Electric Light Orchestra - ZOOM Tour Live
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Electric Light Orchestra - ZOOM Tour Live
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In 2001 Jeff Lynne dusted off the ELO spaceship for a planned tour in support of their first album of new material in 15 years. And this would be the real Electric Light Orchestra - Jeff Lynne's Electric Light Orchestra! - not some Electric Light Orchestra II joke that former ELO drummer Bev Bevan was parading around throughout the 1990's. Kind of like CCR without John Fogerty huh? The Zoom album was written and produced exclusively by Lynne, like most of the earlier ELO albums, and he performs the majority of the instruments as well. Along with his signature layered vocals, Lynne plays guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, and cello on the album, while getting some help from such friends as George Harrison and Ringo Star on a few of the songs. ELO is one of those bands that has about a hundred "Best Of" or "Greatest Hits" collections floating around, especially when you include the import releases. I found a good deal on one of these while in Spain about ten years ago titled Definitive Collection - a single-disk, 19-song collection which inspired me to revisit this old band I had enjoyed so much in the past. My first introduction to ELO was at an amusement park in Maine, near where I grew up, on this wild ride called the Astrosphere. The ride looks like a mini Space Mountain on the outside but inside you get hurled around on two scrambler rides, positioned as if they are going to collide horrifically with each other, as lasers and strobe lights fire frantically all around you. All the while ELO's "Fire On High" is blasting at an ungodly volume, as the menacing orchestration and multi acoustic guitar assault intensifies the thrill. Almost everyone comes out of that ride saying "cool ride....but what the hell was that awesome song?". Too bad they didn't perform it here. Zoom Tour Live was filmed at CBS Television City in Los Angeles in May 2001 and was originally intended to be a dress rehearsal for a follow on tour to promote the Zoom album. This never really materialized due to poor ticket sales, so that makes this recording all the more important to all of the disappointed ELO fans. The show kicks off in a grand fashion as the giant pod-like spaceship, that has enveloped the stage, begins to pulsate radiant blue and white light while individual branches of the pod all start to open and rise upward revealing the band and the fog shrouded stage below. The opening sound effects soon fade into the famous opening guitar riff to "Do Ya" being hammered out by a black suited Lynne, whose trademark dark sunglasses, giant semi-afro, and scruffy beard make him look more like a Muppet character than ever. From there it is one hit after another, with a healthy dose of seven new Zoom songs sprinkled in between. Fortunately Zoom contains some of the strongest ELO material since 1979's Discovery album, and the songs held up very well beside all of the classics. "Alright" was the first new song to be performed and it is a vibrant pop-rocker with lush harmonies and a memorable chorus. But Zoom's strength is in it's ballads, such as "Moment in Paradise", "Just for Love", and "Ordinary Dream", which are some of the best Lynne has written in a long while. The only original ELO member joining Lynne onstage was keyboardist Richard Tandy. Completing the band were the Bissonette brothers Gregg and Matt on drums and bass, Marc Mann on guitar, Rosie Vela on vocals, and Peggy Baldwin and Sarah O'Brien on cello. Most of these musicians are good singers as well, especially Vela, so all of the elaborate vocal harmonies were reproduced brilliantly. The Electric Light Orchestra have always been one of the most unique sounding bands ever, thanks to all of those orchestra-laden pop songs drenched in cellos, multi-layered guitars, and Lynn's instantly recognizable lead and harmony vocals. They are often referred to as a poor man's Beatles, but that is still better than most of the other crap out there. This DVD was meticulously produced and includes Dolby digital stereo, 5.1 and DTS surround audio tracks which accompany a stunning, 16:9 enhanced, widescreen video presentation. The DTS track provides a rich sound with precise instrumentation and vocals, and the Dolby 5.1 track sounds nearly as impressive. The surround stage was used extensively and you could hear an abundance of crowd noise and music from the rear speakers. Sometimes the instruments were a little too pronounced in the rears to sound natural, but the mix sounded excellent overall. Some nice bonus features were included with this DVD including a video interview with Jeff Lynne, a brief history of Zoom, and a talk with some of the fans who came from all over the world to attend this show. The interview consisted mostly of questions written across the screen, such as "Why did you disband ELO?", and then Lynne goes on to answer the questions. I would certainly shell out a couple of Andrew Jackson's to see a full-blown ELO concert if they toured again. Especially with a band as good as he assembled for this show - and especially since I never got to see them during their heyday. Lynne just needs to realize that he is no longer going to fill the big stadiums with his spaceships anymore, but there are plenty of great smaller venues that would be perfect for a show on the scale of Zoom Live. Better yet a double-bill with, oh, how about Yes! I can dream can't I? Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - August 2005 |
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Running Time: 98 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - November 2001 |