Hello Michael, There's alot of valuable input to this post so far and I'd be pleased to offer my perspective as well. Consistency is the key. We all go thru growth periods as performers/songwriters, etc. As you spend more time onstage and applying whatever principals of practice you've learned offstage your fluctuations will even out. Seems you must be doing 'something' right as you've been offered a couple of gigs. Prepare as well as you can without being hyper-critical or obsessive, then relax and 'enjoy' yourself and the audience will, too. Play to 5 like you're playing to 50(or 500) and 50 like you're playing to 5. Once, backstage when I was griping about my own guitar playing(and I was getting session work at the time!)a well known folksinger said, "Get a grip, 98% of people are amazed you can do a clean C chord!" Never forgot that...