One of the best rock/blues sets performed in St. Louis this year happened on a humble Sunday night a month ago.

Adia Victoria and her band took the stage at Off Broadway on September 25th and knocked us all out. The excellent debut album is called Beyond the Bloodhounds. The live show is worth triple the price of admission.

So this night in September was the second time the band played St. Louis in 2016. The first show, at The Demo in April, competed next door with a sold out Savages gig at Ready Room and featured mismatched supporting acts (not hating, just saying). But still, a few buddies and I saw Adia Victoria make space for her fantastic music on that sort of awkward night.

“This is something…we’re seeing something special here…” was our shared refrain. Her record wasn’t even out yet, and she was down to five copies of her EP.

But Adia (and her stunning band) came back to us, and she was dressed in flowing black with a white collar, and maybe she she was conjuring some dead Christian preacher from the childhood she uses to inform her lyrical imagery. And said band was tighter still, and more relaxed, and Adia herself was in possession of a stronger presence, one that she unfurled as the performance went on.

And we, the crowd, were rapt, and I mean that to say ‘completely interested’ but also, possibly, ‘transported,’ or ‘carried away.’

Here are the photos:

ILLPHONICS opened the show and served as gracious hosts. Larry Morris’ kinetic energy and deft lyricism, and the band’s myriad talents, were on full display. These buds just released a new music video, btw. Check it out here.