W.H. student books a Brady Brothers concert

Getting pre-teens to listen to important parental messages is sometimes tricky, and should be done by using a proven, tactical approach — like getting two teenage heartthrobs to convey it.

Last week, the Brady Brothers, an increasingly popular acoustic band among middle school set, did exactly that at West Hempstead High School, thanks to seventh grade student Fiona O’Connor.

“I’ve been going to their concerts for a while, so I looked them up on YouTube and saw their ‘Make Your Mark’ video on the Disney Channel,” said Fiona, who attends West Hempstead Middle School. “They talk about anti-bullying and I thought it was really inspiring and wanted to get this event to come to our school.”

Through the help of the school’s guidance counselor, Cari Lubliner, she did just that. “Fiona came to me with this great idea, and we looked on their website, saw their booking address, called their mom and corresponded through email.”

The Brady Brothers are a two-person band made up of Dylan and Cody, 16, Sea Cliff residents who, in addition to appearing on “Make Your Mark”, also performed recently at the Paramount Theatre during the “Hot New Artists Show” and were an opening act for Meghan Trainor. The brothers went on tour last year and have managed to attract over 21,000 Twitter followers. They are working on an album of original songs tentatively scheduled for release in July.

Last week, the Herald found the boys speaking at West Hempstead High School to students — 300 strong — about Tourette Syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by repetitive, involuntary motor and vocalization tics. Dylan, who played the drums and sang during the concert that followed, suffers from the disorder.

“I was diagnosed with TS during freshman year at high school,” said Dylan. “My parents have always noticed that when I’m on stage performing maybe I’ll tic four or five times. If I wasn’t, it might be 200 times, so I focus on what I’m doing and all the stress and anxiety goes away.”

Prior to the concert, Dylan asked the fans to go through an exercise to help them gain an understanding of what it’s like to have Tourette Syndrome. “Write the pledge of allegiance on a piece of paper and skip every third word,” Dylan said. “And then, when I clap once, look up once, and when I clap twice, look up twice.” Needless to say, there was a lot of clapping and looking while the students tried diligently to write the requested amendment to the pledge, and didn’t get very far.

The boys’ Q&A session was followed by a concert, and the screams of hundreds of their fans.