Moody Blues Delivers Too Much of a Good Thing

The Moody Blues’ career has spanned three decades, and the band’s Pacific Amphitheatre show on Friday seemed to last three decades.

The English quintet (augmented by a second keyboardist and two female singers) didn’t know when to quit: Just before the 90-minute mark, the group lit into a long version of “I’m Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band)” that came as close to jamming as the Moody Blues gets before the band shifted into a bombastic coda. Everything indicated that this would be the finale--and it should have been. But the set continued for another 30 minutes, not counting encores. Of course, filtered through the Moody time warp, those 30 minutes were divided among just three older selections, including the space-epic “Nights in White Satin.”

But even the more straightforward, song-oriented newer material wasn’t sharp or focused, much less inspiring. Rather, songs like “Want to Be With You” (from the current “Sur La Mer” LP) were slow, deadly dull voyages into wispy sonic clouds. So even the Moody Blues’ shortest songs managed to be painfully long--no small achievement. The band’s three-night Greek Theatre engagement continues tonight and Tuesday.