This time I'm seeing two in Boston and that's it. It became obvious to me that that's all I need to say I've seen "the tour" and I certainly don't get rewarded by going the extra mile to see more. I still love them, they're still my favorite band, but maybe as middle age sets in I'm taking a stand and saying enough is enough. The leftover ticket money will buy a nice sectional for my living room.
No offense, but why exactly do you think you should be "rewarded" for going to more shows? The fact is very few people go to multiple shows during a leg/tour... I'm pretty diehard, you can see that from my post count
. U2 has been my favourite band for over a decade and i'm only 21. My room is full of U2 posters, magazines, books, etc. I went to one show on Elevation, two on Vertigo (one on each NA leg), and am so far going to one show this tour. You know why? It's not because I don't like the setlists. It's because it's all I can afford/have time for. So, if you figure that maybe 75% of an audience is made up of somewhat casual fans, and the other 25% are true diehards... an even smaller percentage of the diehards are attending multiple shows, since for most people it's just not feasible. U2 aren't playing their shows based on the idea that their fanbase is following them around...they want as many people as possible to get to see U2, and so they want those people who are seeing ONE show (aka MOST people) to have the best possible experience - which means playing the hits.
Now, do I think U2 could mix it up a little more? Yes, there are plenty of songs I wish they were playing, and I think it wouldn't hurt to switch out a
couple of either the more recent songs (like some of the ATYCLB songs) or hits for some 90's (non-AB) or early 80's songs, just because then every U2 era would be fairly represented. However I am suggesting a very minor change, still keeping the majority of the set as is. And I could care less if the set I get is the exact same one they played in Berlin or whatever. No one forced me to look at the setlists beforehand. If I wanted to be surprised I would just stay away from this place. Had I not looked at the setlists beforehand I certainly wouldn't expect UF, UV, or MLK. I wouldn't have expected so many ATYCLB songs (especially IALW), and I wasn't sure they'd keep COBL this tour. And I didn't know for sure which songs from NLOTH they'd play (the stuff played on the promo tour of course, but what about UC and MOS?), and I certainly didn't expect a remix of Crazy. And I wouldn't know for sure every hit they'd play...they just brought back NYD for the first time, and weren't playing UTEOTW at the beginning of the tour. AOH isn't a hit I would have guessed they'd play. The set would have been more than surprising enough for me, though I don't think U2's goal is to "surprise" anyone.
In short: people complaining about U2 playing the same set every night when they're just reading the sets are ridiculous. People complaining about U2 playing the same set every night because they want to see U2 30 times this tour have more reason to complain, but if you are lucky enough to be able to see U2 that many times it seems like kind of a minor complaint to me.