Try the DI tonight! After 30 years of lugging unfeasibly large and heavy rigs about I only very recently became a convert to DI – bought a Retrospec Juice box (all valve) on the forum a few months back. Fantastic clean, articulate sound, with headroom only limited by the PA, plus the PA projects the bass into the audience much better than a backline only can. My band’s PA is OK, but last gig I had the chance to plug into a 5kW / £10K system and it was the first time I really heard the true sound of my bass.
However, soon found that unless your stage monitors are very good (which our solitary one isn’t) you still need some sort of backline to (1) let all the band hear the bass properly and (2) keep that live bass energy driving the music. First time DI-ing I used a totally inadequate combo as a monitor and no-one except the audience could hear a thing, now use a lightweight 4x10 cab and digital head. The only other drawback is that 90% of the time I want that totally clean bass, but for the 10% when a bit of overdrive is needed I guess I’ll have to break the habit of a lifetime and use a pedal.
Re the band, well it depends how well you get on with the other two guys; good band-mates should be treasured. If the drummer’s such a pain replace him with a drum machine if you can’t get another – makes small pub gigs a cinch and gives you the option of getting another guitarist or keyboards in. Relegate your old set to the “subs” bench and write a whole new set list – a new project breathes new life into your bass playing, and after a while you come back to the old songs with fresh ways of approaching them. If you’re a “pub” band then try learning a “club” list, and vice-versa, and try playing different venues to the usual.
Rambled on enough – got a long lunch break to kill!