I ws asked to do the national anthem for our Regional Championship basketball game back when I was a senior... My friends had been trying to get the principal and school board to let me do it for a long time... So they finally let me... with one stipulation... I had to play it as true to its written form as possible with very little distortion. They wanted to hear me play it in a tsudo rehearsal to make sure they really wanted to let me... So I brought in my amp and axe and played it for them as clean as could be with a touch of overdrive and compression for some mean sustain....... They said yes... So there I was... In the middle of the Gym with all the lights off... With a spotlight on me in my basketball warm up uniform and my Strat slung low........ I started off just like they planned... nice and clean... then at the part right before it goes "And the rockets red glare!" I busted out a huge sweep and kicked it into major distortion mode and the ran away with the rest of the song in true Hendrix form... All I could hear as soon as I kicked it in was the student section go nuts... The adrenaline kicked in and I was balls out the rest of the way. When the lights came back on the school board and principal, who always line up along one of the baselines, were all cheering and smiling as much as the rest of the crowd was... so I think they got over it. One thing that I got a lot of compliments on it was the fact that I tried to convey the emotions of the song as much as possible. One of my teachers said she got a tear when I hit a huge pinch harmonic in the end where it goes "and the land... of the freeeeeee" I held that note for as long as I could until it broke up.
That was probably the greatest memory I have from high school... and from playing in front of the crowd. I say go for it man... if you're going to do it... you just gotta make up your mind and go for it.
