I must admit, I'm lost! I've never played a band that had a mixer or monitors, much less a sound man.

We set the amps (big ones) up behind us and make music. Guess I never gave any thought to how it sounded to the audiance as long as those big bass speakers kept shaking my pants legs.

So, educate me. How does a mixer work. Does it control the volume and how? Does it control the cut & EQ. How do the monitors work? looks like they would create feedback???

A mixer takes line inputs from the different instruments (either from direct lines, miked cabs, or both,) sticks 'em into a single "mix" and the blasts it through your PA system. It controls the volume of the individual parts of the mix, or all of the mix, and can do EQ on any part, or all of the mix. "Monitor" is a sort of general term. Mostly, a monitor is anything that you use on-stage to hear what is going through the PA. Monitors can include dedicated amp/speaker systems, or just your regular bass amp. That's about it.