GRASS VALLEY, CA, February 16, 2023 – The Center for the Arts is thrilled to welcome back ALO to the Marisa Funk Theater with local opener The Moore Brothers on March 12, 2023. 

ALO stands for Animal Liberation Orchestra—because music liberates the inner animal, of course. As liberated as they come, Zach Gill, Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz, and Steve Adams have certainly been at this for a long time. The trio met in junior high in Saratoga, California, where they got the idea to put together a band for the eighth-grade talent show, and they quickly connected through their love of music and sound.  ALO calls their music “jam-pop,” and the description is apt.

Meticulously crafted, hooky, and accessible compositions laced with improvisational departures in which they function as a single organism, at once voice and consciousness. They’re always exploring but never wandering. There is always intention, momentum, and a patience, and confidence that can only be wrought from a quarter century of collaboration and water under the bridge.

25 years in, Gill (keyboards/vocals), Lebo (guitar/vocals), Adams (bass, vocals), and “new-guy” – Bay Area drum legend-in-training Ezra Lipp (drums, vocals) have recorded their greatest work to date. Quite simply, this is what happens when the band doesn’t break up – the culmination of a lifetime of shared effort and camaraderie.

Four master collaborators at the peak of their craft individually and collectively with nothing left to prove – near-telepathic cohesion. The band’s new full-length album Silver Saturdays is a celebration of that crooked path, of having lived through a turbulent phase of human history, and of the winding road still to come.

Their first full-length studio LP in eight years and ninth overall studio release, Silver Saturdays isn’t just another album, it is the rock ‘n’ roll dream made reality… best friends since childhood who form a band, buy a van and embark on an adventure out of the lush valleys of the Golden State that’s still flourishing a quarter of a century later. 

The first single, “Hot Damn,” is a feel-good track that alternates between moments of lush instrumentation, fluid fret-simmering guitar leads, and a hypnotic high register-inflected hook perfect to sing along to with the windows down (and funkified enough to move and groove to!). Keyboardist and vocalist Zach Gill explains, “‘Hot Damn’ is the eureka moment, the soulful epiphany, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. As we behold our respective treasures, be they love, wisdom, or an actual chest full of gold, we say to ourselves “Hot Damn!”

Following the album’s arrival on March 3, the band will don their best silver suits and set out on the Tour d’Amour XVI – to support the release and celebrate 25 years together – with good friends The Moore Brothers getting the evening started. Get your tickets now for this fun night of liberating music at The Center for the Arts on March 12, 2023 with local opener The Moore Brothers. 

WHAT: ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra) 

WHERE: The Center for the Arts | 314 West Main Street, Grass Valley, CA 95945

WHEN: Sunday, March 12, 2023 | Doors 6:30 p.m. Show 7:30 p.m.

TICKETS: $23-43 |  thecenterforthearts.org

WEBSITE & INFO: https://sforce.co/3uV5wJa or (530) 274-8384

Since 2000, The Center for the Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization, has grown into a leading presenter of music, dance, theater, comedy, literary and visual art, and family programming, offering more than 150 events per year from its location in downtown Grass Valley. The Center recently completed a major renovation of its multiuse, 21,000-square-foot facility in downtown Grass Valley, making it a premier performing arts destination. The venue includes the Main Stage, which accommodates up to 492 guests in configurable theater seats and up to 700 patrons for dance shows, and a 90-seat studio theater.