Taking pictures in bars?

I just got a Nikon D90 with the stock Nikkor lens, and have a few questions about taking pictures of bands in bars. There will be a little normal overhead white light, plus a few red or blue spot lights, and maybe a beer sign or two behind the band.

I hate to use the flash because (at least on my old camera) it seems to drown out all the other colors. I'm a novice, but have read the manual and sort of understand it.So, here are my questions:

Should I use one of the preset white balances, or stick with the auto white balance?

Should I bracket the photos? One stop? 1.5?

Should I raise the ISO, and how high can I go without noise?

Should I take my tripod, or will my photos be ok without one? I don't think I will be leaving the shutter open, as it would probably blur the band.

What about aperture? Some of the shots will be "portrait" type shots of the band.

Thanks for the help, and I would appreciate any other insights you can offer.

Shooting bands in local bars:

* set your camera at its highest ISO.
* shoot with your lens aperture wide open
* get an exposure reading on the stage and use that setting throughout the sets.
* talk to the performers and have them try to stay under the lights.
* set your white balance to incandescent. The colour gels will confuse your auto-white balance.
* noise is much more acceptable than blur. Those are your two choices. Lightroom3 has a good noise reduction feature.
* no tripod, but maybe a monopod will held
* shoot at the peak of action to reduce image blur caused by subject movement at relatively slow shutter speeds

With the use of an sb600 or higher and a light spear defusier, lower the power of the strobe, set to rear curtain, shutter speed of 6 seconds or higher, aperture as wide open as possible. I don't use any higher then an iso of 1600. Fog machines are a pain in the as s but can be cleaned up in photoshop.