Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all the help on this forum and especially in this thread. I used to record shows in high school and college on my Aiwa handheld cassette recorder and, after stumbling upon this forum, realized that my life would not be nearly fulfilled until I impulsively, and semi-obsessively blew some cash on something I never knew I needed, but somehow now couldn't live without.
Spent a week reading all I could here, and based on your reviews/recommendations (and the $199 B&H price tag) I picked up an M10 last week. Recorded my first show at a small bar/venue last night using only the on-board mics. Attached a mini tripod and placed the recorder on a ledge about 7 feet up, 15-or-so feet back from the stage. Ran it on low sensitivity, manual at about 1.5 rec level in. I'm really impressed with the quality of the recording... the built-in's are actually quite good. Better than I expected.
Only bad part was Monday night/12:30 AM/"I think only 3 or 4 more songs! I swear!" doesn't quite work for the GF, so I missed the last couple songs. Oh well. It was a good trial run for me.
So again, thanks for the help with an unexpected new obsssion that will cost me time and money. I owe you all one.
I guess next up is finding a set of mics...