ALO rolls thru Philly/NYC

We had the pleasure of catching up with our friends from the band, Animal Liberation Orchestra (ALO) this past week as they rolled through our neck o’ the woods.  They were groovy enough to invite us as their guests for their recent shows in Brooklyn and Philly and as always, we had an absolute blast.

The first night was at this hip venue, called The Brooklyn Bowl…Part Bowling Alley, part Music Hall and Pub.  It was my first time there and I can definitely say it’s a cool place to see a show.

Chelsea and I rolled in with our close buddy Dave Fowler, from the band, Echo Movement..We did some vinyl record shopping and ate way wayyyy too much food at our fav’ Brooklyn vegan fastfood joint before hand…Food Swings.

Zach Gill (ALO frontman and Jack Johnson’s keyboardist) and I doing a shot of Petrone (above). Shots are definitely not “my thing”, so I am glad I held this one down all night 🙂
ALO’s bassist, our friend Steve Adam‘s girlfriend Melissa (above), was celebrating her birthday that night and they graciously invited us to join them and the band in some late night drunken bowling.  I seem to remember breakdancing on the lane after getting a strike (about 5 seconds after the below picture ….I am admittedly a really happy and goofy drunk.

Next Night…Philly, here we come…

We rolled into Philly’s TLA with our good friends, (Above) Scott (co-owner of Original Skateboards), my gf Chelsea, My sis-in-law Amber and our dear friend and helper, Alexa.  Pregaming at the bar with $6 PBR’s (ouch!)

After an epic boat ride, courtesy of the Rabbe’s…Our friend and Musician, Quincy Mumford and crew met up with us at the dock to go hit the up South Street.

ALO completely kicked ass at both shows.  If you’ve never seen them, buy tickets next time they’re near you…They are a band with musical integrity, masters of their instruments and just incredibly warm hearted people.

We also had the added pleasure of meeting a new friend, Chris Velan, who was the opening act for both nights ALO performed.  Chris is a truly talented dude, with a soulful voice and acoustic riffs that make you wanna find your groove.  He did a cover of Prince’s “Lets Go Crazy” accompanied by ALO and it was ridiculously sweet!

Mental note to self: I must say, even though I am a “big kid” now, I need to not get so tipsy next time so I can see straight when having deep conversations after shows 😉

Big shout of thanks goes out to the ALO crew and to the Rabbe family for their adventurous boat ride to Philly!

(Check out this clip I shot of ALO performing, “Girl I Wanna Lay You Down”)