The Weeklings’ monthly shows in West Orange will begin this week

by JAY LUSTIG

MONA BAGATELLE SHENKER

From left, Glen Burtnik, Bob Burger, John Merjave and Joe Bellia of The Weeklings.

The Dome Rooftop Lounge at The Manor, a large restaurant and banquet facility in West Orange, began presenting live bands in November, and launches a series of monthly shows by The Weeklings on March 29. The show is sold out, but there are more coming up on April 19 and May 17.

After that, says singer-songwriter-bassist Lefty Weekling (Glen Burtnik), “We’ll see how it goes. If it goes well, we’ll keep it up.”

The band — also including singer-songwriter-guitarist Zeek Weekling (Bob Burger), guitarist Rocky Weekling (John Merjave) and drummer Smokestack Weekling (Joe Bellia) — will play its usual mix of Beatles covers and Beatles-inspired originals at the show. The band plays Beatles hits in concert, though the Lennon & McCartney songs it has recorded on its two albums, 2015’s The Weeklings and last year’s Studio 2, have been obscure ones — songs that ended up being recorded by other artists, or that showed up only briefly in Beatles recording sessions before being abandoned.

The title of Studio 2 refers to the room at Abbey Road Studios in London where it was recorded. It also happens to be the room where The Beatles themselves did much of their recording.

The cover of The Weeklings’ second album, “Studio 2.”

“It’s very much like all of the photos and all of the books that we’ve read,” says Zeek Weekling. “So it was kind of familiar, being there. There we were singing into these old microphones, and the signal processing going through this old, vintage gear, a lot of which was most likely used by the Beatles.

“On the one hand, we were just making a record. We’re professional musicians, and we were very serious about making a good recording. And on the other hand, we’re (Beatles) fans, and we were kind of tourists. But I’m really happy with how it all came out.”

Toby Hulbert, who is on the staff at Abbey Road, oversaw the recording, and Alan Parsons and Ken Scott, who both worked on Beatles records themselves, made themselves available for consultation.

“We didn’t know how we would be received at the studio, and what they’d be thinking about what we were trying to do,” says Lefty. “But they were 100 hundred percent behind it. They don’t really get that many projects of that type, so they pulled out all the extra gear for us. They pretty much rolled out the red carpet. It was more than we expected.”

Would they go back there again, to make another album?

“Zeek keeps saying that he wants to,” says Lefty. “It’s like when you’re a kid, and you get on a rollercoaster ride that you particularly love. You just want to do it again.”

“I don’t see why we wouldn’t want to go back, other than, there is some expense involved,” says Zeek. “But we’re getting more successful, so I don’t think that’s necessarily out of the question.”

Other New Jersey shows The Weeklings have coming up include The Record Collector in Bordentown, April 14; The Red Bank Beer, Wine and Food Fest, April 30; and The Theatre at Woodbridge Middle School, May 3.

For information, visit weeklings.com.

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