Weight of Gravity Drops One

Join my interview with The Weight of Gravity's drummer Bob Belanger tomorrow, March 19, on WCUW 91.3 FM at noon. Listen online at www.wcuw.org.

Just because a band jams doesn't make it a jam band. Take The Weight of Gravity, for instance. This local band can jam with the best of the patchouli squad, and pulls in the fans to prove it, but considers itself more of a melodic rock band. The evidence will be in its upcoming self-titled debut, which The Weight of Gravity celebrates with a release show at Tammany Hall on Friday, March 20.


“I would say we jam about 15 to 20% of the time during any given show, and often it is during cover songs,” says drummer Bob Belanger, who joins guitarist Daniel LaFleur, guitarist Steve Lamoureux, bassist Dan Cook and sax player Laura Ramsey. “We do have one original that clocks out at about 10 to 12 minutes.” The band has been together around four years.


Though it took some drastic turns during the lengthy process, Belanger says the debut turned out even better than they could have imagined. With a great deal of honest input from producer Bill Ryan, the band spent grueling hours fine tuning the product, and it took almost a year to complete. “It was well worth it,” says Belanger. “We are very proud of it. The process was amazing and we look forward to the next.”


So far, LaFleur and Lamoureux have penned the music, with a fair amount of input from the rest of the band once the framework is introduced. That said, the songs usually take a few different paths before reaching a final destination that is often rather different from what anyone envisioned. As any songwriter knows, that evolution from concept to stage is painstaking and miraculous at the same time.