Author: Michael Witthaus

Unique Beatles tribute act The Weeklings play Manchester

The Socially Distanced Concert Series closing out the summer at Delta Dental Stadium includes several tribute acts, most of which promise note-for-note recreations of hit songs. On Aug. 28 and Aug. 29, Dancing Queens does ABBA, followed the next weekend by local heroes Recycled Percussion playing their trademark junk rock. Ending the series, Almost Queen appears Sept. 12. They’re exactly as billed, right down to the lead singer’s Freddy Mercury motorcycle jacket.

Beatles Night on Sept. 11 features a very different kind of doppelgänger, however. The Weeklings do cover “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” and “Paperback Writer” in their set, along with several more Fab Four favorites. But the band’s sweet spot band lies in creating originals that sound like lost Lennon & McCartney gems.

Imagine that Revolver had been followed not by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, but by another Rubber Soul. That describes The Weeklings’ sound on songs like “In the Moment” and “Little Elvis.” It’s a wonderful glimpse into what might have been, in a show that also includes never-released Beatles tracks.

The John and Paul of the band are Zeek and Lefty Weekling, the stage names of Bob Burger and Glen Burtnik. The two have worked together since the 1980s and share a love of Beatles music. Burtnik’s resume includes stints with Styx and the Broadway hit Beatlemania; he also co-wrote “Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough” for Patty Smyth and Don Henley.

Rounding out the group are guitarist John Merjave and drummer Joe Bellia as Rocky and Smokestack Weekling.

Burger co-wrote a few Styx songs with Burtnik and has three solo albums out, but for shows like the upcoming one he asks to be quoted as Zeek — that’s how completely he inhabits his character. Like many children of the ’60s, he picked up a guitar after seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, and never looked back.

With The Weeklings, the two feel free to follow a muse with an English accent.

“We wrote together for years, very often having to intentionally avoid sounding too much like The Beatles,” Zeek said in a recent phone interview. “So when we got this band together it was like, ‘OK, the gloves are off.’ We could do whatever we wanted to do.”

The band grew out of Birth of the Beatles, a tribute show focused on the Fab Four’s first two albums.

“We found out at that point in their career they were playing live in the studio,” Zeek said. “We said, ‘Well, this is fun, a little self-contained four-piece. … Let’s go take some Beatles songs they didn’t record.’”

Their eponymous debut album, released in 2016, contained “Because I Know You Love Me So,” a McCartney song dating back to their Quarrymen days — the version quotes “She’s a Woman” and “Drive My Car” — along with the Help! outtake “That Means a Lot.” Quickly they diverged from being a pure covers band.

“We had original songs that also fit into the same mode, so we started moving away from the tribute band concept almost immediately, by playing our own arrangements of obscure Beatles songs, and originals that sound like them,” Zeek said.

The formula worked; they’re staples on satellite radio stations The Loft and Little Steven’s Underground Garage, and in demand as live performers. They’ve released a trio of albums; the latest, 3, arrived in mid-January.

A harbinger of Burger’s future success happened in 2003, when he played a Hamptons party for fellow New Jersey native Jon Bon Jovi. Prior to his set, he learned some big names might be at the bash.

“Jon goes, ‘There’s a 25 percent chance that Paul McCartney will come,’” Zeek said.

Sure enough, a jam session broke out with Bon Jovi, Jimmy Buffett, Billy Joel and Roger Waters. But all that star power paled next to Sir Paul, who’d also arrived.

“The rest of them might as well have been bar band players,” he said. “Because Paul McCartney was there. Bruce Springsteen came, but he didn’t play — and I didn’t care.”

Later, he spotted Macca mouthing the words to “Back in the U.S.S.R.” in the raucous crowd.

“Raising his arm, fist in the air, I’m thinking, ‘This is not real….’ It was like a gambling machine, where all the cherries line up in a row,” he said.

Featured Photo: The Weeklings. Courtesy photo.

Socially Distanced Concert Series
Dancing Queens ABBA Tribute – Friday, Aug. 28, and Saturday, Aug. 29, $23
Recycled Percussion – Saturday, Sept. 5, and Sunday, Sept. 6, $35
Beatles Night featuring The Weeklings – Friday, Sept. 11, $23
Almost Queen – Saturday, Sept. 12, $23

Shows at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium, 1 Line Drive, Manchester; shows start at 7 p.m. Tickets at ticketreturn.com.

New music from Mindset X leader

As a performer, Steven Scott has some distinct personas. He’s the leader of Mindset X, a band with which he’s created ambitious progressive rock, most recently the 2015 concept album Oceans. More than a few fans know him for playing cover songs as The Deviant at area restaurants and bars.

There’s another side to the singer, songwriter and guitarist that’s not as familiar to his followers, but it will be soon as he prepares to release a spare, acoustic solo EP called Albino Road. A preview single, “Anywhere But Here,” came out late last month.

In a recent phone interview, he said he was tapping his inner Cat Stevens or Roy Harper for the new disc, which he hopes to release in full later this fall.

“The solo stuff came out of the need to express myself on the softer side of things,” he said. “Mindset X leans toward a rocking, electric sound, while this is kind of indie folkish.”

There’s a lot of reflection on the record, and a few painful truths about human nature. The title cut recalls a historical event in Andover, Massachusetts, toward the end of the 19^th century. According to folklore, a pair of albino children living there were killed by fearful neighbors, who also burned down the family’s home.

