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.