Jeff Lynne, Madison Square Garden, August 21, 2018
Jeff Lynne doesn’t do much talking at his concerts, beyond the occasional “thank you” and offering a cheerful “thumbs up” to the audience. But at New York’s Madison Square Garden on August 21, 2018, the first of two sold-out dates here for Jeff Lynne’s ELO, the star said something pretty impactful. “It’s been 40 years since we last played here.” (We looked it up: the Electric Light Orchestra performed at the Garden on September 15, 1978. Eleven of the songs that night were also performed on this occasion.)
It wasn’t as if Lynne – a masterful writer of pop songs – had been idle for those four decades. However, he had pretty much stopped making new music for the group he’s most certainly association with, the Electric Light Orchestra. For the most part, the band had remained dormant while he did a very occasional solo album and any number of productions, most notably for Tom Petty, the Beatles and George Harrison.
And then, of course, he was busy with the supergroup of all supergroups, the Traveling Wilburys, whose debut album – there were only two – was released in 1988.
So there was Lynne and his 11-piece orchestra offering most of ELO’s biggest hits to an audience, the vast majority of whom had never seen him perform in person. ELO hadn’t done a U.S. tour since the Time tour in 1981. Imagine that. This 12-date tour, which ended this week, will be followed by 25 shows in Europe and the U.K. and then it’s anyone’s guess when the Maestro will return.
[Lynne performed at Joe Walsh’s 2023 VetsAid and will begin his farewell tour in August 2024. Tickets are available here and here.]
When fans on various Facebook groups devoted to Lynne saw the setlist of the U.S. tour’s August 2 opener in Oakland, Calif., many griped about the choices – Hey, it’s the internet, why not! – wondering why he hadn’t chosen this favorite from Eldorado or that LP cut from Out of the Blue. But other than when the rejuvenated Lynne did seven total concerts in 2015-2016 solely in Los Angeles and New York (at vastly smaller venues), no one stateside had heard Lynne play anything in decades. There’s an old adage: play the hits. And so he did.
The Tuesday evening’s 19 songs included all of the classic rock crowd pleasers: “Evil Woman,” “Telephone Line,” “Don’t Bring Me Down” and “Sweet Talkin’ Woman,” among them. (See below for the complete setlist.)
There were individual moments within several songs that really stood out. Melanie Lewis-McDonald sang the operatic parts beautifully on the aptly titled “Rockaria.” The keyboards on “Can’t Get it Out of My Head” by Marcus Byrne and Jo Webb were standouts. For “10538 Overture,” Lynne, his musical director Mike Stevens, lead guitarist Milton McDonald and guitarist Iain Hornal were up front, together, for the closing jam.
Watch them perform “10538 Overture” on the following night
Violinist Rosie Langley took center stage to lead the way on “Livin’ Thing.”
And on “Mr. Blue Sky,” the evening’s final pre-encore song, Lynne himself gave us chills with the “Mr. Blue, you did it right” part.
Mid-set, when they performed the Wilburys’ best known song, “Handle With Care,” no doubt many in the audience’s thoughts went to the now-three departed members of the group: George Harrison, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty.
Watch crowd-pleaser “Don’t Bring Me Down”
As is customary, the evening ended with the Electric Light Orchestra’s version of Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven.”
Thanks, Maestro! Hope to see you again before long. And thanks to Jim Powers for the great clips.
Jeff Lynne’s ELO, August 21, 2018, Madison Square Garden, New York, Setlist
Standin’ in the Rain
Evil Woman
All Over the World
Showdown
Do Ya
When I Was a Boy
Livin’ Thing
Handle With Care
Rockaria!
Can’t Get it Out of My Head
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
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5 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationBut didn’t ELO, at one point in time, do recordings and tours without Lynne??
ELO part #2 with most of the other band members and a few new faces produced a few albums without Lynne. They did a great job. Orchestra continues to tour doing great shows without lynne. Sad that he abandoned this epic group and when he returned…they were not with him. 🙁
ELO was my first favorite band and have kept that position in my heart ever since. I’d never seen them in concert though, until the Detroit show this past August. If the dozens and dozens of rock concerts I’ve seen over the years, including Queen in 1981, this was the finest. My only complaint is that the show has to end at all. It was a magical event and the concert of my lifetime. I’ll never forget it.
I attended the Detroit show of Jeff Lynne at LCA in August 2018. I do not have any big complaints about the musical performance itself. It was OK, not the best I’ve ever seen, but OK.
I was very upset about Mr. Lynne’s failure to acknowledge the death of Detroit’s own Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, who had died the morning of the concert. Despite the fact that electronic billboards at the arena and all over the Detroit area paid tribute with her photo and birth and death dates; and despite the fact that her death was a lead story on national news programs that day, Lynne did not make mention of it on stage. His road crew was aware of her death because I had a conversation with them and suggested that he be reminded of this over their earphone system to the stage. Meanwhile, a video was played paying tribute to the deceased Wilbury members. Lynne could have uttered one sentence about Aretha and the audience would have cheered.
Also, during band introductions, Lynne started then declined to make the introductions, passing off the task to his music director. Lynne stated that he didn’t know the members of his own band. How can you travel around the world with people who make you look good, and not be bothered to learn their names. He could have read their names written on a 3×5 card and live up to the status of being a professional musician at his level.
Magical event? Not really, but I wont forget the lack of respect shown by Lynne at that show.
Didn’t Jeff Lynne at least start an ELO tour behind the Zoom album in 2001? They were scheduled to play in my area, but were cancelled for lack of ticket sales, if you can believe that. I believe the whole tour suffered the same fate, although it was with a smaller touring group, and not with the orchestral sized group ELO has toured with since they have presented more of a retro show.