Yeah, dances can get boring, I suppose. I haven't played guitar at a dance in years and years. I've played banjo some, and fiddle mostly. So for me I guess it isn't as easy to get bored or in a rut.

I could tell you about our guitar player. He's one of the best I've ever heard or played with. He and our bass player seem to have this extra sensory communications thing going on where without visible signal, they start getting creative harmonically, or rhythmically. Sometimes they quit playing altogether for a couple of passes through the entire tune. Then they come back in together softly, hanging on the I chord entirely through maybe a complete pass through the tune, maybe just through the A part, then after they've built up enought tension, never changing chords, they crash right into the next part of the tune. The dancers really like that. Some folks call cheap tricks like that the Squeal Factor. We call it a Euphoriagsm.

Another trick Asa uses when he drops out the guitar is to switch to spoons. He has a pair made of wood. Ruby, our bassist taps out a rhythm pattern on the sides of her bass. Its internal mic picks up the sound pretty well.

A third trick is to play one chord per measure on the down beat, and then rest for the rest of the measure. So you get one strum per chord change. Very effective on tunes such as Elzic's Farewell.
Jim