Last week Above & Beyond offered Stockholm a night of music filled with messages of love and freedom. During their performance at Nobelberget not only did they offer us the progressive trance sounds of their latest hits like: We’re all we need, and classics like Alchemy and World on Fire, but also renewed versions of other hits like Peace of Mind.
Only two of the members, Jono Grant and Paavo Siljamäki could be present at the Stockholm show, as their third member, Tony McGuinness unfortunately had to miss the show due to health issues.
Nobelberget is not a venue to compete with the typical venues the London-based trio are accustomed to play. Having sold out arenas such as New York’s Madison Square Garden and The Forum in Los Angeles and headlined stages at festivals everywhere, from Glastonbury to Creamfields, from Electric Daisy Carnival to Pukkelpop to Lollapalooza, with only 3 studio albums under their belt. They did manage to fit in a high-class performance and the big screens that normally frame their stage for their Stockholm show.
Every song came backed up with its respective screen projections which were not just the usual random graphic or animation, but also emotional videos and inspiring texts that shared a message of hope during the times we’re living, of unconditional love to one and other and of freedom to be and express oneself, with respect for life in all its forms.
One of the moments that took the audience to a whole new level of excitement was when Jono and Paavo took a person from within the public up on stage and into the DJ booth, and they had him pushing the button that released the next song, which was Blue Sky Action. They then let him hang around inside the DJ booth for a bit as the lyrics of the song went: Kind for a day. If you’ve heard their weekly radio show, Group Therapy with Above and Beyond, you’d probably recognise a segment called Push the Button in which they allow a person from the audience to choose the song they want to hear. So it was a great thing to have it happening for real.
We definitely hope they’ll be returning to Stockholm soon, as very few electronic shows manage to bring this amount of happiness and energy to the crowds as Above & Beyond does.
