As an electronic dance music trio, Above & Beyond has sold out Madison Square Garden and the Forum in Los Angeles — the first DJ group to do so — received a Grammy nomination this year for the song “We’re All We Need,” earned a slew of nominations and awards, and ranked in the top 10 of DJ Magazine’s top-100 DJ poll for seven consecutive years.

Formed in 2000 by Jono Grant, Tony McGuinness and Paavo Siljamäki, the British group is known for its spectacular light shows, uplifting sound and, as with any good dance group, solid beats.

So why would Grant, McGuinness and Siljamäki dare go on the road with the dulcet tones of acoustic guitar, violins, harp and other acoustic instruments?

The short answer: because they and their fans were happy with the “unplugged” sound.

Above & Beyond will perform with four vocalists and an ensemble of about 20 instrumentalists Tuesday at the Waikiki Shell.

McGuinness came up the idea of re-creating their music on acoustic instruments, Grant said.

“Basically, he wanted to re-create ‘MTV Unplugged.’ That was the blueprint for it,” said Grant, speaking by phone moments before he took the stage for a show in Boston.

The group developed an acoustic version of “On a Good Day,” a tune produced under its earlier name, OceanLab, and started performing the song to close out their dance gigs. “The audience was singing along,” Grant said.

The group went on to orchestrate several songs for acoustic instruments and released the 2014 album “Above & Beyond Acoustic” to rave reviews. “Though they are rare, there are times when an album’s emotion is just so beautifully strong that the only way to truly understand it is to listen to it,” wrote critic Steph Evans on earmilk.com.

They followed up the album with a series of sold-out performances at Porchester Hall, an intimate venue in London, where the trio, playing guitar, piano and vibes, and accompanied by two vocalists and a small orchestra, thrilled the audience. A video of one of the concerts has garnered more than 10 million hits.

The ease with which Above & Beyond won over its old fans — and gained some new ones — belies the tension that goes on during the performances.

The 36-year-old Grant, despite being a university-trained musician and having performed his dance music for massive arena crowds, said it’s nerve-wracking to perform his music acoustically. He plays piano and guitar.

“It’s funny because the music is a lot more laid-back, being acoustic, but the adrenaline is actually higher … simply because we’re much more nervous,” he said. “We’re vastly inexperienced at playing instruments onstage in front of thousands of people, so it’s a lot scarier. The rewards are probably higher as well, but it’s a completely different experience and a completely different skill set.”

Those skills include simply keeping up with their own music and covering up mistakes. DJs, working at their mixers and turntables, can take a moment to wave to the crowd and dance a step or two. That won’t work for their acoustic program.

“It’s kind of like a conveyor belt passing you. You don’t want to be looking at something that’s already gone once you’ve made a mistake; you want to look at what you’re going to play next. If you start looking back, you’ll start making more mistakes and then you’ll fall over. We learned that pretty early on.”

Above & Beyond pioneered the genre known as trance around the world. Fans have been entranced with their pulsating, synthesized, heavily textured sound.

“These guys know how to keep up the feeling of innocuous joy and never have a single dull moment,” said Kieran J. MacIntyre on entertainment website Monsters and Critics.

The trio enhanced its brand further through record labels Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep, and a weekly radio show, “Group Therapy,” considered a must-listen for those wanting to keep up with the burgeoning electronic dance music scene.

For Tuesday’s performance at the Waikiki Shell, the trio will perform songs from the original “Acoustic” album as well as a new album, “Above & Beyond Acoustic II,” set for release June 3.

Fans will be familiar with the music, Grant said, because Above & Beyond remains faithful to the chords and melodies of its electronic songs.

A mesmerizing light show developed by the group’s own lighting specialists also remains part of the show.

Just don’t be fazed by hearing EDM on acoustic instruments. Grant said that’s happened at some concerts.

“You see it on the Internet, (fans) asking, ‘What should we wear? Should we dance? How should we behave? Should we scream?’” he said. “Really, it’s up to them what they do. It’s interesting for us to see the audiences and how they react.”