The song reflects the racism of today, Scott said.

“They killed the kids just for being different,” he said. “We’ve been through this crap before, why are we still doing it? We’re still in the same position, just with better technology. It’s a weird road we’ve taken as a species. It confused me, made me a little angry and I tried to put that in the song.”

The EP’s other two tracks provide brighter bookends. “Anywhere But Here” is a carpe diem for the downtrodden, with lines like “cheers to the ones who ignore their fears … don’t be silent, ever scared, ’cause this is your life,” while “Sunshine On Me” is a call to action that echoes the Youngbloods’ ’60s chestnut, “Get Together.”

He hopes to finish and release Albino Road by the end of August, and is currently contemplating how to unveil it live.

“I’m figuring out if I want to present it in a solo fashion, or try some looping, or have some people on stage,” he said. “I may drop a song into my covers set, as my plan is to peel away from that at some point and do all originals.”

The project has changed shape on the way to completion. “Originally … it was just going to be me and my acoustic guitar,” Scott said, “but any time I try to do that I end up thinking, ‘I wonder what a piano would sound like, or a flute.’”

He recruited local producer and musician Jay Frigoletto to add some layers to “Anywhere But Here,” which revved up the once-austere track.

“Instead of a down to earth folk song,” Scott said, “it turned out to be more folk rock.”

Mindset X was working on a new album with plans to hit the studio in April, “but Covid threw a wrench in all of that,” Scott said. “We didn’t jam for a couple of months because we weren’t supposed to.”

With his solo record basically done, MSX is targeting the next month or two to record tracks for release early next year.

“There’s a lot of questions still to be answered, but we’re ready to go and I’m proud of the stuff we’ve written,” Scott said. “It’s definitely us all the way.”

For now, Scott performs covers to audiences, who seem to appreciate him more.

“You look back six months ago and people are posting about three friends who showed up to see them play, but now people are really hungry for it,” he said. “They seem more enthusiastic, and more willing to accept an original song thrown in now and then. I try to move to the light and away from the darkness; Covid exists — we know that — but you gotta look for some good in all of this.”

Featured Photo: Steven Scott. Courtesy photo.

Steven Scott – The Deviant
When: Friday, Aug. 21, 6 p.m.
Where: Jocelyn’s Mediterranean Restaurant, 355 South Broadway, Salem
More: stevenscottmusic.com

Will Noonan on doing comedy post-quarantine

Perspective is one big thing that comic Will Noonan took from his time in lockdown. In the new normal, he realized, an edgy bit won’t bring groans like it once might have, and it shouldn’t. “We’ve all stared death in the face just to go to Stop & Shop,” Noonan said recently. “Why not laugh at a joke that makes us feel slightly uncomfortable in our bellies?”

Noonan was back on stage the moment live comedy returned to New Hampshire. Like more than a few standups, though, he took a few tries to find his old form.

“Everyone started getting it back at different levels and paces,” he said, “so that was one weird handicap.”

To his surprise, audiences had to adjust as well.

“A comedian would say something like, ‘Me and my wife have been married for 25 years,’ and normally the crowd would just clap automatically,” Noonan said. “But there would be these weird pauses. It was like, ‘Oh yeah, they’re rusty too; they don’t even remember how to clap when the guy said he’s been married a long time.’”

For Noonan, this was better than a recent corporate Zoom gig. His half-hour set lasted 17 minutes, when a miffed manager pulled the plug.

“It was like an episode of Black Mirror. … I’ve done shows like that where you can kind of hear them laughing, or even see their faces. But this one was just me and the cameraman, doing jokes to an empty space,” he said.

It ended in the middle of a long bit, when the guy who hired him walked into the room and said Noonan was done and could bring in the next comic. But there were no hard feelings.

“You’re like a birthday clown — they paid you, so they can send you home after five minutes if they want, or they can get the whole hour. It’s really up to them,” he said.

Another realization for Noonan as he returned to performing live was that audiences craved regular comedy.

“We all came in thinking everyone’s gonna want to hear these crazy thoughts I have about the coronavirus,” he said. “You can talk about it, but it’s not necessarily the only thing. … They want jokes to be about things they’ve always wanted them to be about — relationships, families and the stuff that drives you crazy. That material is hitting the hardest because it’s just kind of nice, like watching baseball or the NBA. It’s nice to just forget about it for a time.”

In early August, Noonan went to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for his first NASCAR race.

“It truly was awesome,” he said. “All the things that NASCAR fans say are true. … On TV it’s kinda cool, but it doesn’t feel much like a sport, but when you’re there you kind of understand it has a rhythm to it, a pace. There are times you can tell they’re just going around in circles biding time, and other times they’re fighting to win. … it’s long but it kind of just flies by. The sound is incredible; I could still hear it in my head when I was coming home. It made me want to drive faster.”

Seeing the race with a socially distanced crowd was a bit surreal, but it was still “extra special,” Noonan said.

“It kinda had a Children of the Corn, Rob Zombie vibe to it,” he said. “That was something I never experienced before. … like Woodstock and a Trump rally mixed together.”

Featured Photo: Will Noonan. Courtesy photo.

Will Noonan
When: Friday, Aug. 21, 8 p.m.
Where: Riverside Pavilion, Amherst Country Club, 72 Ponemah Road, Amherst
Tickets: $20 at playamherst.com