My son's band, A Beautiful Noise, recently began to experiment with more acoustic performances of their songs. If audience reaction is any gauge, it seems to be working in their favor, especially in smaller venues. In bigger ones, they have to use mikes to overcome the ambient noise; you know, bottles crashing, bartenders yelling, comely maids protesting and the like. The only downside to date is that I can't get my Taylor back from him.