Electric Light Orchestra in Vancouver

We made the trip up to Vancouver last Wednesday to see Electric Light Orchestra (or "Jeff Lynne's ELO," as they're officially called these days, to set the band apart from whatever groups might be formed/piloted by past band members).

I saw ELO during my senior year in HS, on the band's Out of the Blue Tour. That show included a lighting rig designed to look like the ELO spaceship coming in for its landing. (I listened to the guys seated behind me in Vancouver argue over whether ELO stole the logo-as-spaceship concept from Boston.) The Out of the Blue Tour was a very high-tech show for its day, but the audio limitations that the concert setting placed on ELO made Lynne lose interest in live performances.

Well, the technology apparently has advanced to Jeff's liking, so he's resumed touring with a 13-piece band to perform those classics. Forty years ago, the seven-member lineup sounded great onstage (as I recall), but just couldn't reproduce the sound of those records, no matter how well they played or how top-dollar their sound system was. Last night, the sound quality was just about seamless. Jeff's voice still sounds good, although he's lost a bit of range and sustain. (One of the backup singers spelled him on a few songs.) He isn't the most charismatic performer around; he plays and sings well, and clearly is grateful to have an audience, but he's about as animated as Ric Ocasek -- dark glasses and all.

But the band members sure appeared to be enjoying themselves. The light show was first-rate. And the songs hold up very well. The set was heavy on the hits, of course, but it included a few surprises.

SETLIST:
Standing in the Rain
Evil Woman
All Over the World
Showdown
Do Ya
When I Was a Boy
Livin' Thing
Handle with Care
Rockaria!
Last Train to London
Xanadu
10538 Overture
Shine a Little Love
Wild West Hero
Sweet Talkin' Woman
Telephone Line
Don't Bring Me Down
Turn to Stone
Mr. Blue Sky
 
ENCORE:
Roll Over Beethoven

Dhani Harrison opened the show. He's got his dad's looks and some of his vocal chops, but he takes his music in a different direction. His songs have a dark, droning sound, but they're still melodic. He also joined ELO to sing George's part on the Traveling Wiburys' "Handle with Care."

I
thought I recognized you in this picture.
ELO in Vancouver

Yep, that's us, way in the back and over to the right.

I made a ELO playlist plucking songs from random albums...and it's amazing how so much of it sounds the same. Well, maybe not amazing. The filler on their albums is just that. But there are gems for certain. "Telephone Line" might just be my favorite song of theirs. I'd go see them in Tampa if it wasn't for the cost!

ELO’s “new world record” was one of my first five album purchases. Lots of good songs and fun things to discover on that record: the out-of-nowhere African part in ‘so fine’, the opera singers false start at the beginning of ‘rockaria’, the way the lone violin breaks in at the start of ‘livin thing’, like someone abruptly changed the radio station. And of course ‘Do ya’.

Did anyone else own the ‘out of the blue’ album? Opening that thing was like a treasure chest. Posters, stickers, a paper cutout of the space ship, inside view of the space ship in the inner gatefold.... and that’s before you got to the actual records!

I picked up older records by them like Eldorado over the years, but alas jumped ship sometime after ‘Discovery’. Cash was tight and I had to keep up with the new wave releases.

Yeah, I have Out of the Blue on vinyl. I'm pretty sure it's the first ELO album I bought; I worked my way backward and forward from there. It's surprisingly low on filler, for a 2-LP set.

I suspect a lot of ELO's fans "jumped ship" after Discovery. It was a big seller in the U.S., but I think its flirtation with disco bothered a lot of long-time fans. I think they gained a few new fans with the more New Wave-ish sounds of their '80s albums.

And yeah, it was a costly show, but well worth it to us. My wife's an even bigger fan than me, and she'd never seen them live. When they kicked into "10538 Overture," I thought she was about to swoon away.