We've gone both ways. The band (that is, John) owns a very nice PA system -- horns, bottoms, board, wireless in-ear monitors, the works. Places that have a decent PA, we'll go ahead and use theirs. Usually they're pretty accommodating and let us hook up the IEMs without a fuss. Sound techs that we hire always have their own board that they prefer, and in most cases they're allowed to hook it up, but we've had some places insist that we just use their equipment. We tend not to take any more gigs at those places. But if the venue doesn't provide PA, or theirs kinda sucks, we'll use John's.
It's just that one of the owners of this venue thinks he's a sound tech by virtue of owning all the equipment, so not only does he provide the PA and run sound himself, we don't have any other options. He tries to promote it as a positive thing; we don't have to haul PA or pay a sound man. Both plusses, if not for the fact that he sucks as a sound man. Even though it's the closest we ever play, I've stopped trying to get my friends to come out, because it's always the same. "I can see you back there, but I can't hear you at all; not your keys, or your vocals either."
If you can't hear the singers, that's pretty obvious. Same with guitars, bass, or drums. Pretty obvious if they're not in the mix. But most of the time, keyboards just fill things out, and if they're not there it's not the end of the world. And if people are coming up and raving about how good we are and they're not even hearing one of us, then I really should just shut up and take my money for the night.
Except for the keyboard solos in "Smokin'", "Never Been Any Reason", "Call Me", "Shut Up and Dance", "Separate Ways", "Turn Me Loose", "Come Sail Away", etc., etc., etc. I mean, what do they think is going on there? There's no one singing, and the guitars are just playing chords.
But most people don't care. They're there to get drunk, try to get laid, and maybe dance to some not-horrible cover tunes. They don't even notice if there's a keyboard player up there that they can't hear, so they sure as hell don't care. The sound man doesn't care, most of the band doesn't even care. Basically there's only one person in the whole place who cares whether I'm even there or not, and that's me.