This show was astounding. Nonstop music, dance and pyrotechnics – but with a warm exultation rare in immense stadium shows.

Back on their home turf, will.i.am started by acknowledging the band’s shared joy at having reached this mountaintop after so many years of climbing: “We started in L.A. and now here we are – selling out the Staples Center two nights in a row!”

Each Pea did a great solo turn and then came together with a perfectly measured but uncontrived sense of joy – more celebration than concert. From Fergie’s sexy/sultry soaring vocals and killer dance moves to will.i.am’s DJ set (in which he wizarded twin turntables flying above the crowd, cross-cutting between Michael Jackson, Nirvana and more), it’s a show with wide-ranging appeal, as attested by the multi-generational, cross-cultural audience in attendance.

Funny hip-hop raves like “My Humps” and “Imma Be” blended ideally with ballads that show off Fergie’s pipes (especially “Where Is the Love?”) and exploded with giant hits, such as “Boom Boom Pow” and “I Gotta Feeling.” This was a happy reminder of how positive, hopeful and unifying of a force music can still be.