The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast
The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast celebrates the magic of live music through sharing personal stories. Each week, our guests will share their stories of different shows that were memorable and meaningful to them. We’ll also have concert reviews and conversations with musicians and crew members who put on those live shows. By sharing their stories, we hope to engage you - our audience - to relive your live music memories also. So please join us every week as we explore the transformative power of live music that makes attending concerts not just entertaining, but essential. This is The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast, where every concert tells a story.
The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast
Episode 027 - Jeff Lynne's ELO Concert Review
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This week, we’re reviewing the Jeff Lynne’s ELO concert at Madison Square Garden on September 17th, 2024. We’ll take you on a journey through the Electric Light Orchestra's storied history, from their humble beginnings in Birmingham, England, to their meteoric rise in the late '70s and early '80s, and beyond. You'll learn about the band's break up and subsequent resurgence in the 2010s.
And now, on their “Over and Out” Farewell tour, we’ll get into the show itself. Whether you're a die-hard ELO fan or just ELO-curious, this episode is packed with insights and clips from the show so that you’ll feel like you were there. Please join us for our review of the Jeff Lynne’s ELO concert, this week on the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast!
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Welcome to the Rock and Roll Show podcast. I'm your host, alex Gad, and this week I've got another concert review for you. I went to see the Electric Light Orchestra, or more accurately, jeff Lynn's ELO, at Madison Square Garden last week which, admittedly, is not a sentence I ever thought I'd say and I saw some things that surprised me, which I can't wait to tell you about. So please join me for my Jeff Lynn's ELO concert review this week on the Rock and Roll Show podcast Coming up right now. I think it'd be useful to give a brief review of the band's history, since I wasn't that familiar with it before I did some research. The Electric Light Orchestra was a Birmingham, england band that had had an impressive run of success in the late 1970s. How impressive, you ask? Well, between 1975 and 1980, the band released five albums, all of which went top 10 in the US, with the final four also going top five in the UK, in their home country. The band's success continued for another six years through the first half of the 1980s, as their next three albums also went top 10 in the UK. While they're not a household name today, some of the songs that they released have remained in the public's conscious thanks to classic rock, radio and movie soundtrack Songs you'll probably recognize, like Do Ya, mr Blue Sky, evil Woman, strange Magic Telephone Line, don't Bring Me Down and Livin' Thing.
Speaker 1The band started out as a side project for the members of a late 60s British band called the Move to explore more orchestral compositions hence the name. But with lead singer Jeff Lynne doing most of the songwriting for ELO, they quickly found greater success and decided to shift their focus away from the Move, planning to devote all their energy to the new band. However, after they released their debut ELO album in 1971, roy Wood, the original founder of the Move, quit the band and took two of the ELO cello players and the original keyboardist with him. That left Jeff Lynn and drummer Bev Bevan as the only two original members. Now their lineup changed regularly throughout their career, but they experienced their first hit single right after those first folks left. It was a 1973 cover of Chuck Berry's Roll Over Beethoven, done with lots of orchestration and even a piece of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony thrown in there for good measure. That tune charted in both the UK and the US, going top 10 in Britain. They had their run of success through the second half of the 70s into the early 80s, but by 1986, they had stopped actually using strings, replacing them with synthesizers, and really the magic had faded. Jeff Lynne decided to turn his focus to producing, and he worked for lots of other artists, including George Harrison's final studio album, cloud Nine, and Tom Petty's first solo record, full Moon Fever. He then got together with those two guys, bob Dylan and Roy Orbison, and formed the Traveling Wilburys and produced their record as well.
Speaker 1Elo got back together in the early 90s, calling themselves ELO Part II, when they toured, and then, at the turn of the century or is it the millennia they toured as the Orchestra. But they released a new album in 2001 as ELO, to little acclaim, and that kind of signaled the end of the band. Then, in 2014, jeff Lynn got a new band together to perform ELO songs just for one show in London's Hyde Park, and that show sold out in minutes. That was the first time he performed as Jeff Lynn's ELO, and he went on to record two more studio albums in 2015 and 2019, both of which went top five in the UK again, with 2019's From Out of Nowhere going to number one.
