im def going to practice before the show
any other thoughts , suggestions - are def welcome
Actually, a couple more thoughts did come to mind.
It's been a good number of years since I stealthed, but I actually practiced setting up my gear by putting all of my gear in my fanny pack at home and then setting up with the lights off. If you can setup by feel, when you get to the club you can just stand in the crowd while you just keep on looking forward and you never have to check your stuff until you're actually rolling. Once I got good at this, the ONLY time I ever needed to look down was only once to check that my levels were center cut. Yeah, I could set levels more ideally for the recording, but since I was stealthing, I was more interested in having my levels center cut so that there was LOTS of headroom at the start of the show. That way I never had to check levels during the show.
Having trust in your own technique will go a long way to getting good recordings because the more you mess around with your gear checking levels during a stealth show, the more apt you are to mess something up. For getting good stealth recordings, you are often your own worst enemy. Common problems are pulling out 1/8 inch mic connectors...causing digi-noise due to rattling the connectors while checking...accidently punching a button messing around pulling the deck out and putting it back in your pocket or fanny pack, etc. So, once you get good, have trust and resist the temptation to check levels every ten minutes during a show. It's REALLY hard to resist that urge, but you must because it will pay off in the long run.
EDIT: In reality, I would often wire myself up before I got to the venue, or maybe in the bathroom before the music started. But knowing how to start your recording and knowing which holes the mics get plugged into by feel are invaluable 'field recording' skills.