The full music schedule can be found HERE
Featured Music Guest
Bonnie Gordon is a voiceover actress, singer, songwriter, professional tabletop RPG player, and entertainer (not to mention a huge nerd!) based in Los Angeles, California. Although she’s voiced any number of roles on TV and in videogames and has appeared in numerous Twitch streams, building a career expressing herself through music has been a lifelong dream for Bonnie. As one half of the nerd-parodic Library Bards duo, she’s been able to mix her love of all things nerdy with a deep passion for music.
However, while most people know Bonnie’s voice within the comedy-music scene—where she’s mimicked pop, rock, and alternative styles—, Louisiana-born Bonnie grew up with a huge respect for jazz and blues, which she incorporates heavily into her sound as a solo artist. She has performed in venues of all kinds, from comic conventions to cruise ships and from large concert halls to jazzy nightclubs; now she brings her inimitable vocal presentation to Confluence.
With additional performances by:
The Washington Metropolitan Gamer Symphony Orchestra (WMGSO) is a nonprofit community orchestra whose mission is to share videogame music by putting on affordable, accessible concerts in the Washington, D.C., area and elsewhere. Founded in 2012, the ensemble has grown to more than 100 members between the orchestra and choir. (Note that only a small group of the orchestra’s members will be performing at Confluence.) WMGSO stages concerts three times a year: full ensemble concerts in the fall and spring and chamber concerts in the summer. Additional chamber performances occur at fundraisers, conventions, and community outreach events throughout the year. Both albums that WMGSO has recorded so far are available for purchase online.
Schaffer the Darklord (or STD) is a New York City-based rapper, drummer, and comedian with material best suited for nerdy and/or hedonistic audiences. With manic energy fueling a cartoonishly commanding stage presence, STD skewers such topics as substance abuse, sexual compulsion, urban anxiety, and obsessive enthusiasm for cats. Imagine a Frankenstein-esque monster assembled from equal parts Bill Hicks, Adam Yauch, Joey Ramone, and Prince, stitched together inside the shell of a maniacal heavy-metal ex-patriot. STD has released nine albums and is a founding member of the touring nerdcore hip-hop collective known as the Four-Eyed Horsemen along with MC Lars, Mega Ran, and MC Frontalot. When he’s not on the road, he produces the NYC burlesque/wrestling hybrid event called “TasselMania.” STD continues to write, record, and perform with great frequency and has no intention of stopping until his rock-and-roll lifestyle destroys him.
Since 2013, Steel Samurai has been melting faces with its mashup-driven powerhouse synth-metal, best described as an atomic collision between iconic film and TV soundtracks, classic rock riffage, and the deepest-cut video game music
Damon Buxton is an American fingerstyle acoustic guitarist and composer. His primary instrument is the six-string classical guitar. Damon’s compositions draw on the classical, New Age, and jazz music traditions and his arrangements of existing pieces are infused with an inspiring dynamic and beauty. With a catalog of 12 albums, he delivers an uplifting and powerful instrumental guitar performance with positive humor and grace. Damon has played at performing-arts centers and other venues throughout the United States.
“Nice, haunting guitar melodies, as if from the soundtrack of a foreign movie about death and first love.” – Neil Gaiman, Author
For over two decades, rob Hinkal and Heather Aubrey Lloyd have crisscrossed the nation as ilyAIMY (“i love you And I Miss You”) to play their brand of acoustic grunge at everything from bait shops to biker weeks to clothing-optional resorts, folk festivals, heavy-metal festivals, and jams of def comedy. Award-winning narrative songs with soulful, powerful male / female harmonies and a percussive, clawhammer-like acoustic guitar provide the heart of the band, while their infectious energy and rapid-fire lyricism is softened with cello, driven by Irish bones and bodhran, beatboxing, djembe, and thickened by didgeridoo, synths, and keys creating “an acoustically roiling, combustible attack on the usual singer/songwriter fare”.
The Super Guitar Bros aren’t actually brothers—they’re bros! Sam and Steve combine their love of videogame music with their passion for acoustic/classical guitar to bring you a one-of-a-kind musical experience. Sometimes chill… Sometimes intense… Always super!
Jeff Whitmire is a late bloomer in the comedy-music world. Despite writing lyrics for almost 40 years, he has waited until now to release his edgy, nerdy parodies upon unsuspecting audiences. Jeff’s parodies cover a wide range of topics including celebrities, Star Wars, horror movies, growing old, and the most horrifying topic of all…home ownership! Jeff hails from deep within Amish Country, PA. He is both a devoted Star Wars fanboy and an avid Broadway fan. When he is not writing parodies, Jeff is working on a musical with aspirations of seeing his work on the Big White Way. He remembers vividly not being able to sleep one Christmas Eve and being soothed by the great tunes on the Dr. Demento Show—specifically, songs by one guy named “Weird Al” Yankovic.
