I would like to think that a musician would consider themselves "working" and "on the job" when they are performing in front of an audience and respect that audience { and themselves } enough to stay sober and give their best performance. Anyone who says they play better when blasted is fooling themselves. They need to sit down and listen to some tapes of performances both "off" and "on" in order to hear the difference. Booze does work for a while to loosen up a performer and to get them to relax but once the abuse starts it tends to have the exact opposite effect that the performer wanted in the first place. If you want to fit in you will eventually isolate yourself. If you want to be creative you will eventually find yourself in a rut, and so on. All of this is my own opinion but it comes from many years of experiece.

If any of you drink to excess { or think that you do } please feel free to PM me so we can talk about it. Thanks - Wesley S.