I've long been tempted to take along a laptop to a gig just to have Kontakt available, but my experiences with programmed sequences has not been nearly as enjoyable as yours.
 
I play in a two-man band as well - me on keys, my buddy on 12-string, he doing 90% of the lead vox and me doing BGVs with the same TC Helicon box. But the greatest thing about our setup is that nothing is rehearsed or planned. There's lots of jamming and impromptu medleys. Between us we've got nearly a hundred years of experience and thousands of songs in our heads, so taking requests is no problem as long as one of us knows at least one verse of the song. It's all loose and spontaneous and low-pressure. And fun.
 
To me, a sequenced show is like working on an assembly line in a factory, where you have to push a button to go to the bathroom.
 

kennywtelejazz

rscain

Cool Bob!
I have to admit that halfway through the night I started thinking "Well, I have SONAR, I have a laptop, I have a sound system, I have Kontakt......."
 
Hmmmmmmm.
 
The drummer never gets drunk, the keyboard player always shows up, the bass player doesn't have a crazy girlfriend......
 
Hmmmmmmm.

 
Don't forget the most important thing you have going for you aside from the equipment 
You have a great voice , I've heard it in your song postings 
 
nice story btw...
 
Kenny

Wow, thanks Kenny, I really appreciate that.

bitflipper
I've long been tempted to take along a laptop to a gig just to have Kontakt available, but my experiences with programmed sequences has not been nearly as enjoyable as yours.
 
I play in a two-man band as well - me on keys, my buddy on 12-string, he doing 90% of the lead vox and me doing BGVs with the same TC Helicon box. But the greatest thing about our setup is that nothing is rehearsed or planned. There's lots of jamming and impromptu medleys. Between us we've got nearly a hundred years of experience and thousands of songs in our heads, so taking requests is no problem as long as one of us knows at least one verse of the song. It's all loose and spontaneous and low-pressure. And fun.
 
To me, a sequenced show is like working on an assembly line in a factory, where you have to push a button to go to the bathroom.
 

It's funny Bit, most of my gigging is done with an old bud of mine and we work the same way, if one of us knows a song, or sometimes even part of it, we let 'er rip. Only we haven't tried the sequencing thing yet, we usually use a drummer, if one is available. If not we just do a two piece thing. I usually play bass and he plays guitar, sometimes we switch.
But around here it's tough to make any decent money, and if we could work it out to use SONAR for our drums and maybe some keyboards, we wouldn't have to pay a drummer (and could avoid the previously mentioned hassles, heh)

I gigged that way for a number of years back in the 90's.  Of course I was using Cakewalk Live for dos.  We used midi to control everything.  Lights, Vox FX, Harmonizer.  I especially enjoyed the power ballads.  I would put down my guitar and walk out into the crowd to sing the song.  I also had a great time doing some of the classic 'Big Band' material, Sinatra etc.  Without the sequences I would never have gotten a chance to sing in front of a band like that.  Good times....
 

30 years of using sequences here. I now mix them down to waves and use Win Amp for play back. Bass in right channel, the rest in the left. 
 
Question-- how much time did he take between songs? 

There's a beach resort in the Philippines that we go to often, and the same band has been playing there for at least 10 years. It's one guy on a synth and three hot chicks singing badly. I talked to the guy because I was impressed that he'd done all that MIDI programming, but he confided that nearly all of the sequences they use were just downloaded off the net. I still had to admire the fact that he'd landed a long-term gig that way. Of course, it was primarily because of the babes in miniskirts, but still, gotta give him credit for resourcefulness.
 
Plus it seems to be the way it's done nowadays. My friend and I have a couple of regular gigs we do where we're the only non-sequenced entertainers that play there. Everybody else is fully programmed, and the regulars have often said they find that to be boring. We let customers come up and sing, sometimes spontaneously. I'd like to see the other acts try fitting that into their scripted MIDI shows.

I agree that a keyboard player in particular can be pretty boring to watch when playing along with sequenced music, but for the gigs I was doing, I was not the focus - I was only background music for things like wedding receptions and such.  I was NOT about to sport a mini skirt, either.
 
I actually got lots of compliments for sounding so full, plus i also mixed it up, by playing acoustic or electric guitar on some tunes, and I also sang, in addition, I was doing a pretty wide range of music, from Beatles and Carpenters through Genesis, Gentle Giant, and Yes.  Any prog fans present at these functions invariably flipped out that someone at a wedding reception might be jamming on Jeff Beck,  Steely Dan, Genesis, or ELP.
 
I usually left myself fun parts to play, and because of the material selected, those parts generally sounded good and were of enough substance to where the whole thing didn't come off as cheesy.
 
Bob Bone
 
 

I also play in a "real" duo where we switch off on Banjo/ Mandolin/Dobro and Guitar. I love how every time we play it's different and we mess up the arrangements. I'll play a song on the guitar one time and next on the mandolin or dobro.  
My other act is for dances only and nobody gives a monkey's arse about how I make the music..This is the place for structure and banging them off.


Different crowd, different approach. A band promo/ booking agent once told us " Those people know Zero about music, do what your told and you'll get paid"  The other side of the coin in the music world. 
SOme places you need to be creative and actually know how to play,,, the others, your just a bunch of actors looking like a band and making music like sounds... 

Absolutely - I LOVE playing guitar and getting paid, because us keyboard players don't get to do that enough.  :)
 
Mixing up who is playing what is a lot of fun, and keeps everyone more interested.
 
Bob Bone
 

rscain
I had never really thought of using SONAR in a live environment.

I use Sonar as a host for my rock gigs where I use the Gibson Digital Guitar. I don't do any sequencing, the guitar has hex outs so I use Sonar for routing and plug-ins for the strings.