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4th July: BBQ, Pool & Blues

Friday, 4 July 2008
 

Hey, folks!

Having arrived in California we enjoy the morning sun on the balcony of our apartment. The hungry birdies are looking out of their nest: What may Mommy and Daddy bring to eat?

Today we already report from sunny California - eventually our vacation has begun! We lived out the long flight and nestled in our new apartment yet.

You might think now that we are here just for relaxing, doing nothing but idling away our time and baking in the sun. For sure we are also here for holidays but we don't only laze about ... Far from it!

For some time past we were practicing for our coming shows in America. One of them we've already absolved successfully of which we will tell you a bit more.

For a better understanding let's start a bit earlier:

After we had decided to spend our holidays in California again Michaela began to search for apartments. There was a wide choice on the internet and so she was busily mailing with some renters.

Among others she was interested in a guesthouse north of Hollywood. Unfortunately it was too small for our purposes and so Michaela and landlord Sunday didn’t enter into business relations but into an active e-mail conversation. When Michaela wrote about us and our music it turned out that Sunday's son Ean (13) is a musician as well who plays keyboard and sometimes the drums in his band. Of course, pics and videos got exchanged and it wasn't far to seek that we wanted to make music together with Ean and his friends as soon as we had arrived there.

Finally Sunday invited us to her "4th July-BBQ" although she hadn't even met us yet. Ean and his band would play some music for the guests and we should play a few songs as well. Playing for 70 American guests - we didn't have to miss such an opportunity - of course we pledged!

Well, on 1st July we arrived at Los Angeles and as soon as we had arranged the flat we drove the 10 minutes to Sunday's house to finally say "Hello" and meet the family. There wasn't much time until 4th July and we wanted to check out if it was possible to play together with Ean's band at all.
 

In Sunday's living room we were practicing together with Ean's band for the 4th July BBQ-party.

Sunday's living room already got converted into a rehearsal room. Everything was repleted with amps, wires, mikes, guitars and other instruments. It didn't take us long to make friends with everybody. While the adults were sitting on the gallery, enjoying the warm Californian evening, we were rehearsing the songs and setting up who could play which parts.

Also the neighbor's daughter Sadie (13) got included. She has got a beautiful voice and quite some choir experience. When we practiced the songs "Travelin' Soldier" and "Teach your Children well" she nearly knew all words by heart. So we invited her to sing these two songs together with us on 4th July, as a trio. Now you could see us sitting in front of the fireplace practicing the voices with Sadie.

We were also to play three songs as a family band. That Sadie's brother Kilian (15, e-guitar) and Ean (on the keys) could play with us we showed them the chords quickly. Both of them got that with lightning speed and could back us without big problems. They even soloed a bit. Kilian took over the "Smoke on the water" bass line from our Dad which he, for lack of more band members, always had to play on the keyboard himself. Finally Daddy also handed over the keyboard-part to Ean. That's how making music is a lot of fun!

Eventually 4th July had come! At 2 pm we arrived at Sunday's house with all our stuff. That included our guitars, extra cables, headset mikes, and so on. The party hadn't started yet but however there was a lot of action going on in the house. Everywhere somebody prepared or built up something and there was a lot of chatting and laughing while the house got decorated. Soon the house and the garden all was in blue-white-red. Ean's band had already set up their instruments and amps on the small basketball court. We added our stuff, layed it on and did a short sound check. There wasn't much time left as the first guests were arriving.

To our surprise many American guests were of German background. The Dads of Ean and Kilian/Sadie both were Germans, we knew that. But that there will be even more we only noticed when we got introduced to them. It easily happened that in some rounds only German was spoken, until Sunday joined and shouted "Translate!". So there's not only Chinatown, little Corea, little Armenia, ... but also "Little Germany".

While the party guests braced themselves with (anti-)alcoholic Margueritas (in all kinds of flavors) and Mexican buffet, the boy-band prepared for their gig. Singer and bassist Jake (12) was the youngest one and he just had joined the band. On the guitars there were Kilian (15) and Alron (15). Most of the time Alron played the solo guitar which was very good. Kilian was playing the guitar for only one year and he was even unbelievable! Ean (13) should have played the keyboard but as the band’s drummer fell out for lack of time he had to act as a stand-in - no problem for him.
 

Ean's band rocks (from left to right): Alron (E-guitar), Jake (vocals, bass), Ean (drums) and Kilian (e-guitar)

It shouldn't be long that songs by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns n' Roses or Bon Jovi echoed through the large garden. They had it down pat and they rocked to a fare-thee-well. After five or six songs they finished their show amid the applause and cheers of the audience. They encored with a song they had only practiced once, and for that it was pretty good. They had lifted the audience in cheerful mood. You've got to hand it to them, *admire*!

