POP REVIEW : Elton John at the Forum: A Man Without a Gimmick

From the thunderous audience response during Elton John’s show at the Forum on Tuesday, you’d think that the veteran pop star hadn’t performed in Los Angeles in a decade.

Actually, John sold out three shows at the Hollywood Bowl less than 11 months ago.

Then he must be riding a big comeback hit?

No. John’s coming album, “Sleeping With the Past,” won’t be released until the end of the month. And his last album, “Reg Strikes Back,” didn’t exactly set the pop world on fire.

Then, surely, he must have decided to reintroduce the outrageous costumes and flamboyant stage presence that he put in mothballs a couple of years ago.

Wrong again. John hardly moved from his electric piano, and he wore just two suits during the entire show--granted, one was lavender and the other was lime green.

So what accounted for the frequently tumultuous response?

The songs.

John’s 2 1/2-hour show drew its strength almost completely from the quality and diversity of his music.

For most acts, pacing a show means simply alternating ballads and up-tempo songs. But John’s remarkably diverse repertoire allowed him to move from the spacey funk of “Bennie and the Jets” to the classically shaded elegance of “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word”; from the feel-good pop of “Philadelphia Freedom” to the swaggering, rave-up rock of “The Bitch Is Back”--which was made even hotter Tuesday with the inclusion of several bars of the Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar.”

John also struck just the right balance between engaging but disposable ear candy like last year’s “I Don’t Wanna Go on With You Like That” and more challenging, ambitious works like the symphonic rock piece “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding.”

The 42-year-old singer/songwriter focused on crowd-pleasing oldies in the first hour. Nine of the first 12 songs dated from 1976 or before. The night’s biggest ovation was for the graceful ballad “Candle in the Wind,” which John introduced 16 years ago. The mere mention, early in the show, of the 1973 album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” got a big hand.

But this was no idle stroll down memory lane. John and his five-man backup band pumped up the arrangements of several of the songs and thoroughly revamped two of them. His bluesy funk version of the 1972 pop hit “Rocket Man” bore little resemblance to the original. And John has turned his sing-songy 1984 hit “Sad Songs (Say So Much)” into a muscular, gospel-flavored rocker.

And the balance shifted to newer material in the second hour. There were no songs at all in the show from the years 1977-81, when John was in a commercial and artistic slump.

John told the audience that his coming album was inspired by R&B; songs that he and longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin enjoyed when they were growing up.

You’d never know it, however, from the four songs he previewed Tuesday. The album’s first single, “Healing Hands,” is a crafty mix of pop and rock elements, but the title song is far too pat and polite. John never came close to cutting loose, much less working up a sweat. What kind of R&B; is that?

It once seemed that the secret to John’s success as a concert performer was his over-the-top showmanship, which made him the Liberace of rock.

There must have been times over the years when John worried that if he ever put aside the costumes and the props and the antics, fans would gradually lose interest. Perhaps, he must have feared, it was the outrageousness and the high jinks that intrigued them.

That’s why the strong response Tuesday must have been especially gratifying. When a visibly moved John told the audience, “You’ve touched me very deeply tonight and I thank you,” one could almost see those old fears evaporate.

When John then launched into the proud, chest-thumping “I’m Still Standing,” it was no idle boast.

John’s sold-out, three-night Forum stand is set to conclude Friday. He’s slated to play the Pacific Amphitheatre on Saturday.

Elton John sings Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Amphitheatre, 100 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $18 to $25. Parking: $4. Information: (714) 634-1300.