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The Giddy Majesty of Jeff Lynne’s ELO Is Still a Livin’ Thing as U.S. Farewell Tour Winds Down in L.A.: Concert Review
Jeff Lynne's ELO hit L.A.'s Kia Forum, site of shows dating to the '70s, for some of the last dates on a bittersweet but giddy U.S. farewell tour.
He has put that down to manpower, crowing when the previous tour launched that “we can actually cover any song that I’ve ever done with this amount of people, with three keyboards, two cellos, violin, four guitars, bass, drums, percussion, backing vocals — everything’s covered.” Truth be told, he probably had the budget to make that many executive hires a few decades earlier than he did. Backup singer Melanie Lewis-McDonald earns some VIP stripes, between being able to duplicate the slightly strident sound of the original female vocalists on “Evil Woman” and her ability to sing the lead operatic part on the cheeky rock-classical crossover tune “Rockaria!” A string trio (Amy Langley, Jess Cox and Jessie Murphy) is able to bridge the gap between ELO’s earliest art-rock days, when Lynne was copping an “I Am the Walrus” cello feel for “10538 Overture” to the group’s eventual disco-violins era. One More TimeEvil WomanDo YaShowdownLast Train to LondonBelieve Me NowSteppin’ OutRockaria!10538 OvertureStrange MagicSweet Talkin’ WomanCan’t Get It Out of My HeadFire on High (excerpt)Livin’ ThingTelephone LineAll Over the WorldTurn to StoneShine a Little LoveDon’t Bring Me Down(encore) Mr. Blue Sky
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