No, they were not always doing static setlists. Axver brought up the UF tour- they used many different openers, Gloria, OOC 11OTT, etc. Different war and boysongs were in and out, in different order by night, etc The Joshua Tree tour always saw at least a few spots different by night. The order was always changed a little as well. Electric co and A sort of homecoming make this point for the JT tour, as does playing Mothers of the Disappeared sometimes and not others, Trip through wires sometimes, out of control and electric co sometimes, the inclusion of silver and gold on the 3rd leg, Helter Skelter and other covers rotating. Lovetown, we can all agree had dynamic setlists. A static setlist is one you can look up on wikipedia by leg- that is a good definition of a static setlist.
Look again at what I put in bold and underlined. The staging argument, I never made, in fact I refuted it as a reason why setlists might be static. The big act being a reason for static setlists falls apart when we look closer and see that U2 does not in fact have static setlists. Do they have peers with more variation, absolutely, but are they static, no way.
Axver, whether we all agree with everything he says about 2000's U2, or with his echo/bunnymen quote at the bottom(I dont, sorry, AX), does in fact maintain a very accurate, handy website to corroborate what I am saying. Thanks, AX.
I am not trying to be a jerk here, but please, everyone do the following: Take a deep breath...................repeat after me................. U2 DOES NOT HAVE STATIC SETLISTS!!!!!!!! Thank you!