FIRST Real GIG !!!!!! YIKES, HELP

I am thrilled to say our band has been booked for our first official GIG !

It's even paid . Now the pay is not cash but it's food and booze for all of us. To me that's paid. I am so excited I'm about to burst!!!

There are 6 of us in the band. We've got a fiddle, 2 banjos, 2 guitars, mando, and an upright bass. One guy alternates out playing guitar and mando based on our song choice.

There will be in excess of 50 people, so I'm thinking hmmmmmm - if I'm gonna get onstage i might as well do it up right! An audience is an audience, so my thoughts of a small cafe with 8 people sitting there are dashed, but this will be better. Maybe the booze will cloud the ears of everyone, so they don't hear any of our mistakes!

So we have 2 practice sessions before the party we'll be performing at on Sept. 30th. We are working out our set list and are fine tuning each song. Ensuring each has an intro, breaks, and ending that we are on the same page with.

So now that I've said all that I have some questions for people who have experience with performing before crowds. 50+ people is HUGE to me, but I know it's really not.

1. I'm not sure how mic'd we'll be but one of our members has 2 mic's and an amp. Do you think 3 instruments and voices around each mic is adequate? I can't get anymore technical about what our equipment is yet unfortunately because I just don't know. I do know that this guy has custom built a stage on his property at a large lake house, and we are the first act going on. There will be somebody who is an accomplished guitarist and band going on after us. So I'm betting he's got some mic's already.

2. What do you suggest we do to warm up? Do we all take 3 shots of tequila or what. HAHAHA Do we just stand behind the stage and go through a song or two or what do you guys do?

3. We have our most experienced guy (who has been onstage with a band before) leading the first 2 songs, so at least we can sort of get our nervousness out hiding behind him singing lead. HAHAHA But we plan to have our set be a mixture of faster and slower songs alternating. How do you like to plan your sets?

4. Who or how do we or do we even need a mic person who sort of introduces everything? I'm fine with it, but I'm not sure how I would go about it really. Just a hey we are (insert our name here) and we are going to play a few songs for you. I can get a bit rowdy, so I'm not worried about it too much but I want to do it right. Does each song need an introduction? Will anyone care? Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but this guy has an entire website devoted to his parties, he makes up t-shirts for people, and sometimes has hundreds come. I want us to be our best, so I'd like to not look like a bunch of stumbling idiots up there without a clue. LOL

5. Lastly, and this one bugs me but there's nothing I can do about it yet, is it OK to have a music stand or two up there on stage with us???? I hate having to say that but we are not all 100% with all of our changes, lyrics, breaks, etc without still have a little bit of a cheat sheet. Heck we've only been doing this together a couple months, so I understand completely why we need it, but I know it looks bad to do. At least I think it does. Anyone have suggestions for this? I can play about 80% of our stuff W/O ever looking, but that darn 20% I need the sheets on still. Some are more dependent and some are less dependent on them than me.

I would love to be invited back to future parties, so just not sucking would be the main goal. Any tips would be appreciated. That is unless you say we can't go up there with music stands, then I don't want to hear that. Hahahahahah, just kidding. Not really though. Haha.