A "Evening with Joe" through the eyes of a aftershow winner [it is my first Satch show too :]

Well, i dont know how to begin. We travelled 200+ miles in a minivan with our passports and tickets, just to see Joe. When we arrived, everything seemed right, there were loads of people in front of the National Palace of Culture and they were very very excited about the show. Me and my friend tried all the ticket boots to get an information about the aftershow passess, but everywere we got a "We never heard of such a thing". Finally, we were given press backstage tickets (as a missunderstanding :) which were taken away from us by one of Satch's tour managers Peter. We were being given the real aftershow tickets. (Peter was so nice that he let as keep the press tickets with our photos as a souvenir, 10x Peter). Enough about that, its 20:30 PM Bulgarian time and we are in this big hall that looks like amphitheatre. We are sitting about 30 meters from the stage and we can see clearly all. Good for us, aight :) The show beggined in 20:50, lights off, histeria among the people, and Satch appears! Opening song - Flying in a blue dream! I couldn't enjoy more! The first song finished with an eardrum-piercing applause and encouraging whistles! The second song, i could not beleive it - CRUSHING DAY!! The classics followed - The mystical potato head, Extremist, EOC's Devil's Slide... Joe introduced his band and started with the SBM set - Belly Dancer, Mindstorm, then he took the Ibanez 7string guitar and played oriental melody, new last jam, seven string, mountain song...then he finished the first part of the show with A crush of love. 10 minute break, and we are back. Joe was sitting on a chair and used his 2hand tapping skills for horseman's head?? (i really dont know the title) and Midnight(that had a LOT emotions in it) After that, the band came on stage, and the show continued. Summer song got everyone on their feet, Always with me' was the song he dedicated to the audience, all the cigarette lighters in the audience were lighted, the atmosphere was great. Joe spreads the karma around him. I was on my feet the whole time, with my hands towards Joe, but he never "answered" in his own traditional way, you know :) Well, the show was reaching its culmination on Surfing with the alien. Joe and the band leave and there was a 5 minute applause-whistle-blowing atmosphere that was just...TOO NOISY. Ouch my ears still hurt. Inspiring great pleasure in the audience, Joe comes back. He starts of with one of my favorites - Satch boogie, me and the guys are going crazy. He finishes the show with "Friends", saying to the audience "You are now officialy our friends". That was all about it. Joe was amazing onstage, he had a great contact with the audience, you know, "this song is funny, laugh if you will", throwing the picks after each song, waving to fans etc. You just have to love him. Well, the show is over, the lights are on, people are leaving. But not me, Pavle Danilov (pakihaki) and Nikola Nikolovski (Mandragor) and the other macedonian aftershow winner, Zoran. We were taken to the backstage and been told to "sit here and wait" There were this big security guys that would not let us move. Then Gallen Henson appeared from Joe's dressing room. We briefly said Hi and told him our impressions of the show, i must say he was very satisfied himself :) Then, lot of reporters with cameras camed in the room, and we just knew that they would spoil our meeting with Joe. FINALLY!. Joe apears with a BIG SMILE on his face, he "ignores" the reporters and people with cameras, and aproaches to US! He says to a member from his crew "So these are the guys? Hi all" And we were like "OH MY GOD, ITS JOE" Our hands were shaking, we were shuttering, but we shaked hands with god, i mean Joe! :) I dont think i am washing my hand in the next 4-5 days hehe :) Then the reporters came, they all wanted an autograph and a picture with Joe, so it becamed a mess. Everyone was taking pics with Joe, Joe was signing stuff and everyone was satisfied. He signed my guitar strap and my ticket and i photographed 2-3 times with him! I JUST LOVE HIM! HE IS SO GOOD TO HIS FANS! WE LOVE YOU JOEEE!! Mandragor (Nikola) gave joe a present, a picture of joe's face, made in some rare technique that i dont know the name (tint-something:) Joe was very suprised and very pleased,i think he loved it! But the best part - Pavle (pakihaki) was wearing a black tee with the SBM cover on the front, Mandragor made it for him. In front of all those cameras, pakihaki takes his shirt off and gives it to Joe as a present. Joe was not sure what Pavle was doing, but he understood the message and accepted the present! WOW! WHAT A GREAT GUY! And then the man leaves...but we are happy! We saw a great maestro performance and were enough lucky to meet HIM! I wish i could do this again! I sure do! WE LOVE YOU JOE!!! Thank you,

Darko (atomiq)

PS Matt Bissonete was not playing very good. I dont know if that was some mistake in the sound setup, but it just did not sounded good. Jeff was very very precise. If i say Joe was a GOD, i would repeat myself :]

I am not a Satriani fanatic. I don't even play guitar, but I luv good music and I went to see him I am speechless. In those 2 and a half hours that seemed like 15min. i felt so amazed and full like not so many times in my life before that.he started the gig with Flying in a blue dream and after 20 other great songs ended with Satch boogie and Friends. It was amazing and unreal all the way! From the new album he played Mindstorm , Billy Dancer and others It's a must-see!!!!

Filip Skopje, Macedonia

It was great to hear new material live and played for the first time in the front of audience. The main hall of National Palace of Culture was full and everyone could feel that this was small 'balkan community' (people from Bulgaria, Macedonia and Serbia). Satch was very cheerful and in the mood as always. Show started with beautiful “Flying In A Blue Dream“ and after this one Joe and the band performed “Crushing Day “. I never heard before live performance of this song and .... it was very cool !! Then he played “Devil's Slide“, “Cool #9“ (with new improvisations and great intro), “the Crush of Love“, and finally Joe started to play “Belly Dancer“ with great middleeast-ethno refrain which is well-known to all of us from Balkan peninsula. Next was “Ice 9“ and after this one Joe introduced his new 7th string guitar and than he played “Mind storm“. Show continued with “Seven string“, “Oriental melody“, “The Extremist“. “New Last Jam“ was performed with double neck guitar with different tune settings (one exotic for rhythm and standard tune up for the solo). First set was ended with “Summer Song“ and its great song right ?! :) Set two Joe started with some acoustic parts. “The Headless Horseman“ (Joe said “I know that this a very funny song and you can freely laugh” ;)). For all of us, this was one cool song obviously and nobody laughed at all :) Then was “Midnight“, “I Believe“, great “Starry night“, “The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing“, “Always With You, Always With Me“,“Why“,“Mountain song“,“Raspberry jam delta V“,“Surfing With The Alien“,“Satch Boogie“ and “Friends“. Great show and I must say one great THANK YOU JOE !! ;) My great thanks also goes to little group of Satch fans from Macedonia who let me join in their company and thanks to aftershow pass winner who get Satch autograph for me ! :)

Ziveli braco !

p.s: sorry for my bad english but I think that you will understand everything right…

Neboysh@