When Electric Light Orchestra recently pulled into Madison Square Garden for a pair of sold-out dates as part of the band’s final string of dates dubbed “The Over and Out Tour,” it marked the end of an era for this Rock and Roll Hall of Fame outfit. Originally formed in 1970 out of the ashes of The Move by singer-songwriters Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne along with drummer Bev Bevan, ELO was created with the purpose of fusing pop, rock and roll and classical music. Initially setting out to pick up “where the Beatles had left off and to present it on stage,” Electric Light Orchestra did that and more.
From its initial run with Lynne until 1986, the band sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. And while the ELO mastermind wound up shifting into more production work in the ‘80s and ‘90s (along with becoming a member of the Traveling Wilburys supergroup alongside Tom Petty, George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison), Lynne resurrected his former band as Jeff Lynne’s ELO in 2014. This go-round served as a farewell powered by a 12-piece band backing up the 76-year-old multi-instrumentalist/composer.
Following a solid opening set by California power pop crew Rooney, ELO took the stage and appropriately opened with the chugging “One More Time” from the band’s last studio outing, 2019’s From Out of Nowhere. For the next two hours, the audience was treated to a multi-sensory experience of stellar musicianship, pinpoint lasers and choreographed imagery projected on an enormous video screen behind the band shaped like ELO’s trademark spaceship. But all this would have been hollow theatrics were it not for the rock-solid base of much-loved songs being lovingly delivered. The one-two punch of “Evil Woman,” awash in red lighting and Lynne’s stomper “Do Ya,” originally recorded by The Move, gave way to other epic earworms. Highlights included the epic psychedelia of “10538 Overture” with its layered string arrangements and vocals that immediately trace ELO’s influence on Cheap Trick and the ‘50s-flavored jam “Rockaria,” which somehow melds rockabilly flourishes with operatic nuances via background vocalist Melanie Lewis-McDonald.
As adept as ELO was at delivering stompers like the infectious closer “Don’t Bring Me Down,” the band also dipped into the melancholic portion of its canon that has an unexpected way of hitting you right in the feelies. Opening with Milton McDonald’s mournful guitar riffs, the ascending and descending accompaniment provided by cellists Jess Cox and Amy Langley on “Strange Magic” made for a wistful reading easily up to the original studio recording. Elsewhere, ELO conveyed the heartbreak and sorrow woven amid the melancholy of “Telephone Line” that reflects the sting of unrequited love anyone has ever experienced.
And while a truncated version of the band’s highly underrated instrumental “Fire On High” left me wanting more, I was placated by other gems ranging from “Sweet Talkin’ Woman” and its perfect melding of darting strings, just the right dose of vocoder and doo wop-kissed vocal phrasing along with the one-two punch of “Turn To Stone” and its galloping Moog bassline. Equally compelling was the band’s rendition of “All Over the World,” a staple of the Xanadu soundtrack and that most unifying of pop-rock anthems fueled by Lynne’s falsetto and ridiculous hooks.
Appropriately enough, the evening was capped off by a rousing interpretation of “Mr. Blue Sky,” that most Beatlesque of songs from the Electric Light Orchestra catalog. Symphonic in nature, the kitchen sink bones of the song were expertly rendered at Madison Square Garden—harmonic opera runs, the signature banging cowbell-ish intro (“Penny Lane”) rendered by percussionist vocalist/vocalist Iain Hornal, the wonderful vocoder inflections and having it all end with a Rachmaninoff-flavored finale that would have made Sgt. Pepper himself proud. It all wound up being a special, albeit bittersweet night given the fact that we’re unlikely to see this perfect melding of musicianship, pop craft and heart come our way again any time soon.
