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Jeff Lynne's ELO says goodbye with a successful farewell show at the Kia Forum – Daily Breeze

When Jeff Lynne revived the Electric Light Orchestra in 2015, he booked his return to the intimate Fonda Theater in Hollywood, perhaps testing the waters to see if anyone was still interested in a band that hadn't played a proper show since 1981.

Oh, they were really interested. That evening at Fonda was a thrill. Lynne sounded as if he had stepped away for just a moment, not years, and he thrilled the 1,200 or so fans in the room, including such prominent friends of Lynne as Ringo Starr and Joe Walsh and Eric Idle.

A year later, Jeff Lynne's ELO played three nights at the Hollywood Bowl, accompanied by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and since then he has continued to record and perform with the group that he co-founded in the early '70s and with which he enjoyed great success throughout the decade and into the 80s.

But now Lynne, 76, is saying goodbye to all of that.

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Jeff Lynne of the Electric Light Orchestra performs at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Saturday, October 26, 2024. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)

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The Over and Out Tour, which began in August at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, played its final California show at the Kia Forum on Friday and Saturday, October 25th and 26th. After a postponed appointment on Tuesday in Phoenix, the time had come for Lynne and ELO.

This was by no means a funeral at the Forum on Saturday. How could it be that so many songs – 15 of which made the top 20 – brought so much joy to millions of listeners over the years?

How could this gigantic spaceship stage prop, a real-life image of ELO's album cover from the '70s, shoot lights and lasers across the stage and around the arena all night long?

The show started with “One More Time,” a song from Lynne’s 2019 ELO album, and have we mentioned how awesome this spaceship is? In the vernacular of the 70s, when ELO's 1976 release “A New World Record” was one of the 12 albums I ordered from the record club for a dime – a penny! – The Flying Saucer still totally sucks.

This may have been the least known of the 20 songs Lynne played on stage over 90 minutes. There were no such problems with “Evil Woman” that followed, the piano riff that opens the song being immediately recognizable. The same goes for the power chords that introduce “Do Ya,” technically a cover of a song by Move, the '60s band from which Lynne and ELO co-founders Roy Wood and Bev Bevan hail.

None of the original ELO members remain in the band. Keyboardist Richard Tandy, who joined in 1971 and played alongside Lynne in the studio and on stage ever since, died in May. But the 12 members of the current lineup, including a string section of two cellos and a violin, are all strong musicians.

Other highlights early in the set included “Showdown,” a slower number with a slightly Western theme, and “Last Train to London,” a late-’70s electronic dance-pop song.

Lynne remains a shy presence on stage. His bushy hair, beard and sunglasses look the same as always. Dressed mostly in black, he stood on the right side of the stage, singing and playing guitar, but rarely said more than “thank you” to the audience and occasionally gave a thumbs up to acknowledge their cheers and applause.

Other members of the band provided more action throughout the evening. Backing singer Melanie Lewis-McDonald's operatic vocals shined on songs like the ballad “Stepping Out,” and she and backing singer Iain Hornel added beautiful harmonies to “Strange Magic.”

Violinist Jess Cox stepped up to accompany Lynne on several songs, including an instrumental portion of “Fire On High” and the violin solo that leads to “Livin' Thing,” another of ELO's most popular numbers.

This song, like many others in the show and ELO's catalog, features a strong melody and a simple lyrical hook, often in the song's title, that makes it easy for fans to sing along, as they do with almost every song on Saturday have done.

One of the highlights of the latter part of the evening was “Telephone Line,” complete with the ringing telephone and distant vocal effects that introduce it. “Turn To Stone” moved on waves of racing rhythms.

“Don’t Bring Me Down” closed the main set. The crisp guitar riffs and pounding drum beats defined the song, while Lynne and the backing singers sang the simple but catchy lyrics.

Lynne and the Electric Light Orchestra have always honored their love of the Beatles and their influence, both for their similar melodic sweetness and their shared interest in using the recording studio to unleash new sounds. This influence comes through in “Mr. Blue Sky,” from the pounding piano chords that open the number to the stacked harmonies, cowbell-like percussion, swelling strings and more.

The song, which appeared as an encore, only reached number 36 on the charts when it was released in 1978, but has grown in popularity every year since and now has more than 1 billion streams on Spotify.

As far as farewell goes, Saturday was a perfect choice: the crowd was on its feet, singing and dancing, making and smiling at the musician whose creation brought a piece of blue sky into their lives one last time.

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