The Dodie Invasion – Concert Review

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Photo by Multimedia Editor Christian A. Browne

It was a night full of rainbow flags and long waiting lines to get in the doors of the sold out show for Dodie Clark fans as she took the stage at Philadelphia’s Theatre of the Living Arts Thursday, Sept. 12.

The concert was sold out weeks in advance. The venue had fans touching each other skin to skin. We were packed like sardines in the place. It was extremely hot and with the crowd drinking water and alcohol throughout the night.

It was a mostly young, female crowd. The venue itself created this intimate vibe where you felt so close to the stage. No matter where you were throughout the area, you could see the stage clearly.

The show, from beginning to end, was incredible. Adam Melchor, the opening act, who I hadn’t heard of before, sounded okay to me but he did have his fans and had an ability to connect with his audience in creative ways.

After his performance, things got more interesting. People started to vibe with 2000’s songs playing in the background waiting for Dodie Clark. Her performance was truly incredible. While I didn’t know any of her songs until the end when she played hits from her past two albums, the atmosphere was amazing.

The way that she built her set was very clever. It started off with “6/10,” a very sad and depressing song, then led to the ending where she played some of her more upbeat and happy songs, “In the Middle” and “Absolutely Smitten” to leave the fans satisfied.

The two songs that struck me the most were “Rainbow” and “She.” During both of these songs, Dodie touched upon the LGBT Community and her bisexuality, with “She” being a love song about a girl. I saw girls with bisexual pride makeup and 13-year-olds singing along with tears brimming in their eyes during the song, rejoicing in finally having representation.

The thing that you notice the most about Dodie’s Performance was her rawness. She was unapolagetically herself. In the middle of the performance she saw a little girl who was holding a rainbow flag crying. She stopped the performance just to give the girl a hug and comfort her. Of Course after she would right after sing a depressing song. But its this genuine kindness and love that she gave to not only the girl but everyone in the crowd was so emotional and powerful. Dodie is always 100% herself and this shine through each other the song she does.

There are things that I didn’t like, like the fact that there was a bunch of phones taking photos throughout the night, blocking views for everyone. This annoyed the hell out of me, which is very funny since I’m a photographer, myself. The show was also standing admission only, so my feet were killing me by the end of the night.

My best friend Samantha was dying after the show. Her feet was killing afterwards. I wish that I could find a place to sit down because half way through the show, I wanted to lay on ground forever.

But for only $2 for two tickets, you really couldn’t beat it!

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