Brian O’Connell: electric bassist, composer, bandleader

REGIONALLY RECOGNIZED BASS WIZARD

Brian O’Connell is a unique musical trickster and daredevil who freely travels across a galaxy of infectious styles, sounds, and genres. Over three decades, his incendiary and kinetic bass-playing approach has melted faces and blown minds at festivals, theaters, and clubs across the Northeast and beyond.

With a wildly charismatic and engaging performance style, Brian has won over many fans from his extensive performance experience with: Dead Man’s Waltz, Arukah, Uncle Sammy, Rev Tor Band, Gordon Stone, Gary Backstrom, and many others. Aside from his impressive skills on the bass guitar, his shows also feature the unusual 12-string Touch Guitar: a guitar and bass combined into a single instrument, specifically designed for finger tapping techniques.

He has performed and/or recorded with members of the Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa Band, Todd Rundgren Band, moe., Umphry's McGee, Soulive, Spin Doctors, Steely Dan, and many more.

DIVERSE MUSICAL UNIVERSE

O’Connell’s intoxicating blend of sound features raucous jazz-fusion, jam-heavy psychedelia, catchy pop hooks, groove-based world music influences, and imaginative prog-rock throughout his original compositions. When his band hits the stage, you may be served up a quirky reggae tune that leads into an African inspired kaleidoscope of funky riffs, or a dark prog-metal meditation about the Salem Witch Trials followed by catchy alt-pop tune in an odd time signature. No matter the style, everything is played with virtuosity and infectious energy by the world-class players he brings into his band.

His bass-heavy musical universe will directly appeal to fans of bands like Consider the Source, Club d’Elf, Lespecial, Squeaky Feet, Umphry’s McGee, and Dopapod. Fans have compared his songs to Phish, Frank Zappa, Todd Rundgren, King Crimson, Primus, Peter Gabriel, and Pat Metheny. His bass playing is especially inspired by Jaco Pastorius, Victor Wooten, Tony Levin, Flea, Steve Swallow, and Phil Lesh.

CROSS-PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGNS

Brian is an aggressive promoter of his shows, using both analog and online approaches. Brian’s previous original project, Arukah, played many successful shows and gained popularity all over New England and NY at festivals and clubs, both headlining and opening from 2021-2024. Brian currently plays bass for the highly successful tribute band Dead Man’s Waltz, who blend together the music of Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers, and The Band. Dead Man’s Waltz draws 200-700 fans at their shows in the Northeast and O’Connell brings down the house with a now-legendary nightly bass feature. Brian capitalizes on that popularity with direct face-to-face and online promotion to this fanbase with hand bills, flyers, word-of-mouth, and aggressive social media promo campaigns.

QUOTES

"Landing somewhere between amazing and stellar, O’Connell and his mates consistently set the stage ablaze…O’Connell serves genuine deep swamp funk on the low end…Exceptional players, O’Connell and his mates are nothing short of outstanding. The deliciousness of their licks, beauty in their feel and overall power can hardly be overstated." - Andy Kaufman, Music Connection Magazine (https://www.musicconnection.com/pdf/completeissue/mcfebruary2020.pdf PAGE 48)

“Uncle Sammy is a startlingly nimble, energetic, and spontaneous young quartet apparently comfortable jamming in just about any style of music…They amazed me recently with inventive jam after genre-shifting jam…Heavy in the chops department, and stylistically slippery to boot, Uncle Sammy improvises with a ceaselessly inventive prog-fusion edge”. - Richard Gehr, The Village Voice