Last Night: ALO at the Fillmore

​ALO
Saturday, Feb. 20, 2010
The Fillmore

Better Than: A Deadheads Anonymous meeting

I don't know how many animals local gents Animal Liberation Orchestra (ALO) have liberated lately, but they sure did liberate some butts at the Fillmore last night. Those moving rear ends were attached to people who must've been in fragile health, because they consumed a mighty quantity of what I had to assume was medicinal marijuana. 

Knowing ALO's reputation as a jam band, I expected a crowd thick with citizens of the Wookie Nation, but I felt more like I'd happened upon party time at a ten-year college reunion. The venue was filled with hugs and shared greetings between old friends, reminiscent of the atmosphere at shows by one of the older, local jam-type bands - Grapes for Death, or something like that it was called, I forget. They were pretty famous.

A very appreciative crowd enjoyed two sets of danceable tunes at a packed Fillmore. The band was in the midst of its fourth Tour D'Amour,  an annual February excursion that incorporates a philanthropic bent. Recent Southern California shows raised money for Haitian relief, and last night was a benefit for San Francisco nonprofit Music in Schools Today. The band is also promoting its new album, the Jack Johnson-produced Man of the World. ALO took the stage to a fanfare of the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love," launched into a bouncy version of its own "Hot Tub," and they were off. The quartet played hopeful songs of love, social observation, and good ol' joie de vivre to an audience that couldn't stand still.

​Driven by drummer Dave Brogan and bassist Steve Adams, the bulk of the night's tunes were sung by keyboardist Zach Gill and crescendoed to a fury via the nimble fretwork of guitarist Dan "Lebo" Lebowitz, the main soloist. Lebowitz switched to pedal steel guitar for a handful of songs, complementing new numbers "States of Friction" and "Big Appetite" with melodic doses of tension and heartache. For the rest of the band's two sets, Lebo played the same acoustic guitar, but I wouldn't have known that if I weren't watching. With deft use of wah and effects and a blur of flying fingers, he threw himself into visceral sonic excursions that had me wondering, "How do you do that with a flat-top?" The dude can shred.

Opening was Santa Rosa band Poor Man's Whiskey, whose members' appearance and instrumentation might have had the audience expecting some lazy hippie bluegrass. The band was a fun surprise, with a sound that blended rock, ragtime, country, and, yes, some bluegrass. After being joined by ALO for a rollicking cover of Men at Work's "Down Under," the group broke out a Theremin to engage in an odyssey that I'll describe as Primal Scream Boogie Freak-Out Therapy. I have got to get one of those things.

But in the end, it was all about ALO. The group encouraged many sing-alongs, like crowd-pleaser "Barbecue" -- wait, is that how they liberate animals? Nah, couldn't be. ... Anyway, I don't know if ALO has arrived, since it's been arriving for several years now, but I think these guys are gonna go somewhere. 

Critic's Notebook

Personal bias: I loved 'em!