YouTuber and producer Rick Beato has questioned U2’s decision to take on a Las Vegas residency without original drummer Larry Mullen Jr.

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U2’s upcoming residency – at the MSG Sphere of the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas – is centred around their 1991 album Achtung Baby, but will not feature original drummer Larry Mullen Jr. who is taking “time out to undergo and recuperate from surgery in 2023,” according to a statement shared to AOL.

Drummer Bram van den Berg will be filling in the throne.

Beato wasn’t a fan of the idea, and spoke his mind in a video posted yesterday (14 February). “They’re going to do a residency playing a record that came out in 1991 that really had so many original drum grooves… This is really a drum record centering around Larry Mullen Jr”.

Beato further comparing the U2’s residency decision to their much-maligned 2014 collaboration with Apple that saw the album Songs Of Innocence added to the iTunes library of users worldwide.

“At what point is enough enough? Yeah, The Police, 1978 to 1984, that was it! Yeah, they came back and did a few shows, but that was it. They called it quits,” he continued. “And now they’re replacing Larry Mullen Jr. because they have to go out and see people? Come on guys, really?”

Watch Rick Beato’s video below.

U2’s residency at The Sphere will be the first live shows the band has played since 2019. The arena boasts 17,500 seats and the first 16K screen “that wraps up, around, and behind the audience.”

The band recently announced the album Songs of Surrender, which will feature 40 songs from throughout U2’s catalog that have been reimagined for 2023. The album, which was recorded over the last two years, is set to be released this 17 March.