Thanks Caaron!
You really know your stuff! I talked to my sons guitar teacher last week and he told me the same stuff. Although he doesn't necessarily like the clicks, tracks and all the rest, he did admit that back when he toured they used clicks for everything from timing to lights and pyrotechnics. I also found out that RUSH uses click tracks and sequencers for their whole show (always have). I have followed up on the Ipod idea and I believe I can use a small six channel mixer next to the drummer and let him control the click track and the backing tracks with the Ipod. Of course patch that one into the main mixer. I have also e-mailed the people who make the backing tracks and ask them to include a click track with the midi files that I get from them to make it even easier!