Above & Beyond Announce Venues For 2016 Acoustic Tour
Back in 2013, when Above & Beyond first stripped their sound down and debuted acoustic shows in both London and Los Angeles, fans were quick to snatch up tickets for this monumental event. Now, just two years later, the trance trio — Jono Grant, Tony McGuinness and Paavo Siljamäki — is bringing the acoustic tour concept back to life, and this time in some of “the world’s most iconic venues.”
The trek doubles as the run-up to Acoustic II, the sequel to the group’s original Acoustic album, so expect these shows to lean heavily on reworked versions of Above & Beyond classics stripped back to piano, strings and vocals instead of the usual festival-stage production and pyro.
Above & Beyond will touch down in London on May 5th and then proceed to Chicago, Toronto, Boston, New York City, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Sydney, Australia.
Above & Beyond Acoustic 2016 tour dates:
May 5 – Royal Albert Hall, London
May 11 – Chicago Theatre, Chicago
May 14 – Massey Hall, Toronto
May 17 – The Wang, Boston
May 20 – Beacon Theatre, New York City
May 21 – Beacon Theatre, New York City
May 26 – Greek Theatre, Berkeley
May 28 – Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles
May 31 – Waikiki Shell, Honolulu
June 6 – Sydney Opera House, Sydney
That closing date at the Sydney Opera House is worth calling out on its own — it’s about as prestigious a room as a dance music act can play, and it says a lot about how far this acoustic project has come since two intimate shows back in 2013. The New York stop also got bumped up to two nights at the Beacon Theatre, which suggests tickets for the first show didn’t last very long either.
If you’ve never caught one of these shows, the format is a serious change of pace from a standard Above & Beyond set. No massive walls of sound, no pyro, just a live band digging into the emotional side of tracks that usually get played to twenty thousand people with their hands in the air. For a trio best known for anthemic trance, it’s a rare chance to show off the songwriting underneath the drops.
Check out the video of the announcement below, and grab your tickets early — if 2013 is any indication, these rooms won’t stay available for long.
