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The sad fact is these days, most club gigs don't pay the whole band as much
as a "Professional" sound man would charge. One alternative is to make the
soundguy a "member" of your band. You're splitting out one more share, but
at least you're not paying out more than you're making.

Yeah, we're thinking about that.

OK, wait a minute. You seem to like the word "Experience" almost as much
as Merlin likes "Professional". No insult intended (just making sure we're
all on the same page), but just how much experience do you (and the band)
have playing out in clubs?

Not a hell of a lot. I've always had a knack of joining bands that
were on the verge of breaking up. I'd join, learn the tunes, play a
few gigs and then that would be it. I've had a medium sized PA for
about 15 years now and it hasn't seen a lot of work. Somewhere in
that time I got burned out on the personalities involved in being in a
band and took a break for a couple of years. Got back into it hot and
heavy 2 years ago but managed to join a band that played mostly clubs
with a built in pa and sound guy.
So, I have a lot of playing experience, but not a lot of gigging
experience; relatively speaking.

I'm having a hard time understanding how you managed to play in bands for
years without ever having to be responsible for your own sound. Granted,
it's been a long time since I started out, but I can't count the times I've
mixed from stage rather than trust a less than comptent "house engineer",
or because no house engineer was asvailable.

Please read the above explanation.
Thanks for all your thoughs.

Shawn