You can always add other instruments for a fuller band sound and just toss the count in altogether. Just let the band start and since you know what the song is, jump in right there at the start. You might miss the first beat or two but no one will care.
My philosophy on playing live is to keep it as simple as possible. And have a backup source for the music.
That’s a good approach for a variety of tunes. Often in the arrangement I’ll just let the “band” groove for 8-16 bars before the head. I’ll throw in a few licks here and there before taking the head.
Funk tunes work well with this approach
Backup is simple with Anytune. I can easily sync my IOS devices (phone and tablet) with the same setlists and song marks (loops, intros, outtros, etc). I normally play with the iPad (older person like bigger screen) and have the phone as backup. I’ve only had to use the backup once at an outdoor gig where my tablet overheated and shut down. Took about 15 seconds to switch over.
Make sure you switch phone/pad to airplane mode and turn off any notifications. Otherwise you may get a phone call in the middle of Cissy Strut. Been there done that.. Learned the lesson. Managed to turn it into some audience entertainment.