I've been shooting a lot of bands lately. Here's my advice:
1) Try to check out the bar's stage lighting before the event. In
general, stages tend to be darker than one expects, so use faster
film and shorter, faster lenses. Stage lights tend to create more
contrast than illumination.
2) Spot meter. Read the light of the musicians skin and work from
that. Don't rely too much on an average reading since the scene is
likely to be contrasty, as I said. If you expose for an average
reading, the musicians under the lights will be overexposed.
3) If the lights are fairly static, it works to take a few good
"ambient" readings of the subjects before all the action starts, and
just stick, and concentrate on getting the decisive moment. With
light from the top, the light reflecting from the musician's faces
should be more or less the same from different angles, although the
average reading will vary wildly.
4) Monopod is good. Tripod is likely to be useless.
5) You may need to reconcile yourself too larger apertures than you
are used to.
6) Mike stands are evil. Once you start shooting the band, you'll see
what I mean. Watch the musicians for manerisms which you can learn to
anticipate. Musicians often step back from the mike stand during
specific parts of a song, like musical interludes, giving you a clear
shot. You will see many such photographical opportunities repeat
themselves in coincidence with the song structure.
7) Don't drop the camera from your eyes in between songs. Lots of
photographic opportunities then. Remember, you're photographing their
show, not making an audio recording.
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