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Our first Live-Concert

Narrated by Mona.

Lisa on her main instrument, the guitar

That we both sing and make music got around very fast among our relatives and friends. After our grandpa showed round the birthday-CD we produced for him, a demand for a genuine MonaLisa-concert came up. For that reason we founded our family band, learned some new instruments, chose the songs and studied them.
 

Mona's main instrument is the drum set.

End of June 2007 we had distributed all invitations and nearly everyone (about 70 people) confirmed to come. At the beginning we didn't realize that the concert would take place soon. "It's still far away!", we used to say. But some day you take a look at the calendar and notice: "Wow, the concert's in 2 weeks!"

It took place at our home in Franzensdorf. An ample hall is attached to our house. In earlier days it used to be a plant's hall, now we use it as leisure space. On one wall we built up a self-made stage, about 6 meters long and 2 meters deep - with an extra drum platform for me;). Also for optical reasons but mainly for better acoustics our stage got a dark carpet and the walls encircling the stage got draped with dark curtains. For a dignified concert feeling our Dad had installed some floodlights on the ceiling, with red and blue transparencies. In addition there were some extra white spots shining on each one of us, so that each musician was clearly visible.
 

Our self-made stage with black curtains, drum platform and lighting.

The two weeks prior to the concert we "increased speed". Every day we practiced and rehearsed for hours. Our Dad worked out and saved the best tone setups on the mixing console, so that we could hear each other well and that the instruments and voices were optimally attuned. Unfortunately we all got ill the week before the concert. Lisa and I had no voice anymore and we were near to cancel the concert. It turned out to a day that we became fit in time and could sing again.

The day had come: My god, was that exciting!
You get up in the morning and know: Today the concert takes place. And it can't be helped.

In the afternoon our grandparents arrived with home-baked cakes for our buffet, followed by our aunt and uncle bringing some tasty Tiramisu. Everything was ready yet: Buffet, banquettes, refridgerators for the drinks, ... The week before the concert we cleaned and decorated everything nicely. At that time, about three hours prior to our show we were totally nervous and tense. Even at the final rehearsal in the morning we coudn't concentrate anymore, and the whole day we were jittery. We tried to take our minds off that by helping Michaela and Daddy, by chatting with our families and with our styling and outfit.

Walli and Maxi also helped. Walli is a friend of Michaela and Maxi is her son. They live in the furthest north of Germany and extra took the plane to visit us for 3 days and to attend our concert! That was very nice of them and we had lots of fun together.

About one hour before we began to play the first guest arrived. That made us even more nervous. So we secluded ourselves to warm up before singing. More and more people showed up and we got more and more excited.

And then it got silent: People were sitting on their seats .............. they expectantly watched the stage .............. nothing but the stage light was on ........... we stood there fully equipped with our head set microphones behind the curtain ................ and nearly died with excitement!!!

Now there was definitely no way back anymore, so we made an affort and marched on the stage with Michaela and Daddy. Preferably we would have liked to turn round and go back, but we had to go through it. The audience applauded, Lisa swooped for her guitar and I sat down on my drumset platform. Michaela welcomed our guests and said some introductory words about our band. Then our grandpa Franz started with the moderation. By telling short background stories to each song, he led the audience through the program of the night. (By the way, the long version of these stories you can read on the page Songs & Lyrics. Just use the grey "General Information" button of each song.)
 

We opened the concert with Knockin' on heaven's door. Daddy counted in and we started. The first fear was over but we all still were tensed. Lisa played the first chords, I set in on the drums. Our Dad plucked the Bass and Michaela played some cool fills on the saxophone. Lisa sang ... and thus we "grooved" along. We had great fun and it was a unique feeling to be on the stage playing with the band and delighting the audience.

When the song was over we earned loud applause which encouraged us a lot. The edginess slackened a bit and as time went by we became real comfortable. We performed one song after the other, the audience kept up with us and more and more got in high spirits. The final song of the first part was James Blunt's Goodbye my lover, a very beautiful ballad that impressed everyone.

