On May 5 we went to the WaR3House 3 in Swarthmore to see Francis Dunnery perform a solo show, just him and his acoustic guitar.
The day before the show was the first time I had heard of the British singer-songwriter, although I later found out that he played at the Kennett Flash as recently as last autumn. But the audience members around us knew all the words and sang along, and several begged for him to play their requests.
Between songs Dunnery talked about his interests in astrology, psychology and politics. A revolutionary time as world-shaking as the late 18th century is coming soon, he predicted. He said everyone suffers a major trauma between ages 3 and 6, and it sets the course for their lives (the man behind me grumbled, "I paid a lot of money to forget about that").
Dunnery's political advice, which basically amounted to "Don't fall for the polarizing hype," got a lukewarm reaction from the college-town audience. This amused him.
The singer also told some hilarious stories about his wild days as a rock star with a 1980s band called "It Bites." Apparently you don't know what hard drinking is until you've partied with the heavy metal band Motörhead. Dunnery said he knew he was in trouble when Steve Jones, a guitarist for the punk-rock band the Sex Pistols, showed up at his hotel-room door and literally dragged him to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. (At this anecdote Dearest Partner was laughing so hard he got a stitch in his side.)
I'd never been to the WaR3house 3 before, a tiny venue down an alley off Park Avenue. It's like walking into the prop closet of a community theater, full of bric-a-brac, fencing masks, 1960s lighting fixtures, license plates, old concert posters, framed portraits, bikes hanging from the ceiling, and old library card catalogs. There's room for maybe 30 people to sit on wooden folding chairs; everyone else has to stand.
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