ConChord
September
22-24, 2000,
Van Nuys, CA
attended by Paul
ConChord this year was a relatively quiet filk con, at least for me. It was fun though, and with more chance to chat with some people than usual. My flight to Burbank airport was cancelled, but I was lucky enough to get on a flight an hour later as a stand-by. So I rolled into the hotel at 10:00, and was down to the open filk by 10:45. ConChair Nick Smith asked me if I'd like to give a miniconcert (15 minutes) on Sunday, and I said sure, as long as I could get out of there in time to make my 4:00 flight. GOHs Jeff & Maya Bohnhoff were there, as well as their friend Tony Fabris. Special guest Echo's Children was also represented by Callie Harris (Cat Faber having gone to bed shortly after I arrived). A noteworthy new face belonged to a guy whom I later found out was named Jordan Mann. Very good singer, and funny material. He sang a song about The Hogwarts' Express (from the Harry Potter books). Later in the evening (morning), the remnants of the Bawdy Circle joined us, as well. The last people (Kathleen Sloan, Kathy Mar, Callie, and myself) left around 3:00.
Saturday morning, I actually got registered with the con, and peeked into the dealers' room before meeting my mother and Kathleen Sloan for lunch. Yep, Mary Ann Kwinn is a SoCal resident (Playa del Rey, actually), so she drove out to have brunch with her eldest son. She gave me a couple of things to pass on to Beckett: a beaded purse and two identical, gender-neutral-yellow baby sleepers. (no legs! we'll have twin baby burritos!) She and Kathleen traded Cincinatti anecdotes, both being natives of that fair city. After I bid Mama goodbye, I went back to the dealers' room, re-supplied a couple of the dealers with Puzzlebox CDs, checked out the Interfilk auction items (I wrote in a bid on a small pewter wombat, brought from Australia by Interfilk guest Dave Luckett), and went around recruiting Dangerettes. Then I went to watch the Totally Tasteless and Tacky Revue. I must confess that the TTTR was somewhat more tame this time around than in years past. Still fun, but lacking the relatively lavish productions that it's been known for. I listened in on Tony and Callie playing Rush songs during the 45-minute or so break between the TTTR and the one-shots.
After the one-shots, I met with the Dangerettes and guitar soloist Jeff Bohnhoff to run through "Danger Man". For those unfamiliar with the song (and its traditional presentation), well, I won't give too much away. I had a real all-star crew of Dangerettes this time, though: Maya Bohnhoff, Cat & Callie, Toastmistress Debbie Baudoin, and Kathleen Sloan. What singers! Sounded like the church choir gone over to the Dark Side, despite the fact that we only ran it twice and Kathleen was the only one who was familiar with the song. After "Danger Man" rehearsal, Kathleen and I went to get dinner at distinguished local eating establishment "Beeps", a rather good burger, etc. joint, just a block from the hotel.
In the evening were the concerts of the various guests. It started off with Toastmistress Debbie Baudoin, formerly of the Duras Sisters. But Debbie decided not to face ConChord's horrendous hordes all by herself: she had put together "Debbie and the Divas of Chaos". The Divas were Nancy Louise Freeman, Maya Bohnhoff, and Dr. Jane. Jeff Bohnhoff also sat in on guitar [fortunately, the guitar survived... nyuk, nyuk]. Quite the harmony fest, starting off with Megon McDonough's "Oh Great Spirit".
Second up was Interfilk guest Dave Luckett. I unfortunately missed most of his concert, as I ran up to my room for a bit about one song in, and came back just before he started his last song. I caught it all on tape though, Dave, so I do plan to listen to it! Dave has a very dry wit to go with his nice tenor voice.
Next was Special Guest "Echo's Children". I've seen Cat and Callie several times, and they never fail to impress. This set was guitar-less, focussing in on their wonderful voices. I particularly liked "Free Will" (which became a phrase quoted by people through the rest of the con), about how the violin was the instrument most blessed/cursed with free will, making it the easiest one to play horribly, yet the most beautiful if you were able to play it well.
The last performers of the evening were GOHs Jeff & Maya Bohnhoff. I just never stop marvelling at their talent. Yow. Original material (and favorites of mine) like "Manhattan Sleeps" and "Persian Rose", as well as their impeccably-performed parodies of rock classics. In spite of how tired they were, they gave in to the crowd's demand for two encores.
As part of the Interfilk auction (which happened between the concerts) Echo's Children had contributed a tape of the current state of their new album: 12(?) songs not available anywhere else yet. I was thinking of bidding, but it very quickly got out of my bidding zone. All the better for Interfilk, though. Similarly, Debbie had brought a live CD of the no-longer-together Duras Sisters, an instant collector's item. Yours truly served as Interfilk cashier during the auction (Kathleen asked me "You can add, right?" before she gave me the job. :{)} Previous bad experiences with delegating that authority, Kathleen?). I bid on some Romulan Ale also, but Kathy Mar walked off with that one. I did end up with the pewter wombat though, and Beck liked that.
After all that, the open filking got started late (around 1:00 AM). I stayed up until about 3:00 trading tunes around.
Sunday, I practiced some songs for my set, then checked out of my room. Larry Niven had been at the con (as he usually is), so I thought I'd put my Ringworld-based "Teela Tango" in my set, since I wasn't sure whether he'd heard it. I asked Kathleen to help me out a bit, speaking Teela's lines during the bridge. We ran through it, but she said that she had heard Larry saying he wouldn't be staying through the mini-concerts. Well, 2 minutes later, Kathleen came back into the room I was practicing in, with Larry in tow. "He says he hasn't heard it," she announces. :{)} Well, OK. So I introduced myself to him and we performed the song. That was fun. He seemed to like it, smiled, and thanked me before leaving.
My miniconcert consisted of "Takin' a Walk" (normally don't get to perform Taunya's song when she's around), "Stop Singing Ose or I'll Kill You" (Tony Fabris had requested that I sing it after any ose song the night before but, oddly, one never came up), "Urban Legends" (Kathleen sang the melody line), and of course "Danger Man" (which was a blast). Before I got started, while I was waiting for the PA folks to get all the mikes in order, I started playing "By My Side", singing it under my breath. Well, Jordan Mann and Maya Bohnhoff started singing along from the front row, so that ended up becoming a sortuva bonus track. My flight was leaving at 3:50, so as soon as my concert was over, I threw everything into my suitcase, said some quick goodbyes, and ran to the front desk to catch my cab to the airport.
I had a good time. Anybody else with some stories to share about this con, or anything else, feel free to post on Puzzlebits.
