The Center for the Arts at Monmouth University has announced that tickets are now on sale for a November 8, 2018 concert appearance by The Weeklings.
Scheduled for 8 p.m. inside the Pollak Theatre, the one-night engagement featuring selections from The Beatles legendary White Album performed with live horns and strings as well as many of your Weeklings favorites. This concert serves as one of the highlights at The Beatles’ The White Album: An International Symposium taking place from November 8 – 11 on Monmouth University’s campus. The symposium marks the fiftieth anniversary of the celebrated White Album with a selection of guest speakers, panel discussions, film screenings, and other public-welcome events that examine the lasting legacy of one of the most game-changing — and oft-analyzed — cultural artifacts of the turbulent 1960s.
The Weeklings are America’s most unique celebration of the music and muse of The Beatles, performing explosive renditions of Beatles classics, uniquely arranged Beatles nuggets such as Paperback Writer, Baby You’re a Rich Man, and I Am the Walrus plus brilliant Beatles-inspired power-pop originals, like their newest, In the Moment. The Weeklings bring The Beatles to life through their extraordinary musicianship, exceptional vocals and charming stage presence. “They show their audiences both what The Beatles were, and what they might have been if they were performing today.”
So who are these Weeklings? At first glance, just a “band of brothers” named Lefty, Rocky, Smokestack, and Zeek. Look closer and you’ll find that, in a manner not unlike the Traveling Wilburys, those playful handles mask some serious cred. “Lefty” is better known as Glen Burtnik — Grammy nominated singer-songwriter (Don Henley and Patty Smyth’s Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough; Randy Travis’s Spirit of a Boy, Wisdom of a Man; bandleader; benefit concert ringmaster; onetime member of Styx; globe-trotting member of The Orchestra, and the man who originated the part of Paul McCartney in the Broadway blockbuster Beatlemania.
Not to be outdone, brother Zeek (Bob Burger) is a veteran Jersey Shore-based solo singer and songwriter whose tributes to Fleetwood Mac and other acts are legendary in their own right — and who has shared the stage with Sir Paul himself, in addition to Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Jimmy Buffett, and Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters. Bass man John “Rocky” Merjave regularly joins Burger and Burtnik as one of the human pop-music encyclopedias of Max Weinberg’s Jukebox, while he and drummer Joe“Smokestack” Bellia comprise an in-demand rhythm section that’s previously powered Burtnik’s Beatle Bash projects at New Brunswick’s State Theatre.
With that level of talent on board, a performance by The Weeklings is a thing that ranges from Fab Four faves to fantastic voyages into the deep-cut catalog, and even a set of razor-sharp originals composed and delivered in the spirit of The Beatles at their best. It’s an added advantage that finds the core combo occupying a place as, in Burtnik’s words, “the only Beatles-inspired original act who’s busy playing and releasing records…all serendipitously. Go figure!”
Tickets for the November 8 performance by The Weeklings are priced at $25 and $35. You can also purchase a complete all-inclusive pass or a November 8 day-pass for the symposium that includes admission to the concert. Tickets can be reserved through the Monmouth University Box Office at 732-263-6889, or online at www.monmouth.edu/MCA. Tickets for other upcoming Performing Arts events — including A Doo Wop Project Holiday (November 29, 2018), and Stray Cat Lee Rocker (April 13, 2019) — are also on sale now. To schedule interviews, please contact Kelly Barratt at 732-263-5114
