Thurs. May 10 

     Ever been to Chuck E. Cheese? A groan-inducing “happy” place with screaming young ones, cardboard pizza, obnoxious animatronics and primary-color surroundings. And it’s always some kid’s birthday. Last year I was at the Paradise when ALO celebrated Zach Gill’s 35th birthday.  The singer-keyboardist is the frontman for the California jam band ALO. Guitarist-singer Dan Lebowitz brought out a candle-lit cake midway through the first of the band’s two hour-long sets before 300 people. Everyone sang “Happy Birthday.”
    “I’ll remember this night for the rest of my life,” Gill said later, during a break in the song “Barbeque.” Really?!) He then led the crowd through a series of exaggerated pantomimes, climaxing with grape stomping and smearing the invisible juice.ll over.
    This was not my idea of fun. It might be your’s. They are at the Brighton Music Hall Thursday May 10.
     ALO – which originally stood for Animal Liberation Orchestra – views every glass as half-full or better. Though their latest CD, “Man of the World,” sees them venturing into slightly darker territory, ALO in concert was all about spreading the endless warm vibe, the essence of jam band ethos.
    The problem was that everything was cut from the same cloth  – upbeat soft rock with even-keel tempos. If this sounds like something out of the Jack Johnson playbook, well, it is. Gill and the neo-hippie Johnson went to college together. Gill often plays keyboards in Johnson’s band. ALO records for his label, Brushfire.
      The concert took shape right away with “Try,” where the chorus urged one and all “to try just a little bit harder” and the band clicked into the lazy, loping groove at which they excel. In “Big Appetite,” we were assured “Baby, it’ll be all right.”
    In the “Wasting Time (IslaVista Song),” Gill made it clear he was a guy who liked throwing rocks in the ocean, having a drink, smoking a “doob” – doing exactly what the title said. He began it by inquiring about why Boston was called “Beantown,” proclaimed a love of  beans. And then he worked “Boston baked beans” into the lyrics.
    At their best, ALO hit Allman Brothers Band-lite grooves. At their most boring and banal, they chugged along a cheery, ineffectual path. Vocals were mostly shared by Gill and Lebowitz, with drummer David Brogan and bassist Steve Adams chipping in.
    Johnson wasn’t there in person, but his presence hovered, especially when they got to “Girl, I Wanna Lay You Down.” (They recorded it on disc with him.) Gill switched to accordion and they sang about this girl: “When I touch you my heart begins to flutter/'Cause you're smooth and creamy like peanut butter.” Really!”
With Chris Kasper, at 9. Tix: $15.

158 Brighton Ave., Allston, 617-779-0140 www.brightonmusichall.com