Covers are safe. Playing the song you wrote yourself in front of a crowd is where the real nerve lives.

Performing someone else’s work gives you somewhere to hide. If it lands badly the material takes the blame, and if it lands well you still borrowed the credit. Your own work removes that buffer entirely, which is why it costs more and also why it counts for more.

Put one original thing into a room this month, even a small one, even between safer material. Watch what happens to your nerves afterwards rather than before. The exposure you are dreading tends to shrink each time you survive it with people in the room.