It sounds like a break needed to have been taken. Talk to the guys and see when they'd have liked to place that break-- before the breakdown, obviously. We have some specific ways we're willing to structure our playing time that we offer to the person who booked us, and we don't let them take us out of the several comfort zones we know work for us.... if that isn;lt an option, though, you have to make a break out of a song! :~)

One way to handle it therefore would be to change up the set order, perhaps with the person in the best shape doing a piece on his own while the others catch a breath, or perhaps throwing a simple, slower song in that the group normally handles really well, to get back onto the same page before hitting it again.... step down the energy to allow the group to take a second trip toward a peak?

If you discuss that with yor guys I bet there is at least one go-to song you can all agree on that (no matter what conditions you're experiencing) just is goof-proof for your particular band. Save one of those for just such situations?

~Susan