10 years after uploading ‘Rain’, her first original song to Youtube, Dodie Clark, better knownas dodie, released her debut album Build a Problem in May 2021, which was released to theacclaim of critics and fans, and after a small run of shows in the UK, she embarked for herthird tour across the US.
The show started with Lizzy McAlpine, who captivated the audience only with an acousticguitar and her voice. The singer from Philadelphia played a short set that consisted of songsthat will be part of her new album ‘Five Second Flat’ which will be released in Spring, alongwith songs from her 2 previous albums.As scary as being on stage by yourself can be, Lizzy show confidence and won the audienceover with songs like ‘Apple Pie,’ ‘Pancakes for Dinner’, a cover of ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ byWheatus, and even some of her new songs like ‘erase me’ in which the audience wassigning along with her.
When dodie hit the stage she couldn’t hide her excitement to be back in Chicago not only shown by her big smile but also by telling the audience how beautiful the city is and how it isone of her favorite cities to play. The British singer was accompanied by five musiciansplaying percussion, cello, violin, piano, guitar and bass, which helped to enhance the sound of her songs.
The interaction dodie has with her crowd is lovely, not only she tells the stories behind the songs, but also answering questions between songs, singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to a member of the audience and even telling jokes that made her crack up midway songs. The setlist consisted of all the songs of her debut albums in full (including bonus tracks),mixed with songs from her previous EPs, some of the highlights of the night included ‘I Kissed Someone (It Wasn’t You)’, ‘Sick of Losing Soulmates’ and ‘Before the Line.’ During her performance, dodie not only showed her talent as a singer but also as a multi instrumentalist, switching from playing guitar, ukulele, piano and even the clarinet. She also proved herself as a dancer, with some great choreographies during some of the songs. dodie concert proved to be an inclusive and safe space, not only because of the rainbow colors on stage during ‘Rainbow’, but also because there were ASL interpreters on stage during her whole performance and we encourage more bands and singers to have them on tour with them.
For the end of the show the whole venue turned into a dance party with songs like ‘Monsters’, ‘In the Middle’ and ‘Hate Myself’. On stage dodie and her group were jumping and dancing around, with an energy that was shared with the audience resulting in all The Riviera Theater dancing and singing along
DODIE
Photos + Review by Diego Vigueras | Exclusively for Music! Why Not