Last trip to the stars: Jeff Lynne’s ELO are heading ‘Over and Out’
Some of the biggest names in music often feel larger than life whenever they’re onstage. They might be flesh and blood like the rest of us, but the minute that they have instruments in their hands, they become emotional translators that make us feel something that no one else can really describe. That kind of gift is impossible to repay, but when someone like Jeff Lynne announces that he will bow out after Electric Light Orchestra’s Over and Out Tour, it only feels right to salute the classic rock extraterrestrials one last time.
Before the group descended upon DC, they needed to put everyone through their paces with the opening act, Rooney. While a few of their songs may trigger unwanted flashbacks to The OC days, Rooney has demonstrated how to age gracefully in the music world. Far from being just a tacked-on addition to the show, hearing ‘Where Did Your Heart Go Missing’ with its power-pop chords highlights exactly what Lynne may have seen in them.
But as soon as the ELO insignia lit up Capitol One Arena, everything seemed to be turned back to 1979 in a split second. Throughout the night, Lynne and the band offered up one of the strongest lineups of hit songs to come out of a mainstream act, going immediately from the groove of ‘Evil Woman’ through to ‘Strange Magic’ and ‘Sweet Talkin’ Woman’.
And since the group was never more known to be the most agile live act in the world, seeing their massive light shows was the icing on the cake for every one of the classics. The hypnotic groove of ‘10538 Overture’ managed to sound even more grandiose with the striking images behind the band, and the hypnotic groove on ‘Last Train to London’ illuminated with graphics of a city landscape was a welcome sight.
However, ELO always had a particular ingredient to their music that could never really be captured unless you were hearing it directly. Ending the set with ‘Mr Blue Sky’ is practically as if someone could bottle up joy and put it in the span of three minutes, and by the time those icy chords and dial tones of ‘Telephone Line’ started, it felt like the air collectively changed in the room.
And it’s not like the band has lost their step in playing the more energetic material, either. The ballads work like a charm, but ‘Rockaria!’ sounded like every one of them was practically still in a rehearsal room when they were kids, and despite being the newest track for the tour, the opener ‘One More Time’ is enough to make some people get emotional knowing that this is the end of the line.
Then again, not every part of the show was perfect, and it was hard to get engaged when looking at what Lynne was doing onstage. He still looked effortlessly cool behind those sunglasses tearing his way through ‘Do Ya’ or ‘Livin’ Thing’, but looking at what he brought to the instrumental side of things, he seemed far more interested in just strumming a few chords and making the odd vocal leap.
Knowing how much time he turned in as a producer, though, his role felt more suited to conducting the band at some points, but that’s hardly a problem when they sounded this tight. Lee Pomeroy was one of the many standouts on bass, and Donavan Hepburn seemed to be playing like every drum he hit would be the last thing he ever played.
If this is the end of this touring act, though, most should pay attention to both the string ensemble and backing vocalists Melanie-Lewis McDonald and Iain Hornal. Not only did McDonald crush the female part of ‘Rockaria!’, but given his solo spots during the show, Hornal could easily give Lynne a run for his money in the vocal department on occasion.
Despite the musical mastermind’s role being a bit more muted than usual, that didn’t stop the show from being anything less than brilliant. As I sat there taking in the set, hearing ‘Can’t Get It Out Of My Head’ with everyone’s phone alight made me realise something. Lynne wasn’t just the kind of musician trying to just write a catchy tune back in the day. He was tapping into something far more emotional, and by the time the final sounds of ‘Mr Blue Sky’ rang out, the standing ovation the group received assured them we would never forget the way they made millions of fans feel when they first crashlanded on Earth.
