BY Keith Skiba | September 4th, 2025
My first taste of trance came many years ago. Riding around in my friend’s car that always smelled faintly of gasoline, Group Therapy playing through the speakers like a secret language. It was many years before I found myself more immersed in the broader world of electronic music, yet those early memories remain, finely etched into memory. They lead me now to Budweiser Stage for tonight’s show. I arrive as dusk has not quite begun to settle over the lake, the air carries a coolness that brushes against the emerging congregation. There is a beauty in the way these nights depend on the nearness of others. On the small gestures of care we extend and receive without words as we collide into a single space. Music has long been a quiet bridge for me, a reminder that our lives are bound together by threads that are fragile at times, but also enduring.
The story of Above & Beyond is one of steady devotion to craft. Jono Grant, Tony McGuinness, and Paavo Siljamäki first joined forces in London over 25 years ago. Their Group Therapy broadcasts have become a communion of sorts, uniting listeners from across the world into a single, unseen congregation. They have performed upon the world’s grandest stages, accepted honors, and etched their names into the annals of electronic music. And yet, their true distinction may well be the respite they have created for their followers. Places where sorrow and joy may find equal shelter, and where the language of melody sings a chorus of unity and belonging.
The evening blooms slowly. Rezident and Cri summon rising energy that draws in and prepares the crowd as the sun slips beneath the surrounding horizon in a deep orange haze. There’s a short break to prepare the stage, and as Above & Beyond emerge, it glows like a vessel unmoored from the earth. A massive ellipse that encircles the booth, suggestive of some celestial craft, illuminating an ocean of moving bodies before it. Behind them, words appear, written live upon the screen, tender exhortations of gratitude and reminders to care for one another. Around me, I see signs held high, hands clutched closely to chest, and smiles lit with memory, the evidence of years in which this music has steadied and carried so many lives.
When silence returns, I depart as I recall those cool summer nights of freedom and camaraderie. Above & Beyond have built a show that’s a world within a world, built upon care, honesty, and love.
