ALO Welcomes Many Guests At Return To Brooklyn Bowl

East Coast ALO shows are rare occurrences to be celebrated. Last night the California-based quartet returned to Brooklyn Bowl in New York City for the first time in two years and made their all-killer, no-filler performance count.

ALO recently released Tangle Of Time, a fantastic album which marks a progression of the band’s sound. The foursome opened with “The Ticket” off the LP, a song that features a gritty undertone not usually found in the band’s often exuberant music. ALO did a fine job of mixing tunes from the new release with classics from their repertoire. They also welcomed a handful of special guests at multiple times in the evening which all made for a fantastic night at the Bowl.

Guitarist Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz has spent a good deal of time in recent years performing the music of the Grateful Dead with the likes of Phil Lesh and Steve Kimock. The lessons Lebo learned have paid dividends with ALO as you could hear some of “Jerry Tone” make its way into Dan’s sound. The new tone gave a fresh coat of paint to such longtime ALO staples as “Walls Of Jericho,” “Plastic Bubble” and “Try.”

“Shapeshifter” was the evening’s big winner on the jam front. While it’s not unusual for the Santa Barbara natives to intersperse “My Favorite Things” within “Shapeshifter,” they did so in an inventive way in NYC as Lebo and keyboardist Zach Gill pushed each other to great heights. Guests on Wednesday night included guitarist Garrin Benfield and members of both California Honeydrops and openers Fruition. One of the highlights of the night is when Fruition came out to lead ALO through a blistering cover of “Woodstock.”

Watch footage of “Woodstock” shot by Marc Millman:

In addition to sitting in with ALO, the Honeydrops led a second line onto the streets of Williamsburg:

https://twitter.com/FurryThug/status/652136715289686017

ALO also continued a tradition on the tour by sharing yarn with the audience that was passed throughout the crowd. Another highlight of the show was the quartet working Billy Joel’s “Keeping The Faith” into “Storms & Hurricanes” assisted by Benfield and Johnny Bones of the Honeydrops. Watch Marc Millman’s footage of the cover:

The tour continues tonight at The Hamilton in Washington D.C. followed by shows in Cambridge on Friday, Baltimore on Saturday and Philadelphia on Sunday. East Coasters should catch ALO while they’re here as it may be a while before they are back.

Setlist

Set: The Ticket, Falling Dominoes, There Was A Time, Blew Out The Walls, Walls Of Jericho, Storms & Hurricanes* > Keeping The Faith*, Push, Plastic Bubble, Not Old Yet, Woodstock^, Shapeshifter > My Favorite Things > Shapeshifter, I Love Music, Try#, Lady Loop#

Encore: Barbeque > Animal Pt. 2