The Iditarod, Fursaxa & Matt Valentine
Live at St. Lawrence Church, Portland, ME 4/24/03

My friend Jim & I drove down for this great sounding triple feature...To make a great evening even better, they served Guinness!!! Yay!!! Drank quite a few in a short time (needed to get my mind into somewhat altered condition for the psychedelic sounds to come).

When we walked in, Vermont's Matt Valentine was playing with some woman playing weird sound makers...he was really good...his playing was solid, his lyrics were very out there, but very friendly, and he has a voice to match. I remember one song called "Canned Heat Blues" that really stood out...great lyrics, and a good deep feeling to it...Jim loved his set best of all...I liked it an awful lot, and hope to check him out again soon. We talked to him afterwards and he was as nice a guy as I expected...Jim bought his album that came out on a Portland, ME label called Time Lag Records.

Fursaxa, from Philadelphia was next. She started playing Casio and singing, then did something I've never seen anyone do. She used masking tape, taped down the Casio keys until a good trance was going, and moved over and played against it with guitar, harmonium and other odds & ends. I really dug her set...it started almost folky, and ended as one of the heaviest bits of trance music I've heard in quite a while. Towards the end, she had the Casio, multiple layering of vocals with her delay, and other sounds going, creating a REALLY THICK SOUND for just one person that was very transporting...Guinness and psych music go together really well...GREAT SET!!!

Finally, there was the Iditarod out of Providence, RI. Basically, a guy on percussion, Carin on vocals and assorted noise makers, and Jeffrey on guitar and old record player (!) and other oddities that made some interesting frequencies. Their sound is folk music, but very psychedelically deep, and really transporting. I was lifted off my seat for their whole set, which consisted of sparse, pretty songs with different textures that I really melted into. Check out their site at http://members.cox.net/iditarod/menu.html and you can download some of their fun sounds. A great set, and I was very happy to score a tour 45 they had a few copies left of (which you can hear a track from on the 1st Perky Pat Radio show!).

Anyways, a great show, that days later as I'm writing this, it's still right in my head.

Originally Published 4/29/03