I’ve caught a lot of flak from from editors at more politically correct papers for referring to an audience as “freaks,” but after seeing multiple patrons with hats and shirts emblazoned with the word “FREAK” on them, I knew that these were a proud people. The Psychedelic Circus at the Pegasus Lounge was a beautiful display of both beautiful neon colors inside the club, as well as incredible, earthy fire performances outside in the parking lot. The Circus had a little bit of everything weird and incredible Tampa has to offer.
One of the first things we saw walking up to the venue was a man with his face painted like a french clown trading a flame from one fire stick to another, then proceeding to extinguish one of the sticks with his mouth. He looked at us and smiled. Around him were people spinning poi and fire hoops with impressive dexterity.
The event was hosted by Pulse Nation Progressive and Manifestation Events and featured both local and out of town DJs, most of them claiming roots in psychedelic trance and psychedelic underground sub-genres of EDM. There were a few local DJs who started the show off, including Incredouble, a DJ duo consisting of two brothers from Tampa.
One of the DJs who went up a bit earlier in the night quickly became one of our favorite local DJs, namely because of her elaborate onstage persona and getup. A self described “trance-dimensional spacebug,” mixtress krikett [sic] is a bouncy, flowing DJ with green LED antennas attached to her headphones. She dances along to her music almost exactly how you would expect a spacebug to dance and she floats her hands over the table like she’s a cricket, foraging in the ground for beats.
The show’s headliner, Khromata, instantly got the entire room shuffling once she began her upbeat set. She hails from San Francisco and traveled all the way to that Bay to bring a little upbeat entertainment to this trippy circus of sorts. It was around this time that some of the fire performers came in from outside and began spinning their LED flow toys inside, entrancing spectators with beautiful trails of blinking light. The show was closed out after her set by Pulse Nation Progressive’s frontman, Ikonoklazm, who kept the crowd going until somewhere near 3 a.m..
The Pegasus Lounge is a versatile venue that hosts all kinds of events for all people of many walks of life and is located off Busch Boulevard near Busch Gardens. On Tuesdays they host a weekly open mic and Wednesday nights is Pornaoke, where you and your loved ones can sing your favorite tunes while hardcore porno is played on a big screen behind you. Fun for the whole family!
This article appears in Feb 23 – Mar 2, 2017.
