Thanks for all the good thoughts, yo!
Short answer: the show went shockingly well, and the technical problems I was expecting / dreading didn't happen (or at least, not the way I was expecting). We had a turnout at least three times as big as I was expecting, and all of the bands were totally cool!
Long version: we got to the venue around 6:30 and loaded in with no probs (note: not having either a guitar player or a drummer makes for light work!). There was one other band there, Many Birthdays - the touring band from Texas who put the show together - so we chatted while waiting for the soundperson to get there. The guitar player from MB is something of a pedal-head too, and she had just gotten a Holy Grail, so she was integrating that into her board. When the soundperson got there, things were running a little late, so we opted out of soundcheck to make things easier for the bands with more equipment.
After a while, I realized that there were actually a whole bunch of people at the club - we had been so wrapped up talking to friends, we didn't notice the place filling up. The first band, 3D Mystery went on. Total sensory overload! They played wearing masks, and the lineup included the standard bass, 2 guitars, drums as well as a whole buncha keyboards and a theramin. Stylistically, I'd have to make up a description like punk-prog-synth rock. Wild!
Then, after a kind-of-long between sets equipment change, The Brother Kite went on. Man, what a gear-pr0n-fest. TBK are kind of "jangle-gaze" - walls of guitars with walls of reverb and Beach Boys vocal harmonies on top. They pulled it off perfectly. And they scored points for the singer's guitar of choice: a 6 / 12 doubleneck SG! Oh, and the bass player had a totally sweet Mustang. Lots of tweed-y Fender amps, too.
Third up was Many Birthdays, from Austin, TX. This was the end of their first week on the road, and I thought they were pretty darned tight. Dancy, punky fun party tunes with a synth / guitar / drums / bass & more synths lineup. The drummer was really ON, which always makes me happy.
And then us - our not soundchecking came back to bite us in the ass, as there were all sorts of technical troubles getting the backing tracks through the house speakers. The soundperson was supposed to record the show, but she was having all kinds of problems with her recording computer - finally, the house manager told us that we were going to have to cut our set short and time was ticking, so we just jumped into it. I don't think we've ever played the set with such short pauses between songs before! We couldn't hear any of the backing tracks through our monitors, but the subs under the stage made it more than clear where the beat was. And luckily, I had a separate amp playing my click track for the sections when it was just me, so that was good. All told, we only had two gaffes, and neither of them were trainwrecks, so we considered that a major victory! Not to mention the fact that as many people stuck around as they did... definitely not the full crowd that was there for TBK, but more than enough to make us feel all giddy with joy.
So there it is! No recording this time, but that's all right - the next show will be better. We're going to have more time to prepare now that the backing tracks are basically done, so we're going to be integrating a couple of Kaoss pads and an additional synth-drum setup for extra fun - so THAT'S gonna be the show to record.
Oh, and at the end of the night, a bunch of people came up to look at my board, and I repped Devi HARDCORE. The guitar player from Many Birthdays was talking about how she had just bought her boyfriend his first Zvex - when I told her how much the US and Cherry Pop cost, she was shocked at the affordability!
So there ya have it. Now if I could just figure out a way to get my kid to sleep in later than 6 a.m., I'd be 100% set for the next weeknight show!
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It's just hard to believe they can be so closed minded when most people who mix for my band grew up in the grunge era of "soft and loud" dynamics. 
