Just to clarify - I use the metronome for count-ins as a crutch when learning new songs so that I can pinpoint the optimum tempos (as 20 of our songs are originals). Or if its a cover tune that I'm not familiar with.. but after they are burned into memory I try to avoid using the metronome when playing live.. which leads to another question;

Does anyone have any good techniques for quickly calling up meters to count in songs?

- one that I've used is to write down a key phrase from the song on the set list. I read it and quickly recall how the groove sounds..
although if I know the tune inside out I can usually just call the meter out of thin air.

Here's another question:
- Does anyone have any good methods for counting in the band? I'm not happy with my current technique - as my bandmates want me to count in 2 bars for each song - like '1 - 2 - 1-2-3-4' and I find its too long.. especially if you have to say it as I am sure the audience can pick it up over the PA even if I whisper it..

At my church we use click tracks on almost every song. It not only helps me stay in time, it allows us to use cool loops and effects. It helps a lot. I recommend that everyone try to use it. It also helps build an internal clok so you can stay on time while playing.

 3 to 4 stick clicks of 1/4 notes depending on the whether the tune starts on 4 or 5..at any rate....1 bar

EDIT:  The first rehearsal with my current band I counted in with 2 bars because we were all new to each other....about the third song the head honcho turns and says.."you always count in like that?" I replied I thought it might be easier to start with....that was the end of that.

Personally I think live is one place you certainly don't want to be dependant on a metronome. It doesn't matter if things slip around by a few bpm, it can be useful for enhancing the mood and energy of a song. You don't want to be playing like a robot. Although in most recording situations a click is necessary, especially if you're going to multi track parts

 Hey Rimshot,..I'm stittin' here (you see it's late) programming the "trouble" songs in....And I'm thinkin' ...hardly ANY of these cover tunes will stay exactly on meter for more that 8 to 10 bars...WTF? THis will be a good tool...but I'm not so sure all these people are playing with a click..unless, it's just to start. The only things I've found that will stay on meter are of all things, a Billy Idol tune Dancing with Myself, LZ, The Ocean and just a few others..it's almost like some recordings are in increments of 1/2 BPM...This will work for a count in, but, I'm wondering why, if the recordings I'm listening to are done to a click, why they wander after 8 or 10 bars...unless, they're breaking down tempo to say, 117 and a 1/4 BPMS....I think if you can get close and cop the feel of the song on the intro, then that'll work..I'm not using this for every song. I just hate having to make small tempo adjustments 2 bars or so, into the song, sometimes,(not always) to make it groove mostly on stuff we just introduced into the band. I'm just looking for something consistent for intro's. I'll be trying this tomorrow night at rehearsal for the first time...

The older the song the less likely they used a click. It probably also depends on how 'produced' or overproduced the song is. Like I said, I use it to get my headspace in the ballpark of the right tempo for count-ins.. a word of advice; once the band starts playing don't look at it; if the tempo drifts and you try to adjust it to the click you will drive yourself crazy and the time will fluctuate. Sometimes I do a quick check to see if the tempo is holding but don't try to adjust if its off.
.. I also find the more you know the material inside out, the steadier the tempo is (throughout the band) and the less you need to worry about it. I also find sometimes that learning new songs can throw your time off as you may be trying to come up with original parts/fills and not concentrating as much on the meter..

That is cool - and it has a MIDI clock control which is just what I'm looking for. Plus it has an added benefit - it would drive my dog bananas!

I play with a click.  Ironically, I find the more I play with a click, the less I need the click.  After a while, you don't 'hear' it anymore, you just 'feel' it.  I think (hope) that means my internal clock is improving.

A big misconception about playing with a click is that you can't push and/or pull the tempo as needed.  This just isn't so.  Even with a click, you can still play on the front side or the back side of the beat, depending on what the song calls for.    I try to do this to keep things from sounding too robotic.

Use it as a guide.

I never started with a click, and I know that the tempos in songs with my first band fluctuated quite a bit.  Now I play with a metronome as well as without.  I don't want to become dependant on one.  I have always been able to keep the tempo fairly consistant, and changing time sigs isn't all that hard for me to do within a given tempo.  I am playing more and more with a click to help develope my extended solidity (keeping the tempo consistant over longer periods of time).

Stick clicks should do it.  What turns me off about the "1 - 2 - 1-2-3-4" countoff is 1) how long it takes, 2) the fact that once you say "One...", everyone in the building knows that you're going to continue on with "...two...one, two, three, four" - predicatbility to the point of tediousness; and 3) the implication that nobody else in the band is capable of counting to four.

The occasional verbal count-in can work, IMHO.  A lot of it is in the delivery as well.  People don't seem to mind when someone like Sting or Bruce Springsteen (I'm showing my age here) steps up to the mic' and shouts, "ONE!!!  TWO!!!  THREE!!!  FOUR!!!!" to count the band in.  If you blandly count "one....two....one, two, three, four" like, say, Jamey Aebersold (on his myriad jazz improv' playalong albums), then the audience - and more importantly, the band - might fall asleep before the first note is played.

Also, consider working up introductions to some songs, that are played by one member of the band.  It could be a certain drum fill, or a certain drum beat, or something played by the rhythm guitar(-ist), etc.  No count-in involved, but the tempo is still set, and the band knows exactly when to come in.

Personally, I think it's best if things can be varied a bit during the course of a set.  Any count-in method can get tedious, if every song is counted off in the very same manner.  

And FWIW, to me the killer isn't the count-in, it's the bands who spend ten seconds looking at each other, making sure that they're all ready to play, before somebody counts the band in.  Dead air can be deadly to the momentum of a show.

As always, YMMV.