ALO Delivers Big-Time Performance At Santa Cruz’ Cozy Moe’s Alley (SHOW REVIEW/PHOTOS)

If there is one thing that you can hang your hat on, one thing in this world by which you can set your watch it is that ALO will ALWAYS deliver a solid performance. By rights, as they wheeled into Santa Cruz’s Moe’s Alley this past Friday, not only was it their 17th consecutive Tour d’Amour, but it was also the final leg of that tour. Over the past month, the band has threaded the needle through various weather issues and they had to have been tired. And this was the last show before they brought it home to San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium the next night. No one would have begrudged them leaving something in the tank for San Francisco.

But Moe’s was a sellout night, probably one of the hottest tickets in town. This show had sold out in short order – one of the venue’s quickest sellouts. Granted, Moe’s is a small venue, but the ALO faithful knew this would be one hell of a heater and they were right. The first few rows from the stage were full within minutes of doors and the room filled out nicely before the band took the stage. It had been years since they had played this venue (five to be exact), the last show was a pre-pandemic burndown back in 2019.

To go through it all song by song would be dumb. Here’s the thing, time and again this band has been called underrated. But is ALO underrated at this point? You know about them, right? While they perform up and down California, appearances out of state are admittedly fewer and farther between but . . . this can’t be an underrated band. These days you’d be hard-pressed to find a musical unit that can take the stage night after night and produce such raging, focused performances as they do. While they are certainly a jam band, their jams always remain on point. What this band does is find a groove and capitalize on it. They expand without rambling. What we all need to understand here is that if ALO finds itself within a hundred miles of you, you just go. You buy the ticket, load your friends in the car and go. You won’t ever regret it.

ALO weaves deep Funk grooves into Reggae and Rock. It is in the jams that we find the grit and the depth of what this band can deliver. Their lyrics are fun and poignant, positive and encouraging. The notes soar out from the stage and are often met with mouths agape and peels of cheering astonishment in reaction to the outstanding musicianship. An uninitiated friend found himself at Moe’s this weekend. It was delightful to watch him “get it” as Dan Lebowitz raged his custom acoustic weaving in and out of the simply ridiculous rhythm section of Steve Adams and Ezra Lipp. Adams held everything down while Lipp dropped syncopated beats that would make Billy Kreutzmann proud. And where Lebo bobbed and weaved, right in there was also Zach Gill filling holes and then some on keys. Gill, night after night, proves why he is tapped by musicians the likes of Jack Johnson to play in their bands. His southern California swagger and soulfulness is instantly comfortable, it invites the audience in and calls them to boogie. And boogie they do. The crowd, the faithful that night, was composed of all ages, from twenty-somethings to seventy-somethings. There were enough band parents in the crowd for Gill to call out proudly, “Hey! We’re your kids!”

And it’s always a celebration. Any show by any band can be seen as a kind of celebration, but there’s just something different about an ALO show. The shows are always over the top in the best way. The fans are solidly united behind these guys and declare show themes ahead of performances on the reg. This night was no different, and as one looked over the crowd swaying, flailing, and head bobbing, everything was done in time. Everything was on point – it always is. And so ALO left little on the table – little to top the next night in San Francisco, sweating under the lights and giving everything they had for that little central coast venue. Bartenders shook their asses as they sped through drink orders. Smiles went on for miles. And as we left out into the seasonably cold, coastal night, those of us who couldn’t make it to the Fillmore were okay. And as for that uninitiated friend, when asked what he thought, the answer was perfect. With eyes wide and a new record tucked under his arm he said, “Well, I won’t ever miss another one.”

Congratulations, ALO, you do important work. Your positivity, the joy you bring to so many, and your commitment to delivering so much happiness night after night is a noble and vital thing in this world. Now . . . remember . . . if they’re ever within a hundred miles, you just go.