And they did turn out quite incredibly and surprisingly well. He brought on two young lads and a lumberjack to round out the guitar/drums/bass, and had them learn a small set of songs so the tour could continue. Based on write-ups I've read from the first couple of shows, the performance was pretty spotty but it showed promise. Well by god they shouted out those spots by the time they made it to San Francisco, because they sounded like a well-oiled machine that had been playing together for years. Mark was his usual grumpy-looking self, constantly screwing with the knobs on the amps, the mic cords, the keyboard, whatever?if there was something on that stage that he could fuck around with while singing, he did it. The new band took it all in stride like seasoned professionals, and would just fix whatever he mucked with once he got bored and moved on to the next piece of equipment. All told it was a fantastic set of music, much, much better than I ever would have expected.