Longtime friends ALO and Brett Dennen will celebrate New Year’s Eve at Oakland, CA’s Fox Theater. SambaDa is also on the evening’s bill. Given that ALO bassist Steve Adams and guitarist Dan Lebowitz spent time in Dennen’s band, the evening should be full of collaborations.

In other news, ALO will release its next album ofnJack Johnson’s Brushfire records in early 2010. Though the band has only played a few shows this year, the members of ALO spent time working on the project this spring at Johnson’s Mango Tree Studio. ALO also made a stealth appearance this past Saturday during ALO keyboardist Zach Gill’s gig at San Francisco’s The Independent.

Gill is currently on tour with Kyle Hollingsworth, fronting a band that includes bassist Garrett Sayers, drummer Dave Watts and guitarist Dan Schwindt (the rhythm section also backs Hollingsworth for his portion of the show). Partway through Gill’s set Lebowitz emerged to play some lap steel and at the end of the show he returned with Adams and ALO drummer Dave Brogan for a tack on Gill’s “Limbs Akimbo” (a song he lent to Hot Buttered Rum for the title track of its new album). The surprise spot featured a unique configuration of ALO with Brogan on keyboards, Lebowitz on lap steel and Adams on dumbek—backed by Gill’s steady trio section.

ALO will perform at Sebastopol, CA’s Sebastopol Community Center on November 6.