Last year, we gave Fox a drumset for his birthday and Eden and guitar for hers. Fox has been taking lessons with a great teacher here, Vlada, and Andrew has been teaching Eden guitar. They had their public debut - there's still some conflict over the name of their band - at the school talent show, playing "Wild Thing," with Eden's friend Natalia singing. The entire crowd was blown away.
Here is a video that Vlada took of the performance. You see Fox get indignant when the announcer starts speaking before he and Eden launch into their grand finale.
For the past few months, Andrew has been rehearsing weekly in the living room with our friends Drew (Cultural Affairs Officer at the Embassy) and Peca (the Embassy carpenter, who also makes guitars). They called themselves "Wheels Up," which is a State Department term for when someone departing a post. Last Friday night we hosted a party so that our friends could hear them. Of course, the kids did such a great job at their talent show that there was no question as to who should be the opening act. Unfortunately, both Andrew and Drew will be wheels up at the end of July, so this may have been the first and last time they get to play in front of people. But they had a blast, and 60 or so people came to hear them. Everyone was really impressed and had a great time. Their original setlist was 21 songs, but they played 31 in the end - including a 9 song medley of unrehearsed numbers. Andrew's fingers were raw the next day.
Of course, Mandy catered the evening (with some help from our friends Ivana and Kristen). The homemade focaccia seemed to be the biggest hit of the evening. Mandy will even be teaching a bread class next week because so many people asked how she made it.
Our friend Ian was cool enough to bring his video camera and record Wheels Up and the kids' entire performance. We've posted it to Youtube (1 video of the kids plus 4 segments of Wheels Up), and even have the times for each song so that you can skip ahead to hear what you like. Or you can just sit through the whole 2+ hours. It's up to you.
Video 1: Eden, Fox, and Natalia
(The Snails or The Trashpacks, depending on whom you ask)
Wheels Up part 1:
0:30 Sympathy for the Devil; 6:00 Cigarettes and Alcohol; 10:18 I Can’t Explain; 12:57 Get Off My Cloud
17:20 Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing; 23:24 Tonight, I'll Be Staying Here With You; 26:55 The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (disclosure: too fast and something didn't gel, which is a shame because it sounded great in rehearsals).
Wheels Up part 2:
0:26 Pinball Wizard-Sweet Jane (change of camera battery half-way through); 7:25 Wicked Game; 14:28 In the Street; 17:48 There is a Light that Never Goes Out; 23:00 My Sweet Annette;
27:43 Should I Stay or Should I Go; 31:00 No Woman, No Cry
Wheels Up part 3:
0:30 The Card Cheat-Lola-Desire-Superman; 14:28 Unrehearsed medley: Proud Mary-And Then I Kissed Her-House of the Rising Sun-Satisfaction-Badlands-Not Fade Away (Oops, bit of train wreck)-Seven Nation Army
Wheels Up part 4:
0:16 Unrehearsed medley continued: Poor Elijah-Hey Joe; 7:27 When the Levee Breaks; 13:08 Brown Sugar;
17:36 You Can't Always Get What You Want
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