I've noticed that most (if not all) bands I've seen throughout the last year or two have kept roughly the same set-list throughout an entire tour, changing maybe a song or two (if you're lucky). Do you guys know of any bands that will consistently rotate their set-list on tour? Here's a list of some of the bands I've seen in the past year, all of which seemed to play the same set of songs from tourdate-to-tourdate:

Skeletonwitch
Havok
The Black Dahlia Murder
Revocation
The Faceless
Meshuggah
Machine Head
All that Remains
Decapitated

This is a very common occurrence. Most bands will learn a single set of songs, and perform that set of songs throughout the tour. You'll find that the bands may change a song or two whilst keeping the bulk of the set the same. If anything, the biggest variation is usually found in encores.

I'm guessing it's pretty common because it's so difficult to have more than a given number of songs well-rehearsed at any moment in time. I've played a few one-off shows with some bands that had some larger setlists, and damn did it take a lot of time to get 10 or so songs down pat.

Metallica always swap out songs for different ones on their tour dates.

Doesn't Dream Theater play a fairly different set every show? Maybe it's only during tours when they aren't touring for a new album, though.

Dismember used to change their set-list on every show.

How would you know this unless you see them multiple times in a tour?

High On Fire is like this.

There are websites with the complete setlist history of each and every band. Yeah, it's high-tech stuff.

Maiden keep theirs pretty much the same, part of it being because they theme each set. As others have said, having lots and lots of songs well rehearsed can be tough, even a song you've played a million times you can get rusty with.

Blind Guardian are well-known for this. They keep a few staple songs, but they'll change between some fan favourites or songs they haven't played before/in a long time. They're also one of the rare popular bands to play songs at a whim. The last time I saw them, they didn't have Majesty on the setlist, but the crowd kept chanting for it so they said, "Why not!" It keeps the concert interesting, and I know some die hard fans who have done quite a bit of travelling to see multiple shows in a row.

There used to be a lot more variety and improvisation up to the 80s. Back then, it was commonplace for setlists to change, sometimes on the spot. Encores weren't totally planned out as part of the setlist and if a crowd went nuts, you could get quite a set for the encore!

First of all, I think technology killed a lot of the spontaneity. Stages became more elaborate with gimmicks. There is heavy use of hydraulics, lighting is carefully planned, stage pyros. Most of these require a LOT of planning. Failure to do so can result in injury or even death.

So the bigger bands stabilized their setlists and smaller bands stupidly think that's how it must be done.

Another way technology probably hindered spontaneity is all the tech used in the actual music. Elaborate studio records layered with tons of effects that are hard to reproduce on the spot live, click tracks, samples played live... it's just very different today and the spirit of experimentation of guys like Zappa and Hendrix seems to be gone.

I also think there are fewer "full-time" bands out there. There's a lot of guys stuck in between being pro-musicians and being amateurs. Many of them have side jobs (even 9 to 5 jobs) or own small businesses that they get away from every now and then for a few carefully planned shows. There's also the fact bands nowadays are often a revolving door for musicians. I often talk about chemistry being so important to bands but it seems more and more people don't actually care about such things. But if some goofball doesn't care about the fact Hanneman and Lombardo aren't in Slayer, for instance, I doubt they care about the fact hired guns can't really be expected to come in and be able to juggle extensive song catalogs and communicate with bandmates like a kickass band would in order to spontaneously change things every night.

So yeah, the culture has changed and expectations for live performances have changed as well.

Soilent Green used to. Pulling out old shit at whim. Just a few staples.

I do find it interesting that when a band makes it fairly big, the likelihood of "Right, what does everyone want us to play next?" style scenarios diminishes - There's a real feeling of connection when they do, though.

Iced Earth always seem to splice their set-list with "out of the blue" songs at every show they play, and I'd wager they have most of them rehearsed and ready most of the time.

Not anymore. Portnoy was the one who liked to play different setlists for the fans who went to see them more than once, especially when they played in places relatively near to each other. Now they play the same shit all the time.

Well, the thing is that even if you learn a couple of extra songs to change up the set, they'll probably get rusty after two weeks of not being practiced. Bands with lots of time and space on their hands can do this (think Metallica's jam room), however it's way tougher with smaller names since you have to load your own stuff, drive your own vehicle, sometimes even peddle your own merch etc. A hard working band could do it in the 70s, but the music itself back then was much more "loose" and improv-based. Bands like Skeletonwitch or Havok are pretty technical, yet they practically live in vans, which doesn't allow for enough time and comfort to (re)learn their material on the road.

So you see a band and look up their setlist to see if it changed nightly? I never even thought about looking into it.