A musical erudite and a charming lyricist, O’Brien seems of an unassuming, subtle nature —that is, until he opens his mouth. Blessed with what we like to call “the voice of an angel”, O’Brien knows exactly how to control the melody and the vibrations of his sound so that they danced about the room while keeping within a satisfactory listening range. Needless to say, the audience (us included) was positively hypnotized to the point of developing tunnel vision from the moment the duo played (Cormac Curran accompanied on a grand piano) right till the very last reverb. The title track of the latest The Villagers’ album, Becoming a Jackal, was like almost every other song of theirs—poetic, mesmeric and blissfully indulgent. Quite possibly one of the best showcases we’ve seen in the past year.