Tommo, I can never do a show properly unless I've had a meal beforehand, usually at about six. I hate the times when we do weekend matinees back-to-back so that there's no proper time for food before the second show. As for the booze thing, it's at least half social, but in a lot of cases it's also misreading the body's signs of dehydration; performances are a stressful and sweaty business, and too many people just don't drink anything like enough water...

But all power to you for the amount of music you get to perform, on top of a real job, too.

I have exactly the same situation - never have an appetite just before a concert, and eating just beforehand can also make one sleepy. Important to eat a good lunch on such a day (if a concert's in the evening). Finding late-night eats can be a real pain in many places - even not that easy in some parts of London after a certain time.

Can't possibly perform on either a full or an empty stomach, so what works for me is some yoghurt and a piece of fruit - preferably a banana.
Pace Ron, the post-performance drink is well-nigh irresistable!

Well, I'd pay good money, Ron! 

Eating before is a no no for me, as I find it just makes me sleepy during performance.  I may well try martle's yoghurt idea next gig though!

Tommo

On opening nights I always try to eat a decent breakfast, because there's rarely any time to eat anything until the show goes up anyhow.. it's a race against time to get it all done. 

The very worst thing is a long tour of a show, especially in small towns where there's only one performance.  Invariably this means (i) get up at 6am (ii) drive to the new venue from the old one (iii) get-in the entire show (iv) get everything onto flybars (v) set the lights as best you can (vi) take a technical run at the show (vii) run any dicey or tricky moments, special effects, awkward exits and entrances etc (viii) let the singers get the feel of the acoustic (ix) top-and-tail numbers that depend on scenery-changes etc (x) actually do the performance (xi) get all the scenery down as quickly as possible and get-out (xii) get it all packed into the truck.  Luckily I no longer stage-manage shows :-)  The cast also expect that you will organise supper - cooking it yourself if necessary in some locations!  I entirely second Ian's point about finding places to eat late in the evening - I remember Truro, Tregony and St Austell as being the worst in that respect.

Back in 1972(?), Birgit Burghart and I solved the problem by performing Chris May's "Roman Striking" as a repast, on stage. Others engaged in the same performance chose to use musical instruments.