Live Performances from the Sean O'Reilly Band. Acoustic/Pop/Rock music with influences ranging from Peter Gabriel and Tori Amos to U2 and Roy Orbison. You can find out more by going to their Myspace pages: myspace.com/seanoreilly and myspace.com/patoreilly. Acoustic performances include Singer/Pianist Sean O'Reilly and Singer/Guitarist Patrick O'Reilly.

"I think that my live performances are contingent on this odd misconception I hold about what is an appropriate space for someone to expose psychological disorders. I mean, you walk around doing your day to day things, and you act as calm and composed as you can be, or at least I do. So when I get on stage, it seems like the best place to sort of air my dirty laundry and show everyone what a mess I am. Yes, I know, it is an insane thought, but Im crazy to begin with you just dont know it until you come to one of my shows."

Sean OReilly, the New Haven-based, self-taught pianist and singer/songwriter, chuckles as he explains the intensity of his striking live appearances, but it would seem impossible to hear laughter during the performance of one of his self-labeled downer songs. I usually warn the audience if Im about to play one of my downer songs; I just feel sort of obligated. Maybe its because we live in a society that seems to avert its eyes from anything associated with sorrow, but when I play many of my favorite songs (which are mostly likely down and dreary little numbers), I feel like Im crashing the party for a second then I get over it and proceed to ruin everybodys day and I get my sick little kicks out of it.

Sean believes he is basically a walking contradiction: the jokester product of the have a good time at all costs media and yet he wages war against this way of life in much of his music: Even some of my most accessible and up-beat songs sort of satire the superficiality that they embrace musically. They end up exposing a dark-side to the feel-good quality that they want to uphold. When speaking of how he got involved in music, Sean explains that, when I was about sixteen years old, I had a falling out with some friends; we would basically play video games for very unhealthy lengths of time so when they were out of the picture I had a lot of time on my hands. My parents got our piano out of hock at just about the same time and thats really all there was to it. I just sat down at it one day and slowly the piano became a friend of total devotion. All it asks is to be tuned every couple of months and we get along quite nicely.

He speaks of the music today, I dont want to be that guy who just goes on and on about how everything is garbage; thats not true at all. But you have to search a lot to find the good stuff. Thats the problem really: the search for good music has become too difficult for a lot of people and that is, I believe, why so many are disillusioned about the music industry. And really whats thrown in your face and labeled as the music of today is so narrow. Thats what I find so amusing is that in this liberal and diverse montage of music everything is actually really homogenous with a very conservative foundation of what can be commercial. It all seems to be the same musical ideas recycled over and over with some young, sexy things to look at. Nothing against young, sexy things, Sean laughs, Im sure in a secret place we would all like to be young, sexy things, and it can be entertaining to look at them as well, but some music for our ears could be stimulating as well, you know?

When asked about his most harrowing experience on stage Sean answers, Well the story that immediately comes to mind is when I played a show with my band. I was playing one of my downer songs and right at the nihilistic conclusion of the song I sing over and over Im alone today and this biker would shout out between the lines STUPID! over and over. But the thing is -- the biker guy really isnt the worst concert go-er Ive seen at all; I mean, he didnt hurt my feelings or anything, and he was at least invested enough in what was going on on-stage to have a strong opinion. In the end, I think thats what Im after Im searching for a reaction, the strongest I can get. I want to invite the audience out of that haze of complacency and into some sort of visceral life. Just for a moment though; we can all have fun after that.