Above & Beyond

Along the way, Above & Beyond will play two nights at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco (with 15,000 tickets sold already) and two nights at Washington, D.C.’s Echostage.

The trio, formed in 2000, has already claimed a massive audience, having unofficially hosted a show in Rio de Janeiro with an estimated 1 million fans, sold out a three-night stand at the Shrine Auditorium and two nights at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, and recently sold out Madison Square Garden for the 100th broadcast of its “Group Therapy” radio show. Along the way, it performed at the official launch of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo.

And yet the act’s agent, Matt Rodriguez of AM Only, understood why some people are just now catching on.

“You have an influx of people who have been turned on to Above & Beyond by friends,” Rodriguez told Pollstar. “I’ve been a part of the movement since ’92; [dance music] has always been here … but [the act] is just now breaking through into the general consciousness.”

According to Rodriguez and the act’s manager, James Grant (brother of Jono), the popularity of Above & Beyond is generated from the act’s authenticity – meaning not only does it write its own songs, it played them acoustically at the Greek. Rodriguez said they have the deepest relationship he has ever seen between an electronic music act and its fans and suggests it is because of Above & Beyond’s communications network, even including through text messages during performances.

Above & Beyond – with two record labels, a publishing company, an artist management company and two music studios to its name – is one of the biggest “underground” music acts out there, which Grant likened to a heavy metal band.

“You may not know them day to day but they can walk up to a venue, do $5-a-head in merch and sell out huge arenas. That’s a bit like Above & Beyond,” he said.