Speaker 1Those albums were less successful in the States but nonetheless, 10 years after this new incarnation first appeared, my buddy, dave Schultz, invited me to go see them play on their farewell over and out tour at Madison Square Garden. My first thought when he asked was wasn't ELO really always Jeff Lynn's ELO for the most part? What was the difference? That seemed redundant. Anyway, though I'm not a huge fan, I happily accepted the invitation.
Speaker 1Walking in, I expected to be slightly younger than the average attendee and didn't know what to expect from the crowd in terms of enthusiasm, but I had seen friends posting on social media from previous shows on the tour and the visuals looked stunning, so I went in ready to enjoy the experience. Whatever it was, our seats were in the lower bowl, in the back of the arena, directly facing the stage, so I was able to see perfectly, had great views, and I saw some things that I found unusual, to say the least. Now, there was an opening act, but we missed them. The band came out just after 9 pm, opening with the song One More Time from the last album they released in 2019. As expected, the visuals were amazing and the sound was as good as I've ever heard in the garden. Take a look, come on, let's go.
Speaker 2We gotta give it some rock and roll, and baby, baby, we're running on the road. Gotta give it everything we got Till the dawn is far upon.
Speaker 1This one last day. That was followed by the hits Evil Woman and Do Ya, and I was surprised they played Do Ya so early in the set. It looked and sounded great. Check out a bit of that one here.
Speaker 1Showdown came next and then there were several songs that weren't the big hits, but the crowd reacted with the same level of enthusiasm. So my biggest question coming into the show was answered early. This was a crowd of real fans. I didn't think that ELO had any real passionate fans, but I was wrong. In fact, the guy sitting directly behind us kept yelling out for the song Tightrope, which I could see from the previous show's setlist on Setlist FM was not going to be played, but I didn't spoil it for the guy and yet after every single song I heard Tightrope. Oh, I'm sure his wife was as sick of it as we were. While I didn't recognize the songs that were played in the middle section of the show, the visuals were really impressive for each of them. The next song I recognized was the 10th one, strange Magic, which is a bit more of a ballad and definitely one of the most ELO of all the ELO songs, with sweeping string arrangements and lush background vocals. Take a listen, make it worse.
Speaker 2It was my time. Oh no, oh no, I've got a strange magic. I've got a strange magic. Oh, it's strange magic.
Speaker 1Strange magic, strange magic. The second half of the show was all hits from that point on, except for the second-to-last song, which I had never heard before, but we heard Sweet Talkin' Woman. Can't Get it Out of my Head. Then the instrumental Fire on High, which might actually be my favorite ELO song. Here's that one, thank you. So that was followed by Living Thing, which was really good. Then there was Telephone Line All Over the World. Turn to Stone. Shine a Little Love was the one song I wasn't familiar with, and the final song of the main set was Don't Turn to Stone. Shine a Little Love was the one song I wasn't familiar with and the final song of the main set was Don't Bring Me Down, and with that they were done.
Speaker 1I looked at my watch and was amazed to see they had knocked out a full 19-song setlist in a brisk hour and 25 minutes. I commented to my buddy, dave, that I don't think I had ever seen a more efficient performance. There was no chatter between songs, just Jeff Lynne very politely saying thank you at the end of every song, to the enthusiastic cheers from the crowd. You at the end of every song, to the enthusiastic cheers from the crowd. And also there were no extended jams, no false endings, no sing-alongs, just the songs exactly as they had been recorded, sounding just as tight and as well produced. And hey, I didn't feel cheated at all. In fact I appreciated it. I didn't need a three-hour ELO show and I suspect the rest of the audience, who were in fact older than me and Dave on average, were just as appreciative. Dave joked that this was by design for both the audience and for the band, and that makes sense. And so it was that we were out into the New York night at 10.35 and on our way home. So here are my takeaways the music sounded great, even though I always thought that ELO's music was overproduced and lacked any real emotion or feel or soul. I was absolutely able to appreciate the talent involved with crafting these songs. They sounded great live.
