Okay, the northeast Ohio perspective.

This may be different for every area of the country, but here the scene, which used to be fertile and prolific, has devolved into a state where there are very few places that REALLY have live music, and by that I mean places that are willing to pay what the band is worth. That has led to smaller and smaller bands, less and less caring about how they sound, and people playing in 4 bands at a time, none of which rehearse because they don't make money rehearsing. They would rather go play for $50 than rehearse. That has also led to the iPod band syndrome. If a club budgets $300 for a Saturday night of music, and you can split if 5 ways, 4 ways, 3 ways or one way, which are you going to choose? Your typical band in northeast Ohio right now is a bass, drums and guitar with a girl singer. And what happens when the guitar solos? The music just drops out because the only rhythm instrument on stage is now playing a solo. Nobody has a keyboard player because:

A) The economy sucks and nobody can afford keyboards
B) The bands see a keyboard player as nothing more than another body to pay
C) Nobody know how to play "keyboards". Adding supporting sounds, etc.
D) The stages are too small for a keyboard player.
E) The clubs see a band as an annoyance they have to tolerate.

Here in Cleveland, it was pretty much over when the drinking age changed from 18 to 21. When that happened, we went from a town with more clubs than bands to more bands than clubs, and the bands started cutting each other's throats just to get gigs. $1000 a night bands were playing for $400 because the clubs knew they could get away with it. And the musicians, sheep that they are, just followed along for that empty praise that comes from their drunken friends.

I really hate what happened to our scene the last 20 years. And it isn't going to get better as long as the musicians stay blind to the truth like they are. Everynight is "jam night" somewhere, and those same sheep go play and give clubs nights of music just to play in front of people so someone, anyone, will say "Hey man you sounded great!"

Add that all up, and I would RATHER play with Real Band.