Spot on with regards to structure, everyone needs to put in equal effort or it becomes a real chore.
I think you need to "know" the songs, listen to them until you know them inside out, it makes playing them so much easier.
Oh yeah, apart from the lead guitarist, we all learn from the CD, he watches youtube videos to see how they play it live, then combines the live with the CD, it works well, he's very diligent though!