ALO Hosts Tea Leaf Green Members For Josh Clark’s Birthday & Covers Blondie

The penultimate run of ALO Tour d’Amour XII performances took place this past weekend, when the band played Harlow’s in Sacramento on Friday and the Crystal Bay Casino in Crystal Bay on Saturday. Following weekends in which they covered multiple Elton John and Paul Simon tunes, fans were wondering what group would receive the honor in Sacramento and Crystal Bay. ALO decided to pay tribute to Blondie and they also helped celebrate Tea Leaf Green guitarist Josh Clark’s 40th birthday on Saturday with some of Clark’s band mates.

On Friday, ALO kicked off the action with “IV Song” and “Blew Out The Walls.” The show in Sacramento featured plenty of beloved originals including “Lady Loop,” “I Love Music,” “Dead Still Dance” and “Roses & Clover.” John Craigie opened a number of TDA shows this year and has collaborated with ALO at nearly everyone including on Friday, when he led the quartet through his own “We Ain’t Leaving This Bar Patrick (Til We Find You Some Love).”

ALO has displayed their propensity to jam throughout this year’s Tour d’Amour and an example of the jam-friendly performances was found during the second set in Sacramento. The band weaved their jam vehicle “Shapeshifter” into “My Favorite Valentine” for a sequence that spanned nearly 20 minutes and featured plenty of exploration. Before that, Zach Gill showed off his falsetto vocals on a cover of Blondie’s “Heart Of Glass.”

The run continued in Crystal Bay on Saturday. ALO began their first of two sets with “Ticket,” “Pobrecito” and “Speed Of Dreams.” Fans were then treated to an ALO/TLG supergroup as Josh Clark and TLG keyboardist Trevor Garrod emerged for “Not Old Yet” in honor Clark’s 40th birthday. Then, Tea Leaf Green drummer Scott Rager took over for Ezra Lipp and longtime TLG/ALO collaborator Sean Leahy came out to join Trevor, Josh, Zach, Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz and Steve Adams on a Tea Leaf Green original, “Freedom.” Clark belted out “Freedom” with passion and lots of spirit.

After the TLG collaboration, ALO continued on with “Try.” The quartet fit Blondie’s “The Tide Is High” within “Try” and still had more Blondie shenanigans in the works. ALO opened the second set with “Falling Dominoes” and “Undertow” before welcoming Craigie to the stage for a cover of Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck In The Middle With You.” Then, the quartet began “Cowboys & Chorus Girls” and soon thereafter Lebo led them through an instrumental rendition of Blondie’s “Call Me.” ALO returned to “Cowboys & Chorus Girls” and proceeded to launch into a Gill-sung cover of another Blondie classic: “Rapture.” Zach fit a rap into “Rapture” ahead of the completion of “Cowboys & Chorus Girls.” The evening ended with “Plastic Bubble” and “Maria” along with an “Animal Liberation” encore.

ALO concludes Tour d’Amour XII with three shows at The Fillmore in San Francisco spanning March 16 – 17 that includes a kid’s matinee.

Videos

Audio (Captured by itsup2u)

Setlists (via Shapeshifters)

Friday, February 23

Set One: IV Song, Blew Out The Walls, Sugar On Your Tongue, Dead Still Dance, We Ain’t Leaving This Bar Patrick (w/ John Craigie), Lady Loop

Set Two: I Love Music, Country Electro, Heart Of Glass, Shapeshifter > My Funny Valentine > Shapeshifter, Girl I Wanna Lay You Down, Bizarre Love Triangle

Encore: Roses & Clover

Saturday, February 24

Set One: Ticket, Pobrecito, Speed Of Dreams, Not Old Yet (w/ Josh Clark & Trevor Garrod), Freedom (w/ Clark, Garrod, Sean Leahy & Scott Rager), Try > The Tide Is High > Try, Room For Bloomin’

Set Two: Falling Dominoes, Undertow, Stuck In The Middle With You (w/ John Craigie), Cowboys & Chorus Girls > Call Me > Cowboys & Chorus Girls > Rapture > Cowboys & Chorus Girls > Plastic Bubble, Maria

Encore: Animal Liberation