superfluous musicians

Bon Iver is awesome. I like him a lot. He also happens to be pretty amazing live with nothing more than a resonator guitar, vocal, and bass drum. But then there's these two cats he brings along with him on tour--you know, the guy using a snare drum and the other dude beating on a wooden box?

I'm not saying that sparse percussion is a bad idea--I think it's tremendously effective--but these two (2!) guys are catching the world's biggest free ride off a guy who is doing 100x the emoting...it's like he's the whole racecar and they're the mudflaps. Unless they're spiritual advisors, I can't see how it's worth dragging around the extra weight. I'm pretty sure I'd rather half Rolph from the Muppet Babies, or at least Animal, the drummer from Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.