Two Banai cousins party onstage

It’s cause for celebration when Ehud and Yuval Banai reunite onstage.

The first cousins performed their second of four Tel Aviv concerts Wednesday night, reuniting Ehud and his band with Mashina, the 1980s rock band headed by Yuval.

The two hadn’t performed onstage together since 2007. Their first major collaboration was in 1985, when Ehud Banai wrote “Night Train” for his cousin and Mashina, and it became a major hit for the band.

They each followed their own musical direction, Ehud Banai developing an Eastern-style, alternative rock sound, laden with spiritual sometimes similar to what his some of his other musical cousins, Meir and Eviatar Banai, compose and perform.

Yuval, meanwhile, launched his own solo career and his son, Elisha Banai, also found his way into the family business, headlining his band, Elisha Banai and the Forty Thieves.

“It’s fun for them to meet up like this,” said Dandan Matiuk, a music editor at radio station Galgalatz. “They do it for themselves; it’s not for commercial reasons.”

In a statement made prior to the concerts, Ehud said the two musicians had initially planned to divide the evening into separate parts and a joint section. But “it became clear very quickly that the personal and musical connection is so much fun and successful that there was no reason to separate us,” he said.

“It’s fun to sing a little Ehud Banai and it’s fun for me to hear Ehud sing Mashina,” added Yuval.

The concerts feature songs from the two musicians’ various eras and albums, and Ehud Banai posted some of his own links on his Facebook page after the first concert. “Big excitement in the auditorium,” he wrote.

Tickets are still available for the final concert on February 23.