So how long does a band need to "stoke the fires" at a show before it can do a song with nuance and subtlety?
Is the current U2 live audience so geriatric that it needs the defibrilator running for 45 minutes, just to make it to the encore without nodding off, or heading to the loo to change Depends?
In 1983, An Cat Dubh/Into the Heart was the third song. I don't recall the War tour being panned because of that "buzzkill."
I really don't think the current situation is as much about song placement as it is about the audience being very different than the ones attending U2 shows 20 years ago.
The transformation is complete, from "cult band & fans" to "classic rock megaband." Several things have led to this, cost of tickets (& inflation in general) and U2's choice to sparingly record and tour chief among them. The audience as a whole now is more passive, less excited, less connected to the band's full catalog. The band themselves have fed this by touring infrequently, and re-playing their "hits" tour after tour. They have slowly undone over the last 18 years what they monumentally achieved in their first five.
And for the record, I'm 37... a codger who "gets" most of HTDAAB because I've got one foot in the grave. But I still have an intense love for this band, and I give my all at shows, and never, ever, go to the can or to buy suds during a show.
It's not Yahweh, people. It's not An Cat Dubh or the Ocean or the fact that Until the End of the World isn't there every night. It's much bigger than that.