I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: January 16, 2026] David Dondero

It’s interesting to me that my last show of 2025 was at the same venue as the first show of 2026–a venue I hadn’t been to before that previous show.  It helps that it’s 15 minutes from my house.

I have known about Chris Gethard for a little while.  I missed him the last time he came around here, but I soon as this show was announced I grabbed a ticket.  I saw that David Dondero was going to open for him.  I thought I didn’t know who he was, but it turns out I had seen a Tiny Desk of his back in 2014.  The folks at NPR Music love(d) him, but I was okay on him

his music is good but not especially memorable, but it’s his lyrics that Dondero is known for.  His songs are thoughtful and interesting and look at a variety of subjects.

Chris Gethard introduced him and said that he had known about David for decades and was a huge fan.  He was in Florida and David was playing a show and said he was moving back to New Jersey.  He and Chris connected and this tour was born. 

David suffers from anxiety and it was a little weird to see someone with anxiety perform.  When he first came out he said that the audience was much bigger than he was used to (it wasn’t that big).  He seemed nervous–keeping his eyes closed and forgetting parts of the songs.  But he was also very funny–his song introductions were really enjoyable.

Like I said last time, his songs aren’t terribly memorable.  Musically they’re simple strummed songs, which means you need to listen to the words.

The first song was a fun look at pronunciations are the country “it’s Howston Street, not Hewston Street” and “I’ll meet you by the bubbler in Wisconsin.”

Immersion Therapy was about a kid who played video games all day.  His mother made him go out and be social by going to an Immersion Therapy session–forced social setting where you introduce yourself to others.  He went and nobody else showed up.  This song made me smile.

The Real Tina Turner was about a strip club in Florida.  The funny part of the intro was the owner who loved Michael Bolton and would throw you out if you said anything bad about him.

He said he wrote some songs the first time the current president was in office and he hoped he never have to sing them again.  But he updated The Presidential Palace of Pornography for the current days.  Ending with If you still support Tr***, then Fuck You.  Amen.

When he announced The Stars are My Chandelier, Chris (who was behind us) said Yes!.  The song had a good introduction about how his transmission died and some college kids let him stay in a Bing Crosby Museum on campus.

Job Boss was the bounciest, funniest song about a terrible boss he had who wore a Gold’s Gym short with the neck cut out and walked like he was carrying luggage.  He also spent all of his money on toys and went bankrupt.

He asked if anyone knew any of his songs and a few people did.  Someone said they loved Rothko Chapel, so he played that.  It was a love song to art, nature and everything that’s not organized religion.

He played This Guitar which was about how his guitar had taken him around the world and ruined his life.  Then he ended with an old song that he had written about a high school friend who was arrested for selling cocaine.  He was pretty happy that the guy’s last name Ranes, rhymed with cocaine.

He payed for a LOT longer than I thought he would.  I assumed it would be about 30 minutes but he played for an hour (and started at 8 instead of 7:30).  I was a little tired of him by the end.  But when Chris came back on and talked about David–it’s like seeing Woody Guthrie writing folk songs for the people, I felt a little badly for not enjoying him that much.

Chris also said he liked David do much he felt that David should have headlined.  I’m glad he didn’t because Chris left us so happy.