Technology has reached the point that the bands that have recorded some pretty intricate music with way more parts than people need tracks to sound like the band people are there to hear. It is only common sense to have the tracks there to support the songs. Is it cheating? I guess that is a point of view. Using 40 tracks and overdubs is cheating too then. It is very common in almost every concert involving a 'band' that there are tracks being used. Certainly some genre's do not lend themselves to this. Bluegrass is probably a good example as said before. But that music is much simpler from an instrumentation standpoint (not that it is simple music), it can all be replicated on stage just as it was recorded in the studio. Musicians that play the parts that are being done with tracks are certainly left out in the cold and the unions have done what the could for this. As someone mentioned Broadway. A keyboard guy and tracks could probably do any show, but the union won't let that happen thank goodness for those people whose jobs were saved by that.

My wife asked if I had seen the dog bowl. I told her I didn't even know he could.