Adia Victoria

Monday 18th November, The Lexington, London, Adia Victoria. It’s a chilly night in old London town for us three hardy souls for a bit of a last-minute decision to come out tonight. This is the first of four gigs this week for a couple of us and it’s great to start at London’s best small venue, The Lexington.

It’s difficult to categorise the Adia Victoria sound and that’s a good thing. At its heart its blues but slowed down with a country soul feel to showcase Adia’s smoky ‘Macy Grayesque’ vocals. A stripped back show tonight with just a keyboardist and an additional guitarist and tiny box knob twiddler, (apologies I have no idea what the musical term for this device is).

They have been are over in Europe supporting Calexico/Iron and Wine but sadly not the London date on Saturday for visa reasons, so we made sure we took this opportunity to see her tonight.

The set is taken mainly from her last release, this year’s rather excellent ‘Silences’ with a few oldies thrown in along with a couple of new songs, ssshhh, don’t tell Atlantic Records, and they more than stand up with the back catalogue.

Adia is an assured confident performer on stage although she retains a fragility that sucks you in as you dive into that swampy bluesy pool and let those sounds envelop you and drag you down into that murky musical water.

A joyous evening is had with the three of them especially the interaction with the keyboard player and I can’t wait to see her again hopefully with a full band in tow to further add depth to the sound.

Highlights tonight include a great slowed down super melodic version of ‘Mexico Blues’ and a superb cover of Gillian Welch’s ‘Elvis Presley Blues’

Till the next time keep on swampy blues rockin y’all

Went yesterday night to the concert of a young American lady from Nashville, that I discovered in 2016, when she released her debut album 'Beyond the Bloodhounds'.
Now she is promoting her second album release, I checked it out on 'Spotify' and loved it immediately.

'Silences' - Adia Victoria (Paul)
(US Canvasback | Atlantic - 584312-1, 2019)

Gosh, words seem to be too weak by for to describe this evening. She is a rather tall and slender young lady with an angel like voice. Her performance was incredibly intense and powerful. I haven't heard such a wide variety of genres used by a single artist. Everything is in her music, no matter if it's jazz, rock, r&b or even soul and psych, she uses a bit of everything and created with her fantastic 5 member backing band an unbelievable tight and atmospherical sound.
During certain songs she proved that she's a great guitar player in her own right.
Her perfomance was lively and covered many facettes, she easily managed to come as a goddess, or a insanely tempting vamp and then she's powerful, brave and defends her right against everybody who tries to limit her down. This she lives on stage in such a convincing manner, simply incredible.

As I mentioned before, words aren't good enough to describe this unique evening in a small club with approximately 80 people.
I managed to buy her second album there and got an autograph, the perfect end of a cool concert.

Maybe you cuious about her now . . .

I wore my Violent Femmes shirt to the concert with good reason. Adia turns her violence inwards. Is she itortured or happy or both simultaneously? You want to stare at her because she's tall and stunning, but it's difficult when she's in her own world, groaning and moaning through the Delta blues coursing through her veins. On the cover of her debut album, she looks weak and sick. Live, she thrives, grooves, grinds, grimaces, grins and you know she's won in her mind, and won over the crowd.