A Mystery To Be Revealed: Adia Victoria Performs Lincoln Hall
By Casey Moffitt in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 16, 2015 10:05PM
photo credit Jessi Zazu
When Adia Victoria dropped her sweaty, swampy debut tune, "Stuck in the South," last summer it immediately struck a chord with tastemakers and trendsetters. The hype machine has been tuned up to boost interest in the Nashville singer's work as she has launched her first headlining U.S. tour.
Victoria will make her way to Lincoln Hall Saturday (the only night on her tour in which she is not the featured act) and we wish we had a better handle on this up-and-coming artist to give you a better idea as to what we could expect from her set. "Stuck in the South" is the only song Victoria has released. That's it. So we'd be awfully presumptuous in outlining expectations from her show.
That being said, "Stuck in the South" in an intriguing enough song to pique our curiosity and see what she's got cooked up when she hits the stage.
Victoria has a very nice voice with a good range. It's fragile and raspy, yet has enough power behind it to accentuate the biting lyrics to the song, which unravels a tale of misery and ennui. Victoria carefully describes a woeful existence of being unable escape her surroundings, which seem to be wearing her down. It's short and to the point and doesn't spend time with musical filler.
It starts with an easy finger-picked guitar line, but swells into a wave of layered guitars and booming drums. It's rather overdone, as the loud layers of guitars obfuscate Victoria's unusual voice. And the guitar lines aren't particularly interesting or intricate. They do add a certain eerie mood to the tune, but are otherwise meandering distractions.
Overall it's a good song and leaves us wanting to hear more. Seeing as there is no more available, we'll go exploring tomorrow night at Lincoln Hall to see what Adia Victoria is really capable of delivering and report back to you.
However, we do know that Strand of Oaks should provide a rocking set at the end of the night. They impressed us last summer with their joyous performance at Schuba's, and we don't expect to be disappointed this time. Their show is a kind of ying to Victoria's yang. If Victoria's set is full of misery and woe that "Stuck in the South" might lead us to believe, we know Strand of Oaks will pick up the crowd by the end of the night.
Adia Victoria performs with Kevin Morby and Strand of Oaks at Lincoln Hall (2424 N. Lincoln Ave.) at 9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 17 as part of Tomorrow Never Knows festival. $15. 18 years and older.