The John Tree
War Child
popshopper is absolutely right - if they were indeed tired of it, they wouldn't play it any longer, period.
Radiohead did it with "Creep".
They Might Be Giants have made "Particle Man" a semi-rarity now simply to piss off the casual "fans" that only listen to Flood. Likewise for "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" and "Birdhouse In Your Soul", though the latter 2 are performed more often.
I could go on, but I'll stop there.
That's an interesting point, beau99, because I see a lot of fans in other setlist threads making this some point about other bands who don't play their hits on purpose. Maybe it's just me, but I disagree with this whole mentality.
Why would you want to piss off your "casual" fans? Why is there such hatred towards "casual" fans? Sure, I'm as diehard a U2 fan as there is, but I've gone to see bands before where I don't know their entire discography. When I went to go see the Chili Peppers, I didn't hear anyone cursing me for not knowing a few songs off of Freaky Styley. I'm a casual fan, I like the songs post-Californication. Sue me.
Songs like With or Without You and Elevation aren't just played because they were singles or well known, they're played because they fit a purpose within a concert. U2 just doesn't have that many songs in their canon that have the pure energy that Elevation does, especially live. I know we'd all like to think that In God's Country or Fez or something would get a crowd going like Elevation, but it wouldn't. And it doesn't have to do with popularity, it has to do with the fact that Elevation makes you want to jump and feel joy.
And just like Elevation makes you want to jump and feel joy, With or Without You slows things down to an introspective mood.
They're just better songs. Bono sang Your Blue Room fantastically on this tour, but you can't honestly tell me that it did good things for the mood of the show: it brought the tempo way down, way too soon.