Can't comment on digital.

WRT film, I took some circus shots once, well, sort of circus, it was
Archaos and there was no flash allowed. I used 400ASA film, told the
camera it was 1600 and carried on as normal... just be sure to tell the
processors it's been pushed to 1600 (or whatever you chose to use) so
they know when they develop it. I was very happy with the shots I got,
they were quite contrasty but it suited the subject matter.

HTH.

    Justin.

It all depends on the lighting of the venue.
Big bands have BIG lighting, which can make the stage,in short bursts,
lighter than sunny daylight.A pub band will be in the murk all night
long.
At a small(ish) venue of maybe 500 people, if you can get to the front,
then the exposure will be around 1/60 at f4/5.6 with 400asa film.
If you at at Wembley in the middle of the crowd, then forget it unless
you have a 300mm f4 lens.
Flash is little use unless you can get within 30 feet of the band, and
can be real good for a little fill-in,but is not really recommended, as
it'll white out the stage lighting if overdone.
I used to do loads of band photography, and almost always set the camera
to auto-exposure, but adjusted the exposure by 1 or 2 stops, as the
light meter will over expose the central lit figure, and make everything
else black.
Its a case of experimenting, and see what works at your chosen venue.
Alan.

Hello Rick

High ISO setting (or high ISO film) and reasonably wide aperture lenses are
the essentials. 800-1600 ISO with f/2.8 tele zooms wide open are typical.
With strongly lit stages this is usually enough. Otherwise fill flash set
manually is often helpful as this way you can keep it 'fill' and not kill
the stage light effects - http://www.pbase.com/stanmore/image/49296274 is an
example of this.
Use angles that give a clean background and if possible change positions and
focal lengths frequently to capture a good variety of images
--
Simon
http://www.pbase.com/stanmore