Jeff Lynne’s ELO bring their rousing jukebox to Toronto for their final tour

As the co-founder and creative driving force of the Electric Light Orchestra, Jeff Lynne has regaled audiences with a musical evolution over 50-plus years that has been nothing short of astonishing, moving from symphonic and progressive rock in the early ‘70s to Beatles-inspired pop confection by the end of that decade alone.
Lynne’s judicious ears and intuitive songwriter knack for irresistible hooks has made him just as indispensable as a producer, as the intermission music between opening rockers Rooney and headliners ELO at Scotiabank Arena on Monday night reminded us: George Harrison’s “Got My Mind Set on You,” Roy Orbison’s “You Got It,” Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” and the Traveling Wilburys — the ultimate rock supergroup featuring Harrison, Orbison, Petty, Lynne and Bob Dylan — blared through the speakers.
It was an aural amuse bouche to whet our appetites for the sumptuous main course: a nearly two-hour showcase of pop brilliance that featured 13 musicians on stage to faithfully recreate the Electric Light Orchestra jukebox: three guitarists (including Lynne), three keyboardists, bassist, drummer, two backing singers and a trio of string players.
A gigantic circular spaceship — a visual staple of the band’s catalogue since it was introduced with 1977’s “A New World Record” — was vertically positioned behind the stage, its spherical “cockpit” serving as the source of animation that accompanied each song. Flanked by a pair of huge screens that magnified the on-stage activity for the estimated 15,000 that jammed Scotiabank Arena to near capacity, ELO introduced its set with a relatively recent number, “One More Time,” from 2019’s “From Out of Nowhere” before awakening the crowd with the first strains of its 1975 classic “Evil Woman.”
The subsequent 18 tunes would also include “Do Ya” (originally recorded by Lynne’s pre-ELO band, the Move) and the slicing cello ambience of “10538 Overture” from ELO’s eponymous debut. 
The set list pretty much kept to ELO’s ‘70s timeline — and the music still sounds as ageless today as it has over the last half-century.
Lynne was in pretty good voice for the entire show, but it should be pointed out that you don’t go to an ELO concert expecting to be wowed by the action: the band leader stood stationary throughout each song, with only the violinist emerging from her chair to claim the spotlight for the way-too-shortened instrumental “Fire on High” and the intro to the joyful “Living Thing.”
Since Lynne had previously announced that this “Over and Out” tour would be his last global road trek as a performer, his tech crew ensured that their boss saw the adulation of the crowd by turning on the house lights after every song, so the singer could soak in every bit of applause.
“I just wanted to thank you for hanging in with us all these years,” Lynne said at one point.
And why wouldn’t they? Lynne’s songs are among the most hummable eargasms around. How can you not favourably respond to songs that even make heartbreak sound happy: the vibrant “Turn to Stone” and the pounding, Beatlesque “Don’t Bring Me Down.”
Lynne even played “All Over the World” from “Xanadu,” the bizarro Olivia Newton-John film.
The poignant “Can’t Get It Out of My Head” from their 1974 breakthrough album, “Eldorado,” was a highlight, as were other exultant and heavy-on-the-harmony ditties: “Strange Magic,” “Shine a Little Love” and “Sweet Talkin’ Woman,” as well as the encore, “Mr. Blue Sky.”
All were faithfully reproduced with fairly clear sonics, and there were only two mild disappointments: that “teaser” version of “Fire on High,” a five-and-a-half-minute song that only took up about 90 seconds of concert time; and no final revisiting of the song that first brought them to the dance on AM radio oh so many years ago, their wildly orchestrated cover of Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven,” which would have been a fitting barnburner considering this was ELO’s final stage manifestation in Toronto.
But perhaps it was missing from the set because Ludwig van had already rolled over and told Tchaikovsky the news: that with the “Mr. Blue Sky” finale, Jeff Lynne will no longer grace us on stage in Canada.
As for his music?
It’ll be a “Living Thing” for generations to come.