[ concert preview ]
DODIE with Lizzy McAlpine 8 p.m. Saturday, March 5 The Plaza Live 425 N. Bumby Ave. plazaliveorlando.org SOLD OUT
Dodie Clark is the hero we need PHOTO BY PARRI THOMAS
ARMY OF SHE Fast-rising pop star and vlogger Dodie sells out her Orlando show handily BY S H E LTON HULL
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here are many Dodies in this world. Dodie Kazanjian is a journalist who runs the Gallery Met, attached to the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Dodie Stevens had a hit with “Pink Shoe Laces” in 1959. Dodie Douglas was a fictional character on My Three Sons. Dodie Horton is a conservative state representative in Bossier Parish, Louisiana. Dodie McGuiness is a leader of Sinn Fein. There are many Dodies, but this is our preferred Dodie of the moment, and there is only one like her. Dorothy Miranda “Dodie” Clark turns 27 next month, and she’ll be spending her birthday in the middle of the biggest year of her career. Dodie’s been releasing music since 2016, but her debut album, Build a Problem, was released in May of last year. It rose as high as No. 3 on the U.K. pop charts, and climbed to the No. 4 slot on the U.S. folk charts. She’s peaked at No. 115 on the Billboard charts in America, but that number is likely to rise a bit, now that the Essex native is back touring this country.
She has frequently collaborated with fellow singersongwriters like Jacob Collier, Tessa Violet (whom we’ve written about before), Julie Nunes and the exceptionally talented Orla Gartland, who is actually joining her on part of the tour. (Gartland’s work comes with the fullest endorsement we can possibly offer, Liz Cooper-level loveliness.) You can see them singing backup in each other’s videos, such as Gartland’s sublime “Zombie” or Nunes’ heart-stopping version of Ariana Grande’s “God Is a Woman.” This leg of the Build a Problem tour encompasses some 31 shows in just 42 days, taking Dodie from coast to coast, north to south. At press time, she’s just finished a week’s run that hit Chicago, Philly, Boston and Brooklyn. Dodie plays the Plaza Live this Saturday, and that show sold out far in advance, as did her upcoming shows in Seattle and L.A. In between, she’ll bring her sound to industry hotbeds like Austin, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, before going on a run of 23 shows across Europe. She will, of course, be vlogging every step of the way.
Opening for Dodie on most of these dates is her friend Lizzy McAlpine, a Berklee grad from Philly whose third album, Five Seconds Flat, will be released on April 8. By that time, audiences will be already prepped for it, after this run with Dodie. One would expect to see them both active on the festival circuit this summer. Dodie has been making music for nearly a decade, but she’s probably best-known for her YouTube channels, which have over 3 million total subscribers. A lot of the content relates to music, but just as much relates to her interior life, her habits and rituals, loves and lovers, good days and bad. To call her style “painfully earnest” would venture into cliché, so instead let’s think of it more as a sort of hyper-transparency. Her online content is characterized by an almost aggressive amiability. It’s one thing to be an open book, but it’s another to lead the audience through the actual printing process. Fans get to see her material as it comes together, piece by piece, which only enhances the experience of fandom. In addition to Build a Problem, Dodie also has about 19 earlier tracks available across her three previous EPs: Intertwined (2016), You (2017) and Human (2019). As much fun as she’s always been, it’s also been clear that Dodie was a work in progress. This pandemic era has been when all the pieces really came together, like Voltron. In these times of crisis, Dodie Clark is the hero that we need.
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MARCH 2-8, 2022 ● ORLANDO WEEKLY
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