Cartaxo Sessions Psych Fest

The Music

Nestled away an hour from Lisbon, a Psych Market for the senses was hosted at The Cartaxo Cultural Center by Cartaxo Sessions. Two psychedelic bands, Amaterazu and Astrodome, sent the audience on an acid trip from the desert to the sea.

Amaterazu

All the way from Viseu, Amerterazu walked down what looked like the “stairway to heaven” down to the bottom floor to open up Cartaxo Sessions. Opening up the evening with some heavy psych, the band wore long, almost wizard-like black capes. The music was like a slow progression into space - or a journey into the desert. It was a transcendent experience in nature as each song built on top of the next in a smooth build-up, with undertones of heavy metal doom.

Astrodome

 The second band Astrodome came in with a steady wave. A nod to their new album Seascapes, their set felt like floating. The drums banged and crashed, but the reverb layered it in softly. Watching them perform reminded me of when I saw Tame Impala live in San Francisco in 2015, or when I first listened to the Wand album Golem and felt the psychedelic melancholy truly hit me in my core.

Before the show, I listened to their album in full, and the last song “Sirens” is what really got me excited to see them perform live. The almost ten-minute arrangement left me misty-eyed and full of bliss. It’s moments like these that remind me how grateful I am to live in a world where such beautiful art is continuously conjured up into existence.

The Space

Cartaxo Sessions hosts regular events at the cultural center in town, and this Psych Market in particular hosted several local artist booths with retro art. After the sessions, everyone from the show visited Fuzz, a local bar and community space centered around a love of rock music, art, and culture in Cartaxo and beyond.