Chances are, unless it's a giant, mondo sized train wreck, nobody outside the band will even notice unless you let on.
so true.
i have some priceless video footage of us from a gig, where we were playing this new tune i didn't know well. i really didn't want to play it, coz i was afraid i would miss the change. sure enough, the change came and i totally blew it. completely forgot what to play. did the deer-in-the-headlights thing. the rest of the band was playing wildly, working to keep it together, and i'm sitting there like a putz trying to keep some kind of time on the ride and slapping in bass notes where they don't belong. thankfully, i held back and came back in on the next change, but yeeeesh! you wanna talk train wreck! it was awful.
the audience, however, dug it, thinking it was some kind of new, avant garde musical statement. too funny.
two other times i stopped playing altogether. sooo not cool. whatever happens, just keep playing!
