I think Stewart posing the question to the audience was a bit of a moot point. First of all, I'm sure it was already decided to use samples. Hell, they did the night before (and that day) on "Roxanne." Secondly, it's for the band to decide, not the fans. I say that as a fan. It's their gig, not ours. That being said, I appreciate Stewart asking and connecting with the fans for input, but we're not the ones playing the shows.
I've listened to countless bootlegs in the past and Andy and Stew never really cut it on BGVs (that's Background Vocals in music speak, folks
). True, it was great to always hear Stew belt out "Just take a seat they're always FREE," but still...
Also, I hated the female backgrounds on Synch just as much as I hated the horn section on the Ghost tour. To me, I don't think the sampled backgrounds are intrusive. If they're using Logic to fly in the vocals, you have much more freedom to bring them in and out versus Pro Tools.
Plus, using sequences and loops gave Stewart a chance to do programming, and honestly, "Walking In Your Footsteps" sounded like it had some of the percussion from the original recording and I thought it came off great.
I would have loved to hear "Rehumanize Yourself" and I'm pretty sure they rehearsed it.
"One World" would be cool, and fly in Sting's sax section from the recording. Just on the riffs. They can arrange it anyway they want to.