So many great things have been said on this thread. Here's a couple more non-genre specific ideas for you to chew on...

1)If you are going to perform, practice is not enough, you need to play out. You need to do it again and again and again until you have had a ton of experience, made a ton of mistakes, learned to rely on your band or support them, learned to enjoy recovering from the goof as much as pulling off the perfect song.

2) Yes, learn to use your mike, (singing into it, not across it (sorry Bert). Your sound depends on the full use of the microphone. Buy a good one while your at it.

3) Work on the chat: Introducing your song or set of tunes is the thing that brings the audience with you. Set the stage for the song with as few words as possible, but the tone of what you say brings the audience into the material before you even start. A little bit of me falls in love with my audience each time I perform.

4) Performing well means revealing yourself and that makes you vulnerable. Never ask for feedback right after a show. Always, enjoy the moments you reached someone or had a special moment just in your own self.

Of course, there are so many more tiny things, and they change all the time. Isn't that the joy of playing music and performing?

Claire