes, the 12-song set felt short. SASAMI played only two songs from her debut album, with the rest coming from her most recent release, Squeeze. While it’s understandable and strategic to root a set in new music, this combination of tracks might have disappointed long-term listeners who once found solace and emotional connection in her self-titled album. But of course, it could have been difficult to situate the earlier sentiments of loneliness and mourning beside the metal-inspired tracks from Squeeze.
SASAMI generated intense action all night. “Skin A Rat” included the lyrics, “In a ‘skin a rat’ mood / Cut 'em, crush 'em / Big, big boot,” which were accompanied by high kicks, teeth clenching and gnarly screeches. The artist’s cover of Daniel Johnston’s “Sorry Entertainer” brought a cruel smile to her face and her knees to the floor. Even the powerful ballads of “The Greatest” and “Call Me Home” included rage-filled eyes. This conjured hard headbanging and jumping on the floor, but surprisingly, no one opened a mosh pit.
While the majority of the night was filled with heavy, sinister sounds, attributes of classical music subtly popped up. Cello recordings graced the openings of a few songs, and some trailed off with notes of opera. This isn’t too surprising, considering that the artist trained in classical performance in her youth and majored in French horn.
That said, both songs from Sasami brought harsher energy than on her previous tour. In “Not The Time,” after strangling herself with her hands, she body slammed and head-butted guitarist Graham Brooks. The closing track, “Pacify My Heart,” was almost unrecognizable when completely transformed from a soft ballad into another shredding piece with a fuzzed bassline.
It was a bit disorienting to see the artist thrashing on only a 15-by-16-foot stage, a foot or two off the ground. It’s interesting to imagine what the night may have looked like if it occurred on a larger stage, but the opportunity to see SASAMI in close contact evoked genuine interaction. In “Make It Right,” when she sang, “What can I do when there's nothing left to do?/ Calling out all day and night/ You don't even want to fight,” she punched toward the crowd members nearest to her. In “Say It,” she grasped at the air and screamed, “Reach for me!” with her face close to the people in the front row. And it’s not often that someone sees a headliner enter the 7th St Entry’s stage by running from the hallway to crawl onto the side of the stage.
In the intimate setting, SASAMI portrayed a dark, mysterious character during moments between songs. Swinging a guitar amp’s cable around over her head, she opened her mouth and pretended to eat it. With a satisfied expression, she seemed like she now had the power she needed to execute the rest of the act. She confirmed that by stating, “I licked the cable so now I can read all of your minds.”
There were many thank-yous throughout the night. SASAMI thanked her band, the venue’s security and the crowd for simply showing up. She said, “I was sick, but I feel strong today. I feel strong!” Most notably, she said, “Thank you for picking me over Jeff Tweedy,” referring to the guitarist in Golden Smog, the band playing next door in First Avenue’s Mainroom.
The gratitude went both ways, although not without a cultural hiccup. At one point, a crowd member shouted, “Pretty good.” Surprised, SASAMI questioned, “What?! Pretty good?” Another person exclaimed, “That’s Minnesotan for ‘100%’!” She responded with, “I got roasted by a man in Minneapolis. I'm gonna f***ing kill him. Just kidding, peace and love. And murder!”
The thrashing energy didn’t begin with the headliner. Jigsaw Youth, a grunge/punk group from Staten Island, delivered dark melodies in their self-proclaimed sludgy tracks. They covered Nirvana and radiated pure ‘90s grunge in the most respectable way. With bulging, inflamed eyes, bassist and lead vocalist, Maria Alvarez led the group with a deep voice. Guitarist Sasha Beck made multiple attempts to ramp up the crowd, and it took until the last few tracks for younger people to push each other around. Beck made a fierce request of the crowd: to kneel and imagine they were dehydrated in a desert without friends. Everyone complied.
SASAMI set list
The Greatest
Need It To Work
Skin A Rat
Make It Right
Not The Time
Say It
Call Me Home
Sorry Entertainer
Squeeze
Feminine Water Turmoil
Not A Love Song
Pacify My Heart
