Arguments for the Set List Remaining the Same:

1. Other bands such as AC/DC have also toured with variants of the same set list for a very long time.

2. Even if new music came out, the band will always be most famous for their classic hits, so whatever happens at a show, most of the people there would leave disappointed if the setlist excluded some of the big commercial hits.

3. In places where you would have had less of a cultural impact it makes a lot of sense to stick to classics. Lets not forget in Russia, when AFD came out the nation was part of the USSR. They probably listened to AFD in secret, or years later, not with GNR posters on their walls with Axl draped in an American flag. Sure it's decades on...but it's still grounds to demo your experimental new weird music somewhere else!

The Argument for the Set List Needing to Change:

1. It's been the same pretty much for a decade.

2. It's mostly classic hits...that the modern guys do well but are just cover artists of - they're not up there playing their own song.

3. The argument for breaking up the old band / no reunion was to establish a new vision for GNR - yet GNR's set is a rehash of the 1991 tour with the occasional nod to a recent (read 2008) song....

The Elephant in the Room:

1. How much of the setlist is dictated by problems with Axl's voice?

2. How much of the setlist is dictated by familiarity being used to reduce stage anxiety? (Sorry Baz..but I don't think Axl hits the stage late because he's in the shower. More likely Axl can't come out till he's in his rockstar mood - and he can't flick a switch and be that guy when he's probably often either insecure, depressed etc...)

3. Further to the above...why exactly does the band never "move on". I believe it's a combination of management complications having caused issues with UMG, and Axl's aforementioned situation - it's just his personality - but add in that he can't forgive the old band, get's hurt easily when people diss him in the media and or online and he's painted himself into a checkmate corner almost. Can't deal with the label, Can't reunite, Can't put out new music, it's all very hard and or scary...so he does what he can still do without overwhelming problems...and that's play this setlist.

To me the set-lists are not the "illness" they are merely the visible symptom of what may be a far deeper problem.