I owe so much to TEGAS - fact.
For those of you who don't know...
TEGAS is basically a society run by four guys - John, Trevor, Malcolm and Dave - they take all their equipment (amps, effects, speakers, cables, drumkits, even some guitars) and you can go up and play whatever you want. Theres so much variety at TEGAS, there's everything from Chuck Berry, Hendrix, Shadows, Beatles, Clapton, Guns'N'Roses, Velvet Revolver, U2, Thin Lizzy...everything! It's basically an open invitation to play anything you know in front of a crowd, and everyone always gets such an enormous applause, it's such a boost of confidence to play.
The very first time I went down there, I didn't actually play...I just went down to check it out and see what it was like. Everyone was brilliant, and everyone in the audience was brilliant...everyone got a huge applause whether they'd been playing for 50 years or 1 week. So I decided to have a play the next time I went down there. I just played an unaccompanied piece which consisted mainly of Satriani pieces all put together - Midnight, Day at the Beach, the intro to Turky Man, and also the classical piece called Leyenda. Acoustic stuff on an Ibanez...well I never...
It went down really well and ever since I've played loads of stuff and it's such a confidence booster which helps me as I'm naturally quite a shy person but I've definatley improved since going (though theres still a long way to go ;) )
I'd also like to say a big thanks to Andre, who is just a mean ass bass player...you made all those Satch tracks 10x more enjoyable to play :)
To my recollection, I've played the following:
The forementioned Classical Piece
Satriani's "Surfing with the Alien"
Satriani's "Crushing Day"
Satriani's "The Crush of Love" (With a Bass Solo)
Satriani's "Flying in a Blue Dream"
Satriani's "Always with me, Always with you"
Satriani's "Summer Song"
Satriani's "Cool #9"
Satriani's "Ceremony"
Satriani's "House Full of Bullets"
Satriani's "One Big Rush"
Steve Vai's "Jibboom"
Jimi Hendrix "Little Wing"
Jimi Hendrix "Voodoo Child"
Jimi Hendrix "Hey Joe"
Guns'N'Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine
The Eagles "Hotel California"