This is my story

Last time (~3 years ago) I felt cocky about my live setup, I had a gp2x midi-controlling a nord micromodular, a shruthi and an arduinoboy, all of them going thru a bunch or crappy guitar pedals. By the middle of the set, everything started getting out of sync and when the midi-split cable 9v battery died I said OK FOLKS THAT'S IT I'M BRINGING MY LAPTOP NEXT TIME.

during my set at the Hexawe All-Stars Blip '11 afterparty i had the piggy midi freeze on me so i did a quick unplug-repulg mid-song that people for some reason thought was actual showmanship of some sort, not just a random hardware glitch that i was fixing as quickly as possible.. i'm probably crazy, but i sort of liked the possibility that my set could go terribly wrong. kept me on my toes

Similarly, I had a setup of Nord Modular, Octatrack and KMI QuNexus in a big 12U mixer case; again, played one gig with it before realising it was too unwieldy and I should just take my OT out to gigs like that.. nobody really notices the difference anyway, just doesn't look as impressive lol

Having said that though, my recent PO-33 acquisition has made me want to pair it with nanoloop at some point.. even so though, I could probably just sample nl2 and play my full set from the PO lol

for now, i'll just say my current setup is a psp go, a gp2x f200 (both running piggy tracker), a kaoss pad, & a mixer.
before my back went bad, my setups were sometimes pretty sizeable, think a few of my hometown gigs topped 200lbs worth of gear for my audio & visual setups combined

No images of the drum machine setup sadly, but here it is packed into a flight case to show the amount of cables...

* Two DMGs, a mixer, and having them both beat-synched so I could flawlessly transition across.
* Two DMGs... both with separate Arduinoboys, going into a MIDI Merge, which then spat out MIDI information to a Vermona Kick module for bigger drum sounds. All of the above going into a mixer.
* As above, but with an added synth for the bass lines.

I've also used a bunch of different effects pedals like the Montreal Assembly Count to Five, some EQ pedals, and a Kaoss pad.

The more I've played though, the more I've slimmed down my setup. It's a pain in the arse to carry about more gear; it takes a much longer time to set up the mash of cables in between sets, and there's far more that can (and does!) go wrong. i.e. MIDI data not sending properly... effects pedals power dying, etc. Now I just tend to use two DMGs, an iRig mixer, and a Kaoss pad... though even that might get the boot for some gigs.

Edit: Specifically on the drums point. I found it tough to mix the Kick in with my DMGs onstage, as it was harder to monitor just how loud everything was. It also caused some issues with my board recording... It would probably be a lot easier with a bigger mixer than the iRig, but that would mean yet more stuff to carry, so I haven't bothered.

Atm only 2 Gameboys and a mixer for me

Reason has 3 Kong kits loaded that I can selectively mute MIDI routing to. I only use the DAW for drum samples and FX.
The KP3 is an external controller for the FX in Reason. I use the NOI channel to send MIDI, a blend of sampled snare/hats and the original NOI drums
C7= Play, C#7= Tap Tempo, D7= Stop, D#7= Toggle Mute on Kit 1, etc..

I can either use each Arduinoboy as a independent input, or change one to Slave using the DAW clock and use that for 2xLSDJ
I do kinda wish I could go laptop-less, but as is I've lucked into the things I have for very little money

I'm really interested in knowing about your live setups. Do you play only with your Gameboys? Do you pair them with a drum machine? In case you do, which one? Which one would you recommend? (I'm trying to improve my beats -having stronger kicks and clearer and more complex beats in general- and I though about getting a drum machine to sync with my DMGs).

Thank you a lot!