Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To be nervous is to expected, it is the little butterflies that growl hungrily and gnaw at you which define those that can do what they do in front of audience and those that can’t. In the raw, unrestrained and beautiful sounding Sophie Dodd it is something she may carry but she succeeds in taming them as if they were rampaging lions reduced to mewing helpless kittens.

What could be considered a short set by many, Sophie Dodd filled her time on stage with striking anger, a sensational turn of phrase and more to the point with lyrics that beat to a different tune than somebody turning up out of the blue at Zanzibar may have been expecting this young poet like musician perform. It is her grounding in poetry that makes Ms. Dodd unique and so interesting to watch for. For somebody that could be considered quite young, she grabbed the audience by their proverbial lapels and forced them with great dignity and a roar that would make anybody quiver with excitement to take note of what she was expressing.

Whether it was the gentle opener of A Cup of Tea, the track Wearing Rags, the brutal but gorgeously wild No Foundations or the demonstration of anger and sadness in My Salvation, there was not a moment in which the poetry of the song didn’t ring true. Suffice to say if she wasn’t adept at the guitar also, then Ms. Dodd would surely be in the forefront of people’s minds as one of the great young poets of Liverpool. Full of well-placed anger at a system that has repeatedly failed and with the added bonus of being truly sincere, Sophie Dodd is a musician and a poet who deserved the applause fully.

Ian D. Hall