Join us as Victoria Victoria brings SECCA's 'Southern Idiom' series off the gallery walls and onto the scenic lake stage, with special guest Katie BLVD!
Saturday, October 23, 2021 @ 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm | Back Lawn
Doors and dinner at 6pm, music at 6:30pm!
Originally launched as an exhibition series for local visual artists, Southern Idiom is a new concert series poised to celebrate the diverse musical artistry of Winston-Salem bands and performers. Victoria Victoria, an indie-pop band fronted by singer songwriter Tori Elliott, will kick off the series on Saturday, October 23 with a performance under the stars at SECCA's picturesque lake stage. Y'all Supper Club will be on-site serving locally-sourced burgers for dinner at 6pm, and special guest Katie BLVD will kick off the show at 6:30pm. Tickets are on sale NOW!
SECCA's Southern Idiom exhibition series began in 2017 as a platform for elevating and celebrating Winston-Salem's visual artists. The series has thus far showcased 22 local artists, representing a diverse sampling of the Winston-Salem art community, from established veterans and educators to exciting young creators just starting to hone their craft. The series currently features a sculptural exhibition by Nicole Uzzell, with the next installment opening Saturday, September 18 with new printmaking works by Barbara Mellin.
ABOUT VICTORIA VICTORIA
Victoria Victoria is a North Carolina based indie-pop band fronted by singer songwriter, Tori Elliott.
Combining such musical influences as Regina Spektor, Imogen Heap and Feist, Elliott also imbues her work with a theatrical flourish. A product of a small Ohio town called Chillicothe, she lived a fairly idyllic American life on a big stretch of farmland with her parents and two siblings. Such a serene setting served her well her early days. "My love for writing and storytelling developed on that farm. My first memories of trying to write music were in corn fields with my brother and sister," she recalls.
Both her parents were musicians, so taking piano at 14 years old was no-brainer. Throughout her teenage years, she performed on church stages and with her family, while also nursing an obsession with Broadway scores and soundtracks. Her interests later shifted to major pop tunesmiths like Spektor, but she also soon began culling songwriting inspirations from the young life blossoming around her, often employing the work of her friends and family as touch points.
Elliot began performing consistently in various bands in her early 20s. Now fronting Victoria Victoria, their first studio album arrived in 2016 with Coastal Beast, a bluesy, guitar-laden 10-piece. Put simply, the impressive debut allowed her to find her footing in an ever-slippery industry. "It was one of the first times that I really began to believe that I was capable of having good ideas and that what I had to bring to the table was valuable," she says. "I really learned to trust myself, and to trust the people I was creating with. Collaboration can be difficult, but it brings out the best in us, and it brings out the best in my music."
That was just the beginning.
2018 saw the release of two singles and videos, "Body Body" and "Roller Blades," both sticky with synths, beats and Elliott's signature timbre. 2019 saw the release of the self-love pop anthem, Sanctuary. You could say her creative drive hit a hefty payload. She soon began pouring herself into new work, honing her songwriting and imagining stunning, more ambitious visuals.
Meanwhile, she also chipped away at other expressive outlets like painting and drawing and outside collaborations, including with friend and musician Michael Anderson for a jazz-soul-classical endeavour.
"I've been making art for the sake of creating, and not to share with the world. With music, I often feel the pressure to 'create well' so that others around me will be impressed by what I'm making," she says. "That pressure isn't healthy, and honestly, doesn't make for good art anyway."
As a result, Elliott found herself finally free to express however she saw fit and "reset" her mind, completely and unapologetically.
Her work is an exemplary display of fine-tuned attention to emotional detail, often exposing every raw nerve, and the pop giants of today would be wise to take notes. Victoria Victoria is a force to be reckoned with.