Gotta ask you... what does a live gig look like, when you're playing?

Do you take the whole Homer Simpson approach to do it?

Only twice have I performed my music live. I save that fun stuff for other bands that I play with.
The first time I had some friends fill in for me, and the second time I mixed a special CD with certain instruments missing from the mix and then I would play each live while the CD played through the PA.

The first method is hard to organize, and the second one, while fun and interesting for me, wasn't enough to keep a crowd of drunk bar patrons focused enough to ever try it again.
