There was a time when MTV was still actually playing music and Australia only had 1 touring summer festival...

That was about 20 years ago, when flannel was last in fashion and Nirvana, REM, Alice In Chains, Eric Clapton and any other band that had made their reputation playing rock would get all sensitive and soft for an intimate (and usually wildly popular) unplugged gig.

The concept was pretty simple. Replace the amplifiers with acoustic guitars and a string section, play in a seated theater and let the music speak for itself. Listening back to some of those recordings it's clear that great songs, stripped of studio trickery, compression and distortion allow the listener to hear the music in a new light. And allow the artist to give their audience something new or perhaps even find something in their own music that they didn't know existed.

For Birds Of Tokyo, I can't imagine that the decision to reignite the concept and go unplugged would have been too difficult. At the core of Birds Of Tokyo's sound is classic, melodic songwriting and Ian Kenny's astounding voice which in these recordings is nothing short of breathtaking. Birds of Tokyo played a sold out national tour with a string section, a pianist, a set of brushes for the kit and an array of accoustic guitars, 12 strings, banjos and ukulele. It's clear they took great care in re-arranging their songs for the show, this was no token effort.

Now released on CD and DVD, its a must for any fan and certainly something that might pique the interest of music fans that have previously given The Birds Of Tokyo a wide berth.