hALO ALOvers,
Tyler Blue worked his recording magic once again and captured ALO's Tour d'Amour II kick-off party vibe perfectly with his audience mics perched in the rafters high above the blissful revelers below. You can really feel the energy of the crowd as they sing and clap along with the band to co-create the songs as they happen. This is a pure audience tape since the soundboard was unavailable due to the tour being 16-track recorded by the band for future live album release. Their sound engineer David Simon-Baker, along with SOhO house soundman Alan Brown and Gary Atkins, meticulously mic'd each instrument, including SOhO's grand piano so as to catch every sound vibration and thus be able to paint a vibrant soundscape. I can't wait to hear how the multi-track recordings sound, because ALO was pumping out some tasty tunes on Tuesday night. Right from the opening SHINE, you could tell that they were dialed in and ready to groove. As the night progressed, Zach alluded to an underlying theme of the "evolution of a relationship". Once the band and fans became acquainted and opened up to the feeling of mutual admiration, things began to get a bit more intense, and we dove right in head first. An extended COUNTRY CAMPER and funky POSSIBLY DROWN lit the fuse and then they launched into the appropriate VALENTINE"S DAY that had everyone movin' & groovin'. Paul and Brian were ecstatic when the opening notes to GIRL, I WANNA LAY YOU DOWN came through the speakers, listen for their screams of joy ;^) Everyone settled into a smooth WASTING TIME with some nice lap steel licks from Dan, and Smootie tooting on the dueling fluties. Then it was on to the next stage of the relationship where you need to TRY a little harder to build a solid foundation, and with that comes even more beauty and rewards. The LADY LOOP with NA Na Na Nah sing along topped off a spectacularly sizzling hot first set. Set break glow hooping by Jamie, Nicole, Kabir and others provided visual entertainment to compliment the silky sensuous vibe of the night. The second set started off with a WALLS OF JERICHO that was delivered with a slightly different cadence and vocal pattern than normal, almost as if to say just when you thought you knew your partner's every nuance, they show you a different side. Do you really know who this person is? All of a sudden you feel like you are ALL ALONE. But no, really you're not ALOne anymore. Now it's time to say to yourself I BELIEVE (WHEN I FALL IN LOVE IT WILL BE FOREVER). You gotta be THE GARDENER, cultivating your relationship and being true to what grows on... through every part of the SPECTRUM, from adoration to fear, till you reach the comfort of the PLASTIC BUBBLE, and it feels good like an old school (LAYLA) groove. A long and winding BBQ burst into a fiery flaming hot CHILLY CHILE that was so scorching that I thought Dan was going to melt the strings right off his guitar. The aural feast that is MARIA had us overflowing with love, drinking our wine, teasing us with a NORWEGIAN WOOD lick, and took us to the gates of Valhalla to close out an intoxicating second set. For the finale, ALO brought us back down and mellowed us out with that childhood memory invoking summertime feel good tune I CAN"T GO FOR THAT (NO CAN DO), then proceeded to bend and mold the crowd with a 15 minute SHAPESHIFTER that included an audience call and response vocal jam accented by an effects-laden kazoo jam by Lebo, who played it through his guitar pick-ups while he worked his pedals. So Supple!! Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!!

Keepin' it wild and free,
+Irie Pete


Available here for your streaming and downloading pleasure:

www.archive.org/details/al...blue.flac16

Animal Liberation Orchestra
2008-02-12
SOhO Restaurant & Music Club
Santa Barbara, CA

Source: Neumann KM140 > Lunatec V2 > Sony SBM1 > Sony D8
Transfer: Tascam DA-30 (44.1kHz/16bit) > RCA > Creative Audigy II > Adobe Audition 1.5 (edits, fades, tracking) > .WAV > Traders Little Helper (sbe check, flac encoding (level 6), checksum creation) > Flac16
Recorded by: Tyler Blue
Transfer by: +Irie Pete


Set One
Disc 1:
01. Intro
02. Shine
03. Melissa > *
04. Waiting for Jaden
05. Country Camper
06. Banter
07. Possibly Drown
08. Valentine's Day
09. Banter
10. Girl, I Wanna Lay You Down
11. Banter
12. Wasting Time (Isla Vista Song)
13. Banter
14. Try
15. Lady Loop

Set Two
Disc 2:
01. Banter
02. Walls of Jericho
03. All Alone
04. I Believe (When I Fall in Love it Will Be Forever) > %
05. The Gardener >
06. Spectrum
07. Plastic Bubble

Disc 3
01. Barbeque >
02. Chilly Chile
03. Maria

Encore:
04. Banter
05. I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) #
06. Shapeshifter

Notes:
* Instrumental intro, Allman Brothers, first time played
% Stevie Wonder cover, first time played
# Hall and Oats cover, first time played