 
During the pause our guests braced themselves at the buffet. We had excellent dinner rolls, home-made cakes, a soup and drinks. At this point we want to say thank you to our own families and to the Jakubiec family. The mum of our friend Julia namely brought a very fine, home-made pineapple cream cake. We had additional brownies (not the cakes) who helped with the buffet and with the video taping. That helped us a lot because thus we could concentrate on our performance. A big Thank you to everyone who supported us!

We ourselves barely had time to eat something as nearly everyone addressed compliments to us. But we anyway were much too excited to get something down. We had only just 10 more minutes to re-tune our guitars and to sing ourselves warm again. Meanwhile our guests wrote their names on our guest poster that we always will keep as a memory of our first concert.

Bandleader Rudi (Daddy) on the Bass

The second half we started with the jiggy song Twist and Shout. In that song we also worked in a little surprise: Franz and Ilse, our grandparents both celebrated their 60th birthday in the year 2007. We took that occasion and the liberty of varying one verse of Twist and Shout which in turn made them dancing a live-boogie to our song. The audience was rapturous and the mood was top again.

Michaela on the saxophone

The second block continued cheerfully. We were relaxed and people had great fun! The last song was Ain't no sunshine of which we made a 9-minutes-MonaLisa-version. In that version we nearly included everything: some tempo changes, great solos of keyboard, saxophone and drums and 4 voice singing. You really should have a look resp. a listen to our audio sample!

Also the second part passed by very fast. The audience clapped enthusiastically, howled and shouted "encore!". We have to admit that it somehow was a strange feeling to stand on the stage realizing that we have thrilled the audience with our music! That was just great! Anyway we played three encores: Smoke on the water, our own composition Alone and Baby Blue.

After three hours we enjoyed the audience's big applause and admiration.

Then the concert definitely was over. After almost three hours we were pretty powered out. And our guests were happy to get up from the hard wooden banquetts too.

Nevertheless nearly everyone personally came to say goodbye, not without telling us how much they had enjoyed it. We received many bounties in our box and some people pre-reserved themselves a copy of our Live-CD that we produced right after the concert.

We really were overwhelmed by the solely positive and warm feedback. We were walking on air - that day was a giant success for us and our band which we will NEVER forget!
 

One week later we played the same concert again. In the first place we planned to just give one concert but then so many people showed their interest that we didn't have enough room for all of them. For the second concert additional 85 persons were confirmed, many of them from our village and neighborhood. Some of them even asked if they were allowed to bring their friends.

The days between the two concerts were a bit more quiet. We refined some songs and tried to eliminate the mistakes we made at the first concert. Since some people found the basses too loud at the first concert our Dad took them back a little bit so that listening to the music became more comfortable for those sitting directly beside the loudspeakers. As for the acoustics it really makes a big difference if you play in an empty or in a "full" hall.

Since our friend Robert kindly video taped our concerts we could watch our performance and do some inquest. By that we could perceive how we acted on stage and how the audience experienced us. We saw and wrote down what we wanted to improve and especially practiced those things extensively.

With that the week passed by fast and once again it was Saturday, 3 pm - four hours prior to our next concert. We were not a bit less nervous than the week before. The concert and everything around was exactly like the first time: the program was the same, the buffet was similar and the stage without change.
 

Our pink guest poster will always remind us of each one joining us at our first Live-Concert!

The one single thing that was even better, was the atmosphere in the audience, thanks to our school friends who combined to our noisy "fanclub"! They really shouted their heads off this evening (Thank you, guys! You were FANTASTIC!)

Our visitor's book, äh poster, became more and more full. On the picture to the left you can have a look if you re-find your name!

We felt very good on stage and we noticed how much people liked it. Again it was a big success and a raving experience. Also for the 2nd concert we got a lot of acknowledgement and "had to" play all our encores (see above)! This eventing we became even more tips in our box and more orders for our Live-CD.

(If you want to know more about the production of our Live-CD, just have a look at 1st CD-production. For more info about our band go to the MonaLisa & Band page.)

Thank your for reading all this and keep having plenty of fun here! (Don't worry, it's way the longest story on this site.)

A gigantic big Thank you to all of you who had joined us! You gave us two of the best days in our lives. We hope that you will participate again next time!

Love, MonaLisa (& Band)
 

Pictures: All pictures of the concert were photographed by our grandpa Franz.

 

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