Michael Dodds, SmallPrint and Six Stories High Review

Gig review: YRock - 5^th November 2009

By Eoin Greensmyth

Thursdays Yrock gig at the GRV had quite a few late comers, as some of the acts for the evening pulled out last minute - that said, the music was on the whole, somewhat impressive - and the turnout wasn’t too bad either, considering it was bonfire night!

First off, 16 year old Michael Dodds took the stage with his acoustic, his brother - Craig - on drums and a friend -Nikki - on base. Taking inspiration from James Morrison, Paulo Nutini and, more recently, Jason Mraz, Dodds music was an extremely good start to the night. There wasn’t many hiccups to report on, other than a snapped string midway through the first song - which was easily worked around when the guitarist from Small Print offered his guitar to be used as a replacement!

Dodds didn’t do any covers, which in itself, is impressive, but for writing his own music for only a year, the songs were extremely entertaining - simple and effective, there was even space for a level of humour within his last piece, titled: “The pope has facebook” - a very enjoyable piece to listen to.

It was clear that Dodds usually plays solo, but the addition of the drums and base worked out nicely, and didn’t take anything away from the performance, as his vocals could easily hold its own. This, alongside very good, but not over the top stage presence, made for an extremely good first act.

Definitely one to keep your eye on, with only few improvements to be made, which revolve around complexity - slightly more complex rhythmic structure would make listening even more interesting.

“Watch this space”!

Michael Dodds was swiftly followed by the youngest band of the evening; Small Print. Their set comprised mostly of popular, solid covers - which kept the audience lively - and there were a few of their own songs. Their style follows a lot of mainstream chart bands, such as the Arctic Monkeys, Wombats, Biffy Clyro - which they can pull off pretty well. As with these big bands, their own music was, again, simple and effective with well used guitar alternation.

This was Small Prints first gig with Yrock, and fourth “major gig”, they recently won Battle of the Bands in Studio 24, and won £2500 worth of recording time in Glasgow, which could really get these guys known in and around Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Providing they don’t squander the recording time, if they manage to get themselves together as a band more often, try and get to a few more gigs around the city, Small Print could do pretty well for themselves.

Six Stories High were the evenings headliners - and rightly so. It was clear from the word go that these guys were a very tight band - it was very easy to tell that they had been playing together for a good while. Stephen Gray’s - lead vocals and guitar - had an extremely good voice for the music they were playing, and could reach each end of the spectrum without much difficulty.

Their most notable songs were; Emergency call, Behind closed doors and Slide away - which, along with the rest of their set, was their own music. Their songs weren’t generic, and were very well written, though they need to develop the use of two guitars. This, along with good stage presence,

As a band, they used to do quite a lot of gigs, and also won some recording time from a Battle of the Bands - but after unfortunate timing with holidays, they haven’t managed to get together as a band as much as they would like to, so now they’re back on form, keep an eye out, as these guys are a great band to go and watch.

Oh! Almost forgot to mention, the general consensus among Six Stories High is that Hob Knobs are “the” biscuit.