For myself... If I'm playing a gig, then I lay off the stuff... I might take a pint O Guin' up with me for sippin on during the last set... I prefer to play and sing sober, and save my getting good and drunk for afterwards...

If it's a session, or a sit-around-the-kitchen-table party, then the gloves are off... That's when I can play for me, and -I- don't care if -I- play drunk! LOL

Saw a recent interview with Leonard Cohen... said "There's nothing I love more than getting drunk and making music with people" But later in the interview, while talking about life on the road and such, he said the rule with him is, if ya wanna play in his band, no drinking after the first set, or after the gig... So I guess he does all his drinking in the afternoon? LOL

The only hard and fast rule is that there is NO hard and fast rule... everybodys different...