Above & Beyond Deliver a Smashing Two Hour Group Therapy 700 Set Live at The Gorge Amphitheatre

Above & Beyond Deliver a Euphoric Two-Hour Group Therapy 700 Set at The Gorge Amphitheatre

Above & Beyond returned to one of the most important venues in the history of Group Therapy for ABGT700, transforming Washington’s Gorge Amphitheatre into a massive open-air celebration of trance, progressive house and the emotional songwriting that has defined the trio for more than two decades.

Above & Beyond brought Group Therapy 700 to The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington in September 2026, returning to a venue with deep ties to the Anjunabeats community for one of the year’s major electronic-music gatherings. The official two-hour performance captures the British trio moving between progressive house, vocal trance and harder main-stage records while repeatedly returning to the themes of love, loss, resilience and human connection that have become inseparable from the Above & Beyond sound.

ABGT700 took place as a multi-day event at The Gorge, with programming spanning September 11 through 13 and incorporating the broader Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep universe. The location carried particular significance: Above & Beyond first brought a milestone Group Therapy celebration to The Gorge for ABGT250 in 2017, and the spectacular Washington venue subsequently became a recurring home for the group’s destination events. For ABGT700, that relationship provided a dramatic natural setting for a performance designed to feel considerably larger than an ordinary festival set.

Group Therapy Returns to The Gorge

The Gorge has long suited Above & Beyond’s approach to electronic music. The venue’s enormous stage, open sky and sweeping landscape provide an environment where the group’s lengthy breakdowns and melodic builds can develop on a scale that is difficult to reproduce inside a conventional club. ABGT700 uses that space throughout the performance, balancing periods of high-energy dance music with extended vocal passages and atmospheric transitions rather than treating every few minutes as another opportunity for a drop.

The set also arrives during an important period in Above & Beyond’s career. The trio of Jono Grant, Tony McGuinness and Paavo Siljamäki released Bigger Than All of Us in 2025, their first full length electronic studio album in seven years. Material associated with that era has expanded the group’s contemporary catalog while retaining the emotional songwriting that connects its newer productions with classics from earlier stages of the Above & Beyond story.

That balance between past and present runs throughout ABGT700. Rather than presenting the performance simply as a retrospective, the trio use the milestone event to show where their sound currently sits: unmistakably rooted in trance but increasingly comfortable moving across progressive house, melodic dance music and more muscular modern club production.

The Set Builds Its Emotional Core Slowly

The opening portion develops patiently before the major vocal moments begin arriving. Around the 20 minute mark, a spoken passage reflects on how something as small as a smile can ripple outward because people are connected to one another. It is a characteristically Above & Beyond idea, turning a dance record into a broader statement about empathy and community without interrupting the musical momentum surrounding it.

By roughly 29 minutes, the set moves into a more overtly emotional sequence, with vocals centered on searching for another person, emerging from darkness and responding to someone’s call. Several minutes later, the mood becomes more introspective as another vocal addresses losing direction and struggling to find a path forward. Rather than isolating these songs as individual pop moments, Above & Beyond use them as chapters inside the larger progression of the mix.

That approach is fundamental to why the Group Therapy format has remained effective. The vocals are not simply placed between instrumental dance records. They create recurring emotional reference points, allowing a two-hour electronic set to develop something resembling a narrative arc.

Romance, Connection and the Above & Beyond Formula

The middle portion leans heavily into romantic songwriting. Near the 52 minute mark, a vocal built around touch, love and the rush of being with another person provides one of the set’s lighter emotional moments. Another vocal follows several minutes later with a sense of searching and uncertainty, maintaining the tension between euphoria and vulnerability that has long characterized Above & Beyond’s music.

That theme becomes particularly pronounced around 1:08 with material centered on the emotional impact of another person’s smile and the idea that the connection between two people can become powerful enough to “start a fire.” The imagery connects directly to “Start a Fire,” Above & Beyond’s collaboration with longtime vocalist Richard Bedford. Tony McGuinness has previously explained that the song grew from older lyrics that eventually found their musical home, with additional writing coming together during a trip to The Gorge itself.

That history gives the material additional resonance at ABGT700. The Gorge is not simply the backdrop where the song is being played; it is part of the creative history surrounding the record. The performance continues through another romantic vocal around 1:12 before turning substantially darker several minutes later. Lyrics about shutting out difficult truths, hard times and the feeling of being pulled underwater shift the emotional temperature of the set, demonstrating how quickly Above & Beyond can move from romantic euphoria into music centered on internal struggle.

