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As a
family, the cast of Absinthe (now playing
its final Miami week at Spiegeltent)
resembles a branch of the Addams Family on
acid, whirling through Pee-wee’s Playhouse.
And last night, after much of the family had
retired to their coffins in the opium den,
Penny (aka the Gazillionaire’s sidekick)
took over the surreal Spiegeltent—and tore
up the place as the lead singer in a band
called Fish Circus.
Marching into that sumptuous mirrored and
brocaded tent, banging on plastic buckets,
the five members of Fish Circus looked as if
they’d just washed ashore from Pee-wee’s
dinghy. “So many fish in the sea/I just
can’t find one for me,” sang Penny (Anais
Thomassian), outfitted in a
figure-revealing, graphic-printed ensemble
with black suede high-heeled boots worthy of
Prince.
With her Betty Boop speaking voice and
enough energy to fuel the nation in the
event of an oil shortage, Thomassian
appeared to be nothing less than the love
child of Cyndi Lauper and Meow Meow—with the
political consciousness of Sinead O’Connor.
A dynamo in a lithe dancer’s body,
Thomassian prowled the stage and its
environs like a leopard unleashed from the
hands of Josephine Baker. Doing an ersatz
polka one minute, before gyrating like a
pole dancer the next, Thomassian sang a song
with the refrain “just like a whore,”
followed by another with the lyric “scary
little monsters in my head.” With her coy
sensuality, Thomassian’s persona came across
as seemingly approachable—only to suddenly
exhibit the unpredictability of a rock star
with severe psychosis. Which alternating ego
would appear next? The audience was
riveted—and particularly so during her
performance of “My Baby’s Insane (She’s
Fucked Up on Cocaine).”
And speaking of—contact the Miami Beach
Chamber of Commerce. Fish Circus has given
South Beach a new theme song: a song
dedicated to the denizens of Washington
Avenue called “Sketchy Muthafuckas.” Backed
by a four-man band, and with gorgeous guest
vocalist Kay Tuckerman, the song brought the
house down as the two female panthers
prowled the house, covered in chocolate
cake. (You had to be there—but call Karen
Finley now, and tell her she has serious
competition!)
With their combination of charisma and their
self-defined brand of “crazy ass jungle punk
circus music,” Fish Circus makes good on
their promise to
“reach into your pants and make you smile.”
And with the multi-talented, nerve-wrecking
Thomassian riding that razor’s edge between
incendiary and insane, there’s every reason
to be thrilled. As Thomassian sang in one
song, “I’m not gonna wait around for you to
tell me what I can do”—and you’d better
believe it. You might not know whether to
stand on your chair, dodge the shards of a
demolished guitar, or run for your life—but
there’s no question you’ll feel the
adrenaline rush of Thomassian and her Fish
Circus.
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