Then we as the family band got announced. We started with "Proud Mary". Mona stormed behind the drums, Lisa swooped for the guitar, Michaela prepared herself on the keys and our Dad took the bass. Neighbor's son Kilian played the second guitar and inserted his solo after Lisa's. The song wonderfully rolled along ... "Rolliing - Rolliing". With our taste of music we were totally right for the American guests and the atmosphere stayed terrific. As the second family-song we chose "Twist and Shout". Kilian played with us again, Mona screamed her mind to the heavens and showed her skills on the drums. Some people sang with us and had as much fun as we had playing.
 

Our last song we actually did not perform as a family band anymore. Kilian, as previously mentioned, took over Daddy's bass-part and Ean played the keys. So Michaela and our Dad decided to leave us kids alone on the stage for "Smoke on the water".

Considering that the boys had practiced their parts only the day before, the song went amazingly smooth. Of course there were a few little mistakes, but as long as it properly grooved nobody had any complaints.

As an Austrian-American quartet we rocked into the party guest's hearts. People simply liked it that we teens were playing together so light-heartedly. At least that was what many people told us after the show.

Now it was time for the boys to clear the stage for us girls. We put up three chairs and plugged in our guitars cause now it was time for the songs with Sadie.
 

Trio with Sadie: spontaneity is everything!

We started with a song that we had not recorded in the studio or hardly ever played yet: "Travelin' Soldier" by the Dixie Chicks. As agreed the day before, Sadie sang that song with us. We split it so that everybody of us took one verse. Only the chorus we sang together polyphonically.

The song is awfully sad but wonderful anyhow. People were very surprised by Sadie’s voice as most of her friends never had heard her sing before. Generally the guests liked the concerted vocals like in the second song "Teach your Children well" by Crosby, Stills & Nash. This song we also hadn't got in our repertory for a long time. What we love about it is the wonderful polyphonic singing and together with Sadie it sounded even better. There weren't many bad notes wherefore we were pretty pleased with ourselves.

Actually we wanted to leave it at that but we were asked about playing another song. So we chose our original "Alone", without Sadie this time. Sadly we had a bit of a problem with the volume of our two guitars. We got a handle on that but we weren't very happy with our performance cause we knew we could have done a better job.

Anyhow we won unsuspected high praise from several guests for the composition as well as for the words. A great many of the party guests were musicians who obviously "ignored" our mistakes and discerned our quality. They especially liked the harmony of our voices. A musician/soundman expressed it like poetically: "You feel that they breathe as one." :)

After that compliment we decided to end our self criticism on our performance and better "mentally note" what to change in the future. Playing open-air with new equipment is a horse of another color than playing indoor on the own stage, having enough time to build everything up and to play with the own stuff. Above all we will better do a sound check before instead of correcting the sound while playing. Well, you can see that we are learning something new each  single gig. Blessedly we have our Dad who helps us time and time again.

 

To mark the occasion: "The Independence Day-Blues"

At the end of our show Ean started playing a blues on the keyboard. Kilian swooped for his guitar and Lisa took the bass. Mona zipped to the drums and everybody joined ... We could tell you now that the whole thing was a super cool spontaneous act ... But it wasn't. We already clubbed in Sunday's living room the day before and rehearsed the blues. We just played the usual blues pattern whereby one after the other did solo.

 

Baby-Blues: Amia paints the town red!

So we did at the party. Assisted by the three 3-years old Amia, Ean's cousin from Florida. She put her shoulder to the wheel ;) Funnily enough, she really was in time which made the guests bubble over with laughter.

Short dated (and now it really was a spontaneous act) Alron swooped for his e-guitar and joined, after Kilian quickly had shown him the solo gamut. That was like we played along. Every time any of us came up with a new idea and brought new pep in the song. Every now and then we changed the volume and the rhythm and completed each other while playing.

It was a lot of fun improvising and taking care of the other musicians. The general idea of such a jam-session isn't to play as spectacular and log solos as possible but to get the blues-feeling across, and most of the time less is more.

Isn't that a lovely place to have a party?

The sun went already towards the horizon and spread a comfortable, relaxing evening-atmosphere in Sunday's garden.

We kids were in the pool respectively on the trampoline again when some of the adults hogged the instruments and played their songs. What would a garden party be without music?

The icing on the cake arrived shortly before midnight. Similar to New Year's Eve here in Europe, on Independence Day people get in their cars and drive up the hills to see the fireworks over the town. In our case it was the famous Mulholland Drive that changes into a dirt road at this point. From up there we could overlook the big firework-lighted San Fernando valley which is in the North of Los Angeles.


We can tell you guys, it's just unbelievable here! Not, that we wouldn't miss our home but here it’s simply matchless *rave*. Thanks a lot to Sunday and Lars as well as to the boys and Sadie and all the guests who made this day so unforgettable for us!

Have fun with reading our other stories and God bless you!

See you,

~ MonaLisa

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