Speaker 1Second takeaway I never realized how disco so many of ELO's songs were. It makes sense, given the era in which they hit their peak popularity. And it needs to be said that they did contribute to the soundtrack album for the terrible, disco-influenced 1980 movie Xanadu, which was Olivia Newton-John's big acting follow-up to her hit Rolling Grease two years earlier. The movie was a total failure and was the inspiration for the creation of the Golden Raspberry Awards, now referred to as the Razzies, which recognized the worst movies and performances of every year. Yet the soundtrack album went top five in both the US and the UK. Elo performed the title song with Olivia Newton-John and wrote four other songs for the soundtrack, which comprised all of side two of the soundtrack LP. All Over the World from that album is in the set list of this tour every night.
Speaker 1Third takeaway the visuals presented in the show were dynamite. I hope that translated in the clips I shared, they were a real addition to what was otherwise a very bland stage show. I can't imagine seeing this band live without the beautiful big screen, high-def imagery. Because no one in the band moved much on stage. Jeff Lynn barely moved at all throughout the imagine seeing this band live without the beautiful big screen, high def imagery. Because no one in the band moved much on stage. Jeff Lynn barely moved at all throughout the entire show. If you had told me afterwards that was an animatronic Jeff Lynn, I wouldn't have doubted you.
Speaker 1Four, jeff lynn has virtually no stage personality at all. From what I've read, he's a shy person by nature and never loved touring, which suited him back in the days when record sales brought in the big bucks because he could sit in his studio and craft his lush, gorgeous, layered songs and make his money. But in today's music business, touring is where the money's at, and so there he was doing his thing on stage. As I mentioned, he did seem incredibly polite, thanking the crowd after every single song, though saying almost nothing more, and in one of the most unusual moves I've ever seen, he started off the band introductions halfway through the show by introducing his musical director. He then handed off the rest of the band introductions to his musical director, who introduced the rest of the people on stage.
Speaker 1I had never seen this before. My initial thought was I wonder if Jeff didn't know the names of his band members. But then at the end of the introductions, the musical director made a big deal of introducing Jeff to the crowd, which I realized was probably the end goal all along. It was odd and definitely impersonal. Not a fan of it at all. Fifth takeaway as I mentioned earlier, the sound in the garden was incredibly well mixed, as good as I've ever heard it there, on par with Springsteen and Billy Joel's sound the best that I've ever heard. Not every band at MSG sounds this good. Sixth takeaway was that the crowd was definitely on the older side, but they were really, really into the band and credit where credit's due.
Speaker 1Selling out Two Nights at the Garden is no minor thing, especially for an act that hasn't had a new hit song in almost 40 years, and whether they actually sold it out or almost sold it out doesn't matter. Two Nights at the Garden's a big deal. Finally, the band is still on the road for another month with gigs in DC, denver, detroit, phoenix and then wrapping up their over-and-out farewell tour in LA. So go see if you can find a ticket and check the show out. If nothing else, I promise it won't require a huge investment of time and I think it's probably worth it. I also wouldn't be surprised if Jeff Lyn's ELO extends their farewell tour into next year, based solely on the crowd response at the show that we saw. So that's my concert review and that's it for this week's episode.
Speaker 1Thank you for joining us. We'll be back next Tuesday and if you like what you heard today, we'd appreciate it if you would like and subscribe or follow to make sure you get notified about every new episode. And please tell your friends. Also a reminder that we release a playlist for every episode. So look for the Rock and Roll Show podcast playlist on Spotify every week, this week featuring the songs from the set list of the ELO show that I just reviewed, so check that out. Additionally, we want to know what you think. Please leave us a comment and we'll try to respond to every one of them. We love hearing from you. The Rock and Roll Show podcast is a World Highway Media production. I'm your host, alex Gad, and until next time, remember that life is short, so get those concert tickets. We'll see you next time.