There's a vast difference between playing with a scratch band who collectively bluff their way through a basic tune because not everyone's familiar with it, and with your own established band whose members all know the material you want to cover.
Playing with the Shadowers is an absolute pleasure, and I'm extremely lucky to be part of such a talented and enthusiastic group. We love playing less-well-known or more challenging pieces; pieces which you don't often hear groups performing. The hits are still fun to play, and it's important to include them in our show, but our favourite moments are when we can get our teeth into something a bit different, likely something we've chosen so as to provide more variety and/or atmosphere and/or power in the set.
That said, I could just play the 1960-63 Shadows standards with the Shadowers and still be grinning from ear-to-ear, enjoying every minute of the experience. Those same tunes would have less impact when played to backing tracks. Let's say I'm playing to a crowd who only want to hear instrumentals. I could play my way through the entire UBHank1 CD and the quality of the show would be good enough, but the lack of a band would make my music selection seem less dynamic to the crowd. Larger production numbers with more varied instrumentation are needed more frequently in my solo sets than when playing with my band. For example, playing the 1961 arrangement of Sleepwalk to the UBHank track is pleasant but holds little value as a stand-out "feature" of the set. Include it in a Shadowers show, though, and it immediately becomes more delicate and emotive.
Last but not least: as a musician, keeping your own interest at a maximum is vital, too.
J