man I used to hate mixing for shows where the venue was so small I wouldn't mic the guitarist's amp...
NEVER give musicians control over their own volume <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />
As far as recording, back in the day we usually used a simple high-end Denon cassette deck hooked up to the mix console. We rarely recorded, though, because to get a decent live recording, you have to mic things very differently than you do for sound reinforcement, and we had neither the manpower nor the extra equipment to mic twice over and do a separate recording mix.
Sometimes we'd use mini disk or a 4-track, but most of the time the Denon did the work.
