Help, Over My Head !

[smudge]

Hi, I hope no-one will be offended that my first post is a request for help, I promise to stick around and contribute, honest.
Ok, now the grovelling is over.
I've had my 300d for about 2 mths now, and although its my first camera, I'm getting some cool pics. My friend saw them and asked if I'd like to take the photo's for his upcoming gig. I said yes too quickly, before thinking that every good picture he saw had taken 100 shots to achieve. So my challenge is basement gig, low light and lots of movement. To make things worse, I checked the venue this evening and found that behind the stage, which is only 15 feet deep is a very bright pink and blue neon guitar with the word jazz underneath. Now I understand that this is nigh on impossible for someone to advise on the exacts, but could any one give me some parameters to work within, so that I don't spend the first three songs working my way through settings that are not going to work ever.
The shots from behind the band, of the crowd should be fine, its looking into the neon lights, towards the band, thats freaking me out.
Thanks in advance. I have ten days to get it right. AAAAaarrrrggghh!!!!

[theflyingkiwi]

First off I will say that I have never shot under those condtions, but even so still hear me out.

if you haven't got it already. I would recommend getting the 50mm F1.8 lens, as it is cheap and I have seen some others get some great pictures with this lens.

2nd thing, might be, is to shot RAW (I myself am not a great fan of RAW) but that way you can get the right white balance.

Hope this helps.

[smudge]

Thanks Mark, I'm thinking that I might ask a guy who is a friend of a friend( and more importantly knows what he's doing) to come along and take some shots, that way the pressure will be off me and I can mess around with everything.
But I will go out and get that lens, as I was due to spend some wages this weekend any way.
thanks again. :D

[cmM]

Most important advice of all: Shoot RAW ! This will allow you to tweak exposures, and even blend them if you want both the faces and neons properly exposed or close to it. If you have a flash, use it. Go a few minutes before, take test shots and check histograms.

Good luck