{"id":29387,"date":"2018-08-17T13:07:03","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T18:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/?p=29387"},"modified":"2018-08-17T13:07:03","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T18:07:03","slug":"thirty-seven-years-the-long-awaited-return-of-jeff-lynne-and-his-electric-light-orchestra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/?p=29387","title":{"rendered":"Thirty. Seven. Years. The Long Awaited Return Of Jeff Lynne And His Electric Light Orchestra"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Christopher David<\/p>\n

Entire genres of music and entire generations of bands have been created and have gone extinct in the time since ELO last took on a proper North American tour. Though that\u2019s not to say that Jeff Lynne hasn\u2019t been busy; in the grand scheme of musical history, has anyone been busier? The Traveling Wilburys, his side project with Roy Orbison, George Harrison, Tom Petty, and Bob Dylan found time to release a pair of stellar Americana albums in the late \u201880s, and in addition to the occasional ELO record, he oversaw the production and curation of the Beatles\u2019 massive Anthology<\/em> series in the early \u201890s. Had he decided never to tour again after deciding to focus on production after ELO\u2019s \u201881 run in support of sci-fi concept album Time<\/em>, it wouldn\u2019t have been terribly surprising.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, following the release of 2015\u2019s Alone in the Universe<\/em> and a massive gig at Wembley in 2017 (documented in the Wembley or Bust<\/em> DVD and album), Lynne\u2019s interest in satisfying fans who have hoped against hope for one last ELO tour seemed to have been kick-started, and Allstate Arena played host to the bucket list show of all bucket list shows for fans of classic and progressive rock on Wednesday as Electric Light Orchestra landed in Chicagoland for the first time since 1981.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The set was a tight ninety minutes, and outside of a couple of curveballs (\u201cWhen I Was A Boy\u201d from Alone in the Universe<\/em> and \u201cHandle With Care\u201d from the Wilburys), it leaned heavily on the hits, from the disco beat of \u201cShine a Little Love\u201d to the shimmering guitar of first single \u201c10538 Overture.\u201d Lynne is a man of few words, and when he spoke, it was both brief and gracious.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look as lovely as ever,\u201d he remarked early on with a smile, and whatever Lynne\u2019s secret is, odds are that people would pay for it – at 70 years old, he appears to have barely aged, exchanging smiles with the members of his twelve-piece band before a series of panels depicting landscapes of space and the ever-present ELO spaceship that appears to hover over the stage. A perfect take on \u201cTelephone Line\u201d found the arena bathed in green lasers that returned for a stomping rendition of Lynne\u2019s take on \u201cRoll Over Beethoven\u201d to close the show; the visual elements were nearly overwhelming in such a small arena. Vocalist Melanie Lewis-McDonald was a strong presence in a show filled with them, her voice riding over the symphonic chug of \u201cRockaria!\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t Bring Me Down,\u201d and while it has been argued that Lynne\u2019s current live show is almost too<\/em> perfect, that\u2019s hardly a complaint, nor should it be unexpected for a fifty-year veteran perfectionist – it was indeed as close to perfect as you\u2019re likely to hear a live band perform. \u201cMr. Blue Sky\u201d (returned in part to the cultural consciousness by Guardians of the Galaxy 2) <\/em>and \u201cEvil Woman\u201d had just about everyone on their feet, and though the crowd did skew toward an older demographic, there was a broad enough variety of attendees to indicate the broad, massive appeal of a band that carved out its own sound and stayed that course through some of the most important songs and records in the rock and pop canon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While there would have been room to sneak in something from the recently reissued, double-LP version of Secret Messages<\/em> (the title track, in particular, would be a killer addition to this particular set) and \u201cXanadu\u201d was missed by this reviewer (here\u2019s hoping they at least add it in other cities), it would have been hard to ask for more. Seeing any legacy act calls into clarity the breadth of an artist\u2019s accomplishments, and the rare privilege of seeing Lynne onstage after such a long time away reminds a person of just how much classic, culturally-engrained material he\u2019s given us.<\/p>\n

Setlist: Jeff Lynne\u2019s ELO live at Allstate Arena, Rosemont, IL, August 15, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

Standin\u2019 in the Rain<\/p>\n

Evil Woman<\/p>\n

All Around the World<\/p>\n

Showdown<\/p>\n

Do Ya<\/p>\n

When I Was A Boy<\/p>\n

Livin\u2019 Thing<\/p>\n

Handle With Care<\/p>\n

Rockaria!<\/p>\n

Can\u2019t Get It Out of My Head<\/p>\n

10538 Overture<\/p>\n

Shine a Little Love<\/p>\n

Wild West Hero<\/p>\n

Sweet Talkin\u2019 Woman<\/p>\n

Telephone Line<\/p>\n

Turn to Stone<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Bring Me Down<\/p>\n

Mr. Blue Sky<\/p>\n

Roll Over Beethoven<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Christopher David Entire genres of music and entire generations of bands have been created and have gone extinct in the time since ELO last took on a proper North […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,41,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-news","category-features","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}