ALO Welcomes Anna Moss, Reed Mathis, Tea Leaf Green Members & More In San Francisco

ALO brought Tour d’Amour XV to Great American Music Hall in San Francisco on Friday and Saturday. The quartet was joined by a number of special guests throughout the weekend, including Anna Moss and Reed Mathis as well as Trevor Garrod and Scott Rager of Tea Leaf Green.

The fitting “Make It Back Home,” considering some ALO members live in the Bay Area, opened Friday’s concert. Keyboardist Mookie Siegel was the band’s first guest of the weekend a few songs later. Siegel played keys for a “Sugar On Your Tongue” featuring Zach Gill on accordion. Next, ALO worked a bit of Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner” within a nicely extended “Cowboys And Chorus Girls” before pairing “Water” and “Ridin'” with “The Legend Of Renault” to end the first set. A studio version featuring the song used to close the frame was released as a single earlier in the day.

ALO went with “Get To Do It Again” to start Friday’s second set. Then, veteran Bay Area keyboardist Jordan Feinstein added to “Growing Your Hands Back” before Anna Moss joined the quartet for the Blondie popularized “The Tide Is High.” Moss also augmented ALO for “Kokomo” by The Beach Boys to start an encore that saw the band then go it alone to end the night with “Walls Of Jericho.”

Anna Moss, who is aboard as support on most nights of Tour d’Amour XV, might not have performed a set of her own on Saturday but did guest with ALO. Moss teamed with the band for a take on her own “Amnesty” and the Michael Jackson cover “Rock With You” to close out Saturday’s first set. “Belief” began the evening’s second set. Then, Garrod emerged on keys along with Mathis on guitar for an inventive sequence that saw the musicians work ALO original “The Gardener” into the Tea Leaf Green original “The Garden Pt. III.”

ALO went sans guests for “I Love Music” after “The Garden Pt. III.” Then, ALO drummer Ezra Lipp took center stage as Scott Rager jumped behind the kit for a stellar cover of Aerosmith’s “Dream On.” Lipp gave his best Steven Tyler impression throughout. Next, Ezra took his normal position and Rager vacated the stage for the beloved “Plastic Bubble.” The final collaboration of the weekend followed as Garrod, Mathis, Rager, Nat Keefe (Hot Buttered Rum) and James Stafford filled the stage to accompany ALO on the War classic “Why Can’t We Be Friends.”

The four-piece delivered an extended encore to end the weekend in San Francisco. “Try” gave way to a cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Scarlet Begonias” before ALO performed “Divine Fall.” Next came “Whiter Shade Of Pale” just a week after Procol Harum frontman and the song’s co-writer, Gary Brooker, died at age 76. ALO said farewell to the Bay Area faithful with a version of “Storms And Hurricanes” featuring callbacks to “Scarlet Begonias.”

Photos by Susan Weiand

Fan-Shot Videos

Setlists (via ALO Shapeshifters/Greg Hoagland)

Friday, February 25

Set One: Make it Back Home, Falling Dominoes, Just a Spark, Sugar On Your Tongue^, Cowboys and Chorus Girls*, Water, Ridin’, The Legend of Renault

Set Two: Get to Do it Again, Growing Your Hands Back%, The Tide is High$, Undertow, The Rain, Cool Wind, Baby Blind Spot, Animal Liberation pt. 2

Encore: Kokomo+, Walls of Jericho

• ^ with Mookie Siegal
• * with elements of Tom’s Diner
• % with Jordan Feinstein
• $ The Paragons, with Anna Moss
• + Beach Boys, with Anna Moss

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Saturday, February 26

Set One: Time is of the Essence, Push, Blew Out the Walls, Keep on Giving Jane, Flecks of Gold, The Ticket, Amnesty^, Rock With You*

Set Two: Belief, The Gardener# > The Garden pt. lll$, I Love Music+, Dream On@, Plastic Bubble, Why Can’t We Be Friends€, BBQ > Room for Bloomin’

Encore: Try > Scarlet Begonias£, Divine Fall, Whiter Shade of Pale¥, Storms and Hurricanes&

• ^Anna Moss, with Anna Moss
• *Michael Jackson, w/ Anna Moss
• # w/ Reed Mathis, Trevor Garrod
• $ Tea Leaf Green w/ Reed, Trevor
• + The Way You Make Me Feel tease
• @ Aerosmith, w/ Scott Rager drums, Ezra Lipp lead vocals
• € War, w/ Nat Keefe, James Stafford, Trevor, Reed, Scott
• £ Grateful Dead, w/ Day Tripper Tease
• ¥ Procol Harum
• & w/ elements of Scarlet Begonias