Technical Difficulties 2.0 The filk trio Technical Difficulties was formed in the mid-1980s, when TJ Burnside and Sheila Willis encountered fellow Star Trek and music fan Linda Melnick at a convention and immediately bonded over a shared love of three-part harmony. The trio eventually released two album-length recordings, Please Stand By (1986) and Station Break (1988), which contained songs by all three band members and several of their friends, including composer and arranger Jean Stevenson. Since Sheila’s untimely death in 2013, Jean has rejoined TJ and Linda to form Technical Difficulties 2.0. The three briefly added TJ’s daughter Jessie to appear at Confluence 2009 as the Featured Musical Guest More Difficulties. Technical Difficulties 2.0 is delighted to appear at Confluence 2024!
Geoff “Dream Quaffle” Hutton (they/them) is a non-binary, pansexual, vegetarian, podcasting, wizard rocker from Louisville, KY. When they aren’t casting pods (on Alohomora or Into the Fold: a Grishaverse Podcast) or wrocking out, Geoff enjoys being at home with their wife Ashely, four cats (Kaname, Yuki, Marley, and Molly), and their son Avery. Geoff is a frequent guest, volunteer, and attendee at conventions all over the place for everything from anime to Harry Potter to fandoms in general. Their musical adventures have taken them to Colorado, Texas, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Illinois, and Oregon, and they are proud to add Pennsylvania to the list for the very first time!
Steamcordia (“STEAM as in water, CORD as in rope, IA as in I, A”) is a one-man steampunk musical act. Stephen Cornelius, the man behind the music, uses the instruments he has lying around his apartment to regale listeners with melodic steampunk stories featuring both mirth and mayhem.
Gwendolyn Grace (she/her or he/him) died at the age of thirteen months. Since her mysterious return to life, she has busied herself at divers arts, most of which don’t pay as well as a day job in project management. Gwen is an actor, singer, songwriter, student of comparative media, and member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, where she is known as a “bard”. In addition, Gwen is a past producer of fandom conventions, presenter at SF/F cons such as Arisia and MiniCon, and an author of fanfiction in a variety of fandoms. Under the name “Lee C. Hillman,” Gwen was also an editor and contributing author for the “Bad-Ass Faeries” (Mundania Press) series; “TV Gods” and “TV Gods: Summer Programming” (Fortress Publishing); and a contributing author to the “Defending the Future” anthology (“No Man’s Land”, Dark Quest publishing). Gwen lives in Pittsburgh, PA.
With performance ASL for select concerts by Judi Miller
Judi Miller has been active in the filk community since the 1980s. She won the Pegasus Award for Best Performer in 2006 and 2017 and was admitted to the Filk Hall of Fame in 2017. Judi is best known for her sign-language musical interpretation, which she has done for concerts at our conference and elsewhere for many years. She was our 30th Anniversary Honors Guest in 2019 and we are very glad that she can be with us again.
Staff:
Music-Programming Coordinator
W. Randy Hoffman is a filker and an aficionado of many types of fannish music who originally hails from Pittsburgh but currently resides in Maryland. He has written an enormous number of songs, has won numerous songwriting contests, has been nominated for seven Pegasus Awards, has been a member of the Filk Hall of Fame since 2019, and has been running the music program at Confluence—which he considers his home convention—since 1995.
Randy brings his own brand of wacky fun to every Confluence. We are always grateful for his willingness to put in the enormous volunteer hours it takes every year to put on the successful Confluence music track. Email Randy at: music@confluence-sff.org
Sound Technicians:
Mark Peters has been a member of the filk community since at least 1999. In addition to running sound here at Confluence and at Ohio Valley Filk Fest (OVFF) and Marcon in Columbus, OH, he is a member of the OVFF convention committee, often providing a calm voice in a sea of chaos. Mark has a passion for filk, advocating for filkers and other performers who might be overlooked or not as well-known as they should be. He was inducted to the Filk Hall of Fame in 2022.
Roberta Slocumb has been a member of the filk community for many years and has run the music programming at Marcon in Columbus for the past decade or so.
In case you glossed over this detail, W. Randy Hoffman, Mark Peters and Judi Miller are all Filk Hall of Famers! Our lucky attendees get to experience their Confluence music with Hall-of-Fame-level organization and presentation. Just thought you might want to know. 😊
Need to contact the music program staff?
Use the below form or send an email to: music@confluence-sff.org