Puzzlebox Music

Read the reviews and favorite memories of the various conventions we've been to during 1999

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1999

9^th Concert: Consonance '99

Where:	Biltmore Hotel, San Jose, CA
When:	March 5-7, 1999
Duration:	30 mins
Set List:	Ramblin' Time
	Persian Rose
	Nuts
	Where the Magic is Real
	$1.50 Movies
	My Jalepeno Man
	Fly Freedom
	Stop Singing Ose (Or I'll Kill You)

Wow…this was a weird con. Taunya was deathly ill, Alisa was exhausted, and Paul was in crunch mode on his project at work. We didn't see Taunya at the con until Sunday morning. Alisa did absolutely no open filking the first two nights, and only participated in the Rock Jam for about a half hour on Sunday. Paul open filked both Friday and Saturday night, but was at work all during the day on Saturday. Friday night, Paul and Alisa got there at the same time (7pm), but Paul ran off to practice with Seanan McGuire (was playing guitar for her concert and doing some backup vocals) and so Alisa hung out with Kathleen Sloan and Alan Thiesen for most of the time. Kathy Mar and Alisa went and raided the con-suite for caffeine. All they had with caffeine was hot tea. But Alisa was happy to take it. Didn’t help. Then she bummed $4 off Paul to get a real mocha from the espresso bar at the hotel. That didn’t help either! Seanan’s concert was really good. She’s got a great voice. Also caught Syntax's (Jeff & Maya Bonhoff) concert at 10:15pm. They are the group that we stole the song Persian Rose from. Definitely take a listen any time you get a chance...very worthwhile. Alisa was good for about 20 more minutes after their concert and then headed straight for her car and to bed. (Had been awake since 4am, and playing Temporary Mom to Taunya’s kids for the week because Taunya was so sick.) Paul open filked until around 3am that first night.

On Saturday, Alisa and Beck met up with Paul’s mom and sister in their hotel room at 4pm. They had driven up from Los Angeles the day before. We then grabbed Kathleen Sloan from the hallway and everyone drove over to Taunya’s house, where Paul met us with piles of Chinese food. Taunya was feeling well enough to dedicate an hour to practice on Saturday and a couple hours for the concert on Sunday. Thank goodness! So, we all ate and then ran through our set list for our concert the next day. That was the first time we got to see Ann (Paul’s sister) do her clog-dancing (looks like tap-dancing) to Stop Singing Ose or I’ll Kill You. Was AWESOME!!

Zoomed back to the con at 6:45pm so that Paul and Alisa could do sound check with Gary for his concert. We were the 3rd and 2nd to last songs in his set, so sat through the first part of his concert in the first row. He did great. He got a lot of laughs with his parodies. We got up and helped him with one of his slower songs that he'd written for his friends at FKO one year, Face to Face, and then his Builder's Song. Then the Clams and Cecelia Eng got up to help him do a tribute song to the audience for his last piece.

Clam Chowder was just amazing. If you haven’t heard them before, you really need to. We were doing a conga line with Gary dressed up as a multi-colored clam with purple tights over his underwear. Hysterical!! The Clams were still going at 11:30 Saturday night, and Alisa was nodding off, so headed home for the second night in a row without open filking. Talk about weird! Paul again did open filking until around 2am.

The last day of the con, we all met at 10:30am in Paul’s mom’s room for practice of our set. Ran through it pretty smoothly. Then headed down for soundcheck and setup. Concert started pretty much on time. We made a ton of mistakes. For instance, all three of us blanked on the words to Nuts at the exact same time. The audience cracked up with us. We had to start over. And Paul dropped his pick during Ramblin' Time, so we had to start that one over, too. And because she'd been so sick the past two weeks, Taunya’s voice wasn’t 100% so kinda cracked and warbled on the high notes of Persian Rose. But…we were SO HAPPY TO HAVE HER THERE, that we didn’t care if she wouldn’t have been able to sing a note!! We had the audience with us for most of the time, though. They looked to be having a great time. And they REALLY liked watching Ann clog-dance to Stop Singing Ose. That was a great ending for the concert.

AND THAT WAS CONSONANCE ’99 FOR PUZZLEBOX! Like we said…a weird con because we couldn't attend the whole time. But, one item of note: it was our one-year anniversary of performing as Puzzlebox. One whole year!!

Special Memories:

Paul and Alisa singing Captain Jack and the Mermaid with Seanan McGuire during her concert on Friday night.
Paul and Alisa practicing with Gary Ehrlich up in his hotel room.
Beckett and Alisa attending the "Sacred Heart" choral workshop. Think square, people!
Listening to Kristoph and Margaret during their concert. French lyrics and georgeous harp work...oo la la!
Beckett, Dr. Jane, and Alisa chatting at lunch about being a decade apart in ages from each other. Great conversation!
Alisa's furry sketch from Seanan! It's so adorable!!
Kristoph, Jeff and Alisa hanging out at the hotel coffee bar, waiting an eternity for our mochas, while listening to other people order coffee in Spanish from the coffee attendant.
Alisa squealing when Seanan brought her Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere" video to borrow!
Alisa running into the bass player from her Christian band she was in 12 years ago. He and his wife were at the hotel for a different convention. Talk about a great experience to catch up on 12 years of history!!
Catching Scott Snyder's concert on Sunday afternoon. Even jet lagged from his trip to London, the guy is an amazing performer! We love you, Cosmo!
Watching Kristoph, Scott and Jeff totally rock out during the Rock Jam late on Sunday afternoon.
First ever filk clogging, and the great reaction it got!

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