THREE was a crowd at the SFX last Saturday night, as Dodgy's augmented line up attempted to realise the band's wide, organic vision onstage. The core trio of Nigel Clarke, Andy Miller and Mathew Priest faced a somewhat sparse audience at the Dublin venue, but their resolve was reinforced by brass section, keyboards and backing vocalists, and Dodgy let loose with a barrage of well crafted tunes, some of which proudly wore the badge of epic, homegrown anthem.
The band may come from the urban sprawl of Birmingham, but their gaze is firmly fixed on the forests and mountains beyond the concrete, and their passions go beyond the narrow, indie alleyways of the soul. If You're Thinking Of Me is Britpop at its most romantic, going against the grain of laddish lust, and it could well become Dodgy's own Wonderwall; So Let Me Go Far looks longingly beyond the walls of doubt, but doesn't quite manage to make the mental leap to freedom.
The band's big hit, Good Enough, was well received by a largely underwhelmed crowd, but though the song may have been a refreshing, fizzy accompaniment to the Summer, this time round it seemed more like cold, weak tea. The band bowed out with the slow burning Grassman, mixing soaring vocals with fluttering flute, and stoking the emotional flames into a heady climax.
The encore sputtered out, however, with the band's somewhat leaden cover of The Band's The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.
