Review & setlist: ELO is awesome and I will die on that hill

There was no bringing down the TD Garden crowd when Jeff Lynne's ELO recreated their hits to perfection Monday.

There are people out there who don’t like ELO. Those people are wrong.

Yes, the Electric Light Orchestra may have had its share of detractors during its 1970s and ’80s heyday, I think at least in part because people thought the band’s particular take on progressive rock lacked the gravitas of a King Crimson or Yes. Of course, King Crimson sounded like they’d never even heard a Chuck Berry song, much less sung one — not so ELO, making them at least 10 times more fun.

When “Jeff Lynn’s ELO” (the erstwhile Wilbury is the last man standing from the original ELO, whose other members have long since departed the band or this mortal plane, or both) hit TD Garden for their “Over and Out” farewell tour Monday, fun was absolutely on the agenda. And in its service were all the things you could ever want from a classic ELO show: Lasers! A vocoder! That giant spaceship on a tremendous circular screen! (Although not the spaceship that’s an upside-down guitar — that’s Boston.)

Lynne eased into the evening by starting with “One More Time,” a track off the (surprisingly good) 2019 album “From Out of Nowhere” — but it was the last time that anyone in the sold-out Garden crowd might have been less than familiar with what was coming from the stage. As the band launched into 1977’s “Do Ya” — complete with as classic a 1970s guitar riff as you’ll find anywhere — the audience was positively giddy.

The first thing that you noticed was that Jeff Lynne, at 76, still sounds like Jeff Lynne — that’s never a given when seeing someone who’s been at this for 50 years, but Lynne’s clearly taken care of his vocal instrument. This was particularly clear on slower songs like “Strange Magic” and “Can’t Get it Out of My Head,” when it was obvious he had all his chops intact, impressively so. Granted, he remained mostly firmly planted at center mic, and didn’t talk much — although he was very generous with the thumbs up. (And we did get an impressed “Wow!” at the lit-up cellphones adorning the arena during “Out of My Head.”)

Lynne has also surrounded himself with 12 amazingly talented musicians, a fair number who were probably (OK, definitely) not born when “Do Ya” made its first appearance on AM radio. Seeing the three-person string section making the most of Lynne’s arrangements live in real-time was an utter pleasure, and when Jessie Murphy brought her violin up front for “Living Thing,” she was a rock star in her own right.

Lynne was particularly well supported by his singers, Iain Hornal and Melanie Lewis-McDonald — they really contributed too much to call them background singers — who seemed thrilled to be there, Hornal trading lead vocals with Lynne on “Showdown,” Lewis-McDonald providing the stunning operatic intro to the exquisitely over-the-top “Rockaria!,” to name just a few examples. (Lynne was no slouch on that number either — his woo-hoo-hoos sounded straight out of 1977.)

All of those songs were among a litany of immaculately reproduced hits brought expertly to life by Lynne and company — maybe too expertly? The slavish recreation of the original records was impressive without a doubt, but during slower songs like “Strange Magic” I found myself wanting guitarist Milton McDonald to break into an improvisational jazz solo, just to freak everybody out. But bringing something new to these classic tracks was not the purpose of this victory lap.

Besides, even if the band wasn’t breaking new ground you’d have to actively force yourself not to be riveted, given the production values behind the giant circular screen and perpetual laser show. In addition to a mesmerizing morphing cartoon witch to accompany “Evil Woman,” at any given moment you might find yourself in the company of a rubber-suited spaceman, a giant eyeball, or a reasonable facsimile of the Death Star trench. And the effects spread onto the tremendous side screens as well — at one point during “Rockaria!” Lynne had a nebula on his pants.

And yes, everyone in the room, including the band, seemed to know how corny it all was — you could see keyboardist Marcus Byrne flash a wry smile when his vocoder actually got laughs — and not a single one of us cared. The corniness, i.e, the sheer fun of these unabashedly goofy classical-meets-classic-rock arrangements, and the nostalgia they elicit from those who grew up with them, is the point.

This was never more apparent than during “Turn to Stone,” whose patter section (“I’m turnin’ I’m turnin’ I’m turnin’ to stone”) Lynne and company nailed to perfection, to ecstatic response — the energy and accompanying strobe lights lit the place up like Doc Brown’s time machine was zapping the entire room back to 1977. (The giant disco ball on “Shine a Little Love” had a similar effect.)

They may have barrelled through their 20 songs with the efficiency of a futuristic spaceship (the whole set clocked in at about 90 minutes), but the entire enterprise was buoyant and celebratory. “Don’t Bring Me Down” — which ended the main set before the band came back to end with a dazzling “Mr. Blue Sky” — could have been a message to any ELO naysayers who, for some inexplicable reason, might want to throw cold water on this most joyous of gatherings. Jeff Lynne, and the TD Garden crowd, would have none of that.

The night began with a lively opening set from Rooney, who sounded like a long-lost cousin of Cheap Trick by way of the Goo Goo Dolls (and were led by a not-so-long-lost cousin of Nicolas Cage — Robert Schwartzman, also brother of actor Jason Schwartzman and son of Talia Shire).

Setlist for Jeff Lynne’s ELO at TD Garden, Sept. 23, 2024

• Do Ya
• Evil Woman
• Showdown
• Believe Me Now
• Steppin’ Out
• Last Train to London
• Rockaria!
• 10538 Overture
• Strange Magic
• Sweet Talkin’ Woman
• Can’t Get It Out of My Head
• Fire on High
• Livin’ Thing
• Telephone Line
• All Over the World
• Turn to Stone
• Shine a Little Love
• Don’t Bring Me Down

Encore:

• Mr. Blue Sky