I agree with Don - the audience, for the most part, does not care, but if and only if, you have great vocals. The audience came to hear you sing and play, and if you don't play, but instead, use MP3 backing tracks or a midi/karaoke file, and sing, they're usually pretty happy. So, if the keyboard were to crash and burn, you could still finish the night and get away with it.

Now, if you are not a great singer, but a fantastic B3 player in a jazz club, yep, if the B3 crashes and burns the show IS OVER! No doubt about it. When I played the Baltimore Bars and Nite Clubs I relied heavily on my vocal ability. My vocals are what landed me those jobs, not my playing skills. Sure, I can play, but just enough that I have some great accompaniment for my vocals. Most of these jobs, nite clubs, restaurants and bars, were 3 to 4-hour jobs with 10 minute breaks every hour - not 1-hour nursing home performances. Though all eyes were usually on me some of the time, in all those years in the nite club circuit, no one ever came up to me and said anything about my playing ability, but I often got wonderful comments about my vocals and song selection. I guess my point is, the audiences really didn't pay much attention to your playing skills, but instead, concentrated on the songs you selected and your ability to sing them.

Good topic, Chas,

Gary