I was up at the Bay of Islands Jazz and Blues Festival a couple of months ago and the band people were talking about was Brilleaux.

Over the past few years the four-piece from Tauranga has built quite a following up north but this was for a different reason: it had just unveiled its new album and – unlike its usual hard-rocking R&B sets – it was playing acoustically. And people loved it.

There used to be, in fact there still is, a tradition of bands or songwriters taking an album off to explore something different. A little bit of personal 'time out”. Think David Bowie and Pinups, an album of 50s and 60s cover versions. Or Joe Jackson's excursion into jazz with Jumpin' Jive and Elvis Costello, whose fourth album Almost Blue was recorded in Nashville and featured songs by Hank Williams, Merle Haggard and others.

Well, following their most solid studio album so far, the rather wonderful Decade, Brilleaux have taken a different path with an all-acoustic set – Brilleauvator – which sheds light on some of band front man Graham Clark's early influences. The band will launch the new album and perform for the first time locally as 'Brilleaux Unplugged” next weekend.

I saw one of its unplugged gigs up north and it was a blast, showing – much as the old series of MTV Unplugged concerts did – a different side of the band while never losing sight of its essential 'Brilleaux-ness”. The band has big plans for next year, having been invited to play in England at a series of blues festivals, and this will be yet another arrow in its musical quiver.

Brilleaux will be hitting the stage at the Omokoroa Boat Club next Sunday afternoon (November 4) armed with a whole new acoustic set of songs, alongside local blues 'n' roots favourites Kokomo (another band that released its own 'time out” album in 2008, a collection of Bob Dylan songs called In The Well). Both bands will play separate sets, after which it seems exceedingly likely that a massed jam will take place.

Tickets for the show – which kicks off at 2pm - are $20, available at the Boat Club, Drivers Bar, or from [email protected]. Be quick, they'll probably sell out.

Brilleaux- Brilleauvator: An Acoustic Adventure

If you have lived in Tauranga for any reasonable period of time, odds are you have at some point stumbled into the hard-driving, live-wired R&B cauldron that is Brilleaux. This is a band that takes full-noise, amped-up, Brit-based R&B, cranks the volume up to 11, and then gets you swaggering and sweating the night away on the dance floor. In essence, a band perfectly designed for a night of heads-down, no-nonsense, mindless boogie.

Imagine then my surprise (if not outright consternation) upon reading the title of the latest Brilleaux CD, specifically the 'An Acoustic Adventure' clause therein. Uh oh… time to pull the rocking chairs and zimmer frames out?

To be honest, after my first listen, I thought my initial reaction was right. It wasn't until the third playing that the penny finally dropped. This is still the Brilleaux boys (with regular playmate Tim Julian on piano and keys), but in a context we don't normally get to see or hear. Here's the band post-gig… coming down off the adrenalin rush. Still hyped, still primed to play; they've replaced the jack-hammer with a pick axe is all.

The set list is still solidly founded in classic Brit R&B - most being inspired by British doyens of the genre such as Dr Feelgood, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Savoy Brown and even old-school Rolling Stones - but with a more bluesy and, in some instances, country/folk/swamp stomp spin. Not manic electric, jumpin' out your skin, party time, but early hours of the morning toe tappin', kick back and have a laugh with the boys.

So, if you are able to put aside the preconceived expectations I suspect most all of us have of what Brilleaux is, then I would suggest you take instruction from the man himself (as offered in the liner notes of the CD): 'sit down, shut up and listen'.

Review by: Tony Moon.