Yeah, use a studio MD recorder for recording gigs.

Have used MD to record tracks in the past, but the Atrac compression messes with the dynamics of the sound due to data compression techniques. Although it's still a shitload better than MP3.

Cheaper alternative to a laptop for recording gigs is one of the Wondermedia/WinCE 6 based netbooks, you can pick one up for 50 quid and it'll record WAV to SD. They're even in tablet form. I have one of these netbooks and I'm personally switching over to this because swapping MDs is a bit of a pain in a club or outdoor party :)