I had no problem with their sound live before Bandiera started playing with them on tour. Sure certain songs can use an extra guitar sometimes live but I never thought this was such an issue. I figured that if Bandiera was going to play live they could use him to take over some parts that Jon plays live but obviously as you stated this is not the case at all. At least they don't have fiddlers, the extra keyboardist and the pedal steel live anymore. I think pedal steel was dropped after the Canadian leg of Los Highway, thank god. In regards to Los Highway as an opener I actually like it but I think they should drop it since they did that almost every night on the LH tour especially if that forces Jon to play guitar on the first three songs.