It’s raining, it’s pouring, a black sky is falling, but that didn’t stop Above & Beyond from bringing refuge to an otherwise tornado-stricken North Carolina this weekend. Tony and Jono brought an incredible vibe to Label Charlotte—one of Queen Ciy’s best and most intimate clubs—in one of the most memorable trance performances the south has seen this year. The environment was a unique mixture of Charlotte’s budding electronic scene and the diehard A&B fans that travel from far and wide to witness the road to ABGT100. Both the dance floor and surrounding VIP platforms were packed with club-goers and electronic music fans alike; from midnight until 2:15 the trance-induced positive vibes were a spectacle to both feel and witness. By the end of the night, more friends had been made and good vibes given than any other 500-person club setting I’ve ever seen.

Tony and Jono started the night off with deeper trance, progressing with what is quickly becoming one of my favorite tracks, “Sticky Fingers,” as a subtle crowd unifier. Tony took the reigns thirty minutes into the set, dropping a funky Mat Zo vibe to add a little bounce to the crowd. Jono joined Tony back on the decks for a series of uplifting anthems, flooding the club with the euphoric waves of “Walter White” that culminated into a banging club mix of “Black Room Boy.” The vocal talent of a new addition to the Anjunabeats team, Alex Vargas, echoed through Label with a preview of the tantalizing “Blue Sky Action.” A&B dropped the OceanLab classic, “Satellite (Above & Beyond Mix),” as an energizing refresher to the acoustic version we’ve come to know and love this year. Tony and Jono took turns taking the front of the deck, Jono unleashing the legendary club mix of “Sun & Moon” until the two rejoined side by side to drop a powerfully emotional series of “Mariana Trench,” “On My Way To Heaven,” and “You Got To Go (Club Mix).” We’d been expecting “Hello” all night, and Jono finally dropped it at what we thought would be the end of the set, culminating in nearly every pair of hands in the club clapping or raised in the air. Those hands in the air turned into hands around shoulders with “On A Good Day” as a closer, with one final encore of “Alone Tonight” to end things right. As the lasers faded and Jono leaned over the decks to give signatures to everyone in the front row, I was reassured that Above & Beyond creates an atmosphere of positivity unlike any other group in the world.

Thank you #Charlotte for being a great audience tonight!

— Above & Beyond (@aboveandbeyond) April 26, 2014

Photography by: Doug van Sant Photography