Ekoostik Hookah will be making their long awaited return to the Toledo area when they will perform at Club Bijou next Saturday at 9 p.m.

The band is on tour to support their new album entitled “It All Comes Together” which will hit stores in early 2007 accompanied by a live DVD.

The band, which has just returned from hiatus, formed in 1991 when they got together once a week to perform on open stage nights in Columbus and soon realized that they were gaining a following.

Ekoostik Hookah’s musical style ranges from rock ‘n roll, blues, funk and jazz, and drummer Eric Lanese says that is something the band takes pride in.

Although the band has not been playing as steadily as they have in the past, Lanese says that they are playing more quality gigs and bigger and better shows.

One of the “bigger and better shows” is Hookahville, a festival the band has put on twice a year since the early 90s in Legends Valley, just outside of Columbus.

“It’s one of those things that started off small, we kind of just threw a party outside and it went well and people started camping out,” Lanese said. “Since then it got bigger and bigger and we got more money to spend on bigger acts and we kept getting more people to come.”

Other musical acts that shared the stage with Ekoostik Hookah at Hookahville included David Crosby, Blues Traveler and George Clinton, among many others.

Through touring for the past fifteen years, the band has managed to release eight albums with their ninth scheduled for an early release in 2007. “It All Comes Together,” is actually a re-recorded version of their first release.

The band decided to re-record their first album because of the technology that will allow the album to sound more modern.

“Our first album, the recording wasn’t that great, but the songs were. So with the way things are now and technology we went in and we played and re-recorded our songs that were from twelve years ago,” Lanese said. “We did a couple of them in the studio and then we recorded for two nights live in studio.”

Fans were invited down to the Atlanta studio and the band played live in front of 200 people and they combined the studio cuts with the live cuts to create “It All Comes Together.”

Next Saturday, fans in the Toledo will be able to hear a lot of those cuts off the new album as well as many fan favorites, but not even Lanese knows what to expect every time his band takes the stage.

“There is a lot of energy in our jams. We are never playing the same music,” the drummer said. “It is always a different set list every single night, so every night is a different show. It is hard to say how it is going to turn out, some nights are more rocking and some nights are more mellow.”

Ally Aras, manager of Club Bijou, is glad to have the band back after a long hiatus.

“We have had them perform here before and they are a great band,” Aras said. “They are just ecliptic, they are very talented musicians.”