Current:Home > InvestIs there a better live sonic feast than Jeff Lynne's ELO? Not a chance. -GrowthSphere Strategies
Is there a better live sonic feast than Jeff Lynne's ELO? Not a chance.
View
Date:2025-04-12 12:18:34
WASHINGTON – Six years ago, Jeff Lynne delighted fans when he brought his Electric Light Orchestra to the U.S. for the first time in decades.
Never one to tiptoe out of his preferred studio confines with any regularity, Lynne nonetheless crafted an absolutely dazzling production stocked with gripping visuals (in a pre-Sphere world) and perhaps the most pristine sound ever heard at a rock show.
Guess who’s back and as aurally flawless as ever?
This Over and Out Tour – a believable farewell given his age (76) and the reality that he isn’t a road dog – is in the middle of its 31 dates and will wrap Oct. 26 in Los Angeles. At Capital One Arena in D.C. Wednesday, Lynne, still shaggy, sporting tinted glasses and mostly in supple voice, didn’t have much to say other than many humble acknowledgements of the crowd’s affection. But who needs to blather on when there is a brisk 90-minute set of lush ‘70s and ‘80s classics to administer?
More:The Eagles deploy pristine sound, dazzling visuals at Vegas Sphere kickoff concert: Review
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
ELO dropped a setlist that romped through '70s classics
Aside from the opening “One More Time” – obviously chosen for its literalness – from ELO’s 2019 album “From Out of Nowhere,” the sonic feast concentrated on the band’s ‘70s output, seesawing from Top 10 rock smashes (“Don’t Bring Me Down”) to deep cuts (“Showdown”).
Complementing these impeccably recreated gems was a slew of eye candy. Lasers and videos and spaceships (oh my) buttressed each offering in the 20-song set, with an animated witch morphing into a creepy eyeball (“Evil Woman”) and green lasers enveloping the arena like ribbons in the sky (“Telephone Line”).
Lynne’s band was loaded with familiar names from the previous tour, including the rich string section of Jessie Murphy (violin) and Amy Langley and Jess Cox (cello) and standout vocalists – really more than mere backup singers – Iain Hornal and Melanie Lewis-McDonald, who handled the heavy lifting on the giddy “Rockaria!”
One unexpected offering, “Believe Me Now,” was added to the setlist a couple of weeks ago. An instrumental album track from ELO’s 1977 mega-selling double album, “Out of the Blue,” the song, an intro to the equally moving "Steppin' Out," exhales chord changes so sumptuous, they’ll make your eyes water.
More:Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band still rock, quake and shake after 50 years
Jeff Lynne and ELO say goodbye with a smile
But that’s a feeling frequently evoked during the show, coupled with the joy of hearing these sculpted beauties one final time.
The crisp opening guitar riff of “Do Ya,” the disco-fied “Last Train to London,” the wistful dreamscape “Strange Magic,” all unfurled with precision, but not sterility.
A sea of phone lights held aloft accented “Can’t Get it Out of My Head,” a technological illumination replacing the lighters that reigned 50 years ago when the song was released.
But that all preceded the standout in a show stuffed with them – the musical masterpiece “Turn to Stone.” Between the rapid-fire vocal breakdown nailed by Hornal and Lewis-McDonald – which earned its own ovation – and the furious, frenetic build to a musical climax, the orchestral pop dazzler electrified the arena.
Close to the bliss of that corker was show closer “Mr. Blue Sky,” an anthem of optimism that still sounds like sunshine. Bassist Lee Pomeroy high-stepped through its Beatles-esque bouncy rhythm while Lynne and the band traded layered harmonies on the pop treasure.
It was as obvious a closer as “One More Time” was the opener, but really, how else could Lynne leave a multigenerational throng of fans other than with a smile?
veryGood! (7)
Related
- Spooky or not? Some Choa Chu Kang residents say community garden resembles cemetery
- Fox News settles blockbuster defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems
- A group of state AGs calls for a national recall of high-theft Hyundai, Kia vehicles
- Hurricane Michael Hit the Florida Panhandle in 2018 With 155 MPH Winds. Some Black and Low-Income Neighborhoods Still Haven’t Recovered
- Why we love Bear Pond Books, a ski town bookstore with a French bulldog 'Staff Pup'
- Why Did California Regulators Choose a Firm with Ties to Chevron to Study Irrigating Crops with Oil Wastewater?
- Inside Clean Energy: Batteries Got Cheaper in 2021. So How Close Are We to EVs That Cost Less than Gasoline Vehicles?
- DC Young Fly Shares How He Cries All the Time Over Jacky Oh's Death
- Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
- Warming Trends: Laughing About Climate Change, Fighting With Water and Investigating the Health Impacts of Fracking
Ranking
- Military service academies see drop in reported sexual assaults after alarming surge
- David's Bridal files for bankruptcy for the second time in 5 years
- A Biomass Power Plant in Rural North Carolina Reignites Concerns Over Clean Energy and Environmental Justice
- The Fate of Protected Wetlands Are At Stake in the Supreme Court’s First Case of the Term
- Meet first time Grammy nominee Charley Crockett
- Gen Z's dream job in the influencer industry
- Homeware giant Bed Bath & Beyond has filed for bankruptcy
- 'Let's Get It On' ... in court
Recommendation
Head of the Federal Aviation Administration to resign, allowing Trump to pick his successor
Behold the tax free bagel: A New York classic gets a tax day makeover
Biden Administration Stops Short of Electric Vehicle Mandates for Trucks
It's an Even Bigger Day When These Celebrity Bridesmaids Are Walking Down the Aisle
Travis Hunter, the 2
The path to Bed Bath & Beyond's downfall
Global Warming Drove a Deadly Burst of Indian Ocean Tropical Storms
Judge prepares for start of Dominion v. Fox trial amid settlement talks