ABGT700 Is Built Around More Than Euphoria

One of the defining characteristics of the performance is its willingness to allow sadness and uncertainty into a massive celebratory event. At approximately 1:27, another vocal introduces imagery of sinking into quicksand and finding enough emotional strength to say goodbye. The song works because Above & Beyond do not treat melancholy as something that needs to be separated from dance music; it becomes part of the release.

That philosophy has been present throughout much of the trio’s career. Some of Above & Beyond’s most enduring records are built around heartbreak, separation and vulnerability even when the production surrounding those lyrics is euphoric. The contrast is central to their sound: enormous synthesizers and thousands of people dancing together while the song itself may be describing one of the most painful moments in someone’s life.

By approximately 1:36, the performance begins climbing out of that darker stretch. A vocal about reaching toward another person and seeing light in the distance restores a sense of optimism, allowing the final half-hour to feel like a resolution rather than simply an extension of the preceding records.

The Gorge Becomes Part of the Performance

The visual scale of The Gorge is almost impossible to separate from the music. Carved above the Columbia River in central Washington, the amphitheater has developed a reputation as one of America’s most striking outdoor concert locations. For electronic music, where production frequently depends on enormous LED walls, lasers and artificial environments, The Gorge offers something different: the landscape itself becomes part of the stage design.

Above & Beyond’s history there makes the setting even more significant. Their ABGT250 celebration helped establish the venue as a major destination for the Anjuna community, eventually leading to additional Group Therapy Weekender events. Returning for ABGT700 effectively brings the milestone series back to a location that Above & Beyond and their fans have repeatedly treated as a spiritual home.

The broader ABGT700 weekend reflected that relationship. Above & Beyond also performed a separate deep warm up set at the venue on September 11, opening with material from the group’s ambient and deeper catalogs before moving through selections and remixes involving artists including PROFF, Volen Sentir, Jody Wisternoff, James Grant, ANUQRAM and others. That performance established a considerably more restrained musical environment before the scale and intensity of the main Group Therapy celebration.

The Final Stretch Goes for the Emotional Payoff

With roughly ten minutes remaining in the main set, the tone becomes openly euphoric again. A soaring vocal around 1:52 describes love as something physically surrounding the narrator and lifting them progressively higher, providing the kind of expansive melodic moment that feels purpose built for a venue the size of The Gorge.

Then comes the encore.

At approximately 1:57, Above & Beyond address the ABGT700 crowd and ask for one more song, inviting the audience to sing along. The final selection brings the emotional trajectory back toward bittersweet territory rather than ending with uncomplicated celebration. Its vocal revolves around doubt, walking away and a final embrace, giving the performance a closing moment that feels more reflective than triumphant.

It is an appropriate ending because the set’s strongest moments are not necessarily its loudest. Over two hours, Above & Beyond repeatedly build enormous peaks and then deliberately pull away from them, using lyrics and melodic breakdowns to reset the emotional atmosphere before beginning another climb. The result is a performance structured around tension and release in both the musical and emotional sense.

Group Therapy Is Still About the Crowd

Seven hundred episodes into the Group Therapy era, the fundamental idea behind Above & Beyond’s milestone events remains remarkably consistent. The production has become larger, the venues have changed and the trio’s music has evolved, but the performances continue to revolve around the relationship between the people onstage and the audience in front of them.

That connection can occasionally sound sentimental when reduced to slogans, but it makes considerably more sense inside a two-hour Above & Beyond performance. Songs about heartbreak are sung collectively by thousands of people. Intimate lyrics are projected across enormous stages. Personal experiences become communal ones, and a dance music set becomes a vehicle for emotions that have very little to do with simply going out for the night.

ABGT700 at The Gorge captures that formula at enormous scale. It is simultaneously a trance set, an album-era showcase, a milestone celebration and another chapter in Above & Beyond’s long relationship with one of North America’s most distinctive concert venues. More than two decades into their career, the trio are still building their biggest moments around the same basic idea that made Group Therapy resonate in the first place: dance music works differently when everyone in the crowd feels like they are experiencing it together.

Sources & Further Reading

Above & Beyond — Group Therapy 700 at The Gorge Amphitheatre

Above & Beyond — ABGT700 Deep Warm-Up Set at The Gorge

EDM.com — The Sound of Saudade and ABGT700 at The Gorge

EDM.com — Above & Beyond’s “Start a Fire” and Its Connection to The Gorge

EDM.com — Above & Beyond and the History of Group Therapy at The Gorge