Fans of Low Cut Connie, the Philadelphia-based group led by Adam Weiner, know that the band's high-energy shows are as much a spiritual experience as they are rock concerts. But this Tuesday, Weiner will slow it down and strip things back with an intimate solo performance at City Winery. We caught up with Weiner to discuss the importance of supporting indie record stores, how protest songs can coexist with party songs, and get exclusive details on Low Cut Connie's upcoming album Livin in the USA.
I’m really looking forward to seeing this more intimate performance next week. What should a fan used to Low Cut Connie’s raucous performances expect in this different setting?
Well, it’s obviously going to be a very different speed—much more intimate, just piano and vocal. I tend to do a lot more chatting, and I have some conversations with the audience, back and forth. There are comedy sections, and there are interactive sections, and there are people shouting out requests. It’s just a very open, free-form format.
(A Low Cut Connie show), I mean, it’s like a freight train. There’s not a minute to take a breath. I barely ever say anything on stage. So this is more of a conversation with the audience.
I love that. So the setlist is essentially spontaneous?
Exactly. I mean, I know hundreds and hundreds of songs. And at this point, there are a lot of Low Cut Connie songs that people know. I just want to make people happy, so I play what they want me to play. I want people to leave the show uplifted. There are a lot of reasons for people to be depressed these days. Part of the point of these shows is to process some of what’s going on together and try to leave with a little bit of hope.
On the flip side, City Winery attracts maybe a different crowd than a typical Low Cut Connie show. It very well could be someone’s first exposure to your music. I was wondering, what do you think an Adam Weiner newbie should know about you going into a show like this?
Well, hey, you always remember your first (laughs). I don’t know if they need to know anything. Just come in with an open mind, and hopefully we can radicalize them to the Connie world. Everyone is welcome at my shows. Everyone. I love playing for strangers, people who have never heard of me, trying to make them feel something and trying to win them over.
Is the jacket staying on the whole time, or is it coming off even sooner?
It depends. It depends how intimate we want to get at these shows. It’s nice to see people react to the songs like they’re hearing them for the first time. My fans know my songs and my show, but I think they don’t always listen to the words or pay attention to the songwriting because of the nature of our band shows. The energy is just so intense that you may not notice the songs that much. So I like presenting them in the simplest way and seeing how people react and sort of take in the song almost like it’s the first time.
There’s a new Low Cut Connie album coming out in July, and I love that you’re supporting indie record stores with early listens to the new record. Why is it so important to support these businesses?
These indie record stores have been like a lifeblood for my career. I’m a small cult artist, and I’m not on a big major label. I’m not with a big corporate management company. We’re a little mom-and-pop shop, so I can relate to all these mom-and-pop music shops. We work together because having an independent music economy in this day and age is so difficult. It’s under threat, and we have to work together as partners.
The artists, the little indie labels, and the indie retailers support each other. A lot of these stores have gone out on a limb to support my music over the years, so I’m trying to support them. I’m trying to push my fans to purchase my new album and my catalog through these indie record stores. It makes me feel good, it makes the stores feel good, it makes the fans feel good. Everybody wins. I certainly am not going to discourage people from absorbing the music however they want to, but that’s my preferred way that they would buy the music.
Since you grew up in South Jersey, I’m sure you’re familiar with my all-time favorite record store, Princeton Record Exchange. Any cool memories from going there?
Oh, what a great store. It’s still rocking. If you’re a vinyl collector, you pick up a record in your collection and you’re like, “I remember the day I bought this and where I bought this.” I got an amazing record at Princeton Record Exchange many years ago. I found this very rare Clash album—a fan club Clash album. That’s one of the most valuable records that I own. I guess it had just come into the store, and I grabbed it. I’ve also seen in-store performances there over the years. I’ve performed at Princeton before—the college and the radio station. That place is an institution. If you made a list of the top 10 record stores in America, that would be one of them.
Have you ever gotten a chance to go to Reckless Records or any of the shops here in Chicago?
I don’t know if I’ve been to Reckless, but I’m such a collector that if I have a day off, I’m usually sniffing around for records. Maybe I’ll go next week when I’m there.
Going back to the new Low Cut Connie record, the title track “Livin’ in the USA” is billed specifically as “the first protest single” from the album. Is that indicative of the full album’s tone?
Yes and no. The whole album is a protest album, but it’s also a party album. I put out a mission statement a couple of weeks ago when I announced the album that sort of explains why I’m doing what I’m doing. I’m using my songs, my shows, my performances, and my records to raise my voice, to sound an alarm for things I think are going wrong in the country, things that I want to see change. That’s what I’m doing with this song.
I’m very happy to see that the song has really struck a chord, and the video too has struck a chord with people. We just found out yesterday that the song is in the Top 40 on one chart and the Top 100 on the national AAA charts. It’s being played on over 50 stations around the country, which is pretty incredible for a protest song. I think a lot of these stations are really brave. Right there in Chicago, you have a great show called Sound Opinions that’s produced there. Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot chose the song last week as one of the best songs of the week.
But there are a lot of songs on the album that are just fun summer songs. Then there are songs that are clearly protest songs. And then there are songs that are both. I don’t want to let this time period completely steal our joy. We need to be able to reclaim our joy. I’m hoping that by this summer, when the band is on tour, we’re all able in some form or fashion to have fun together. I just think it needs to be conscientious fun. We need to do it within the context that we’re living in and not ignore what’s going on.
Do you feel like you have a responsibility as a musician to do both ends of that—to comment on the state of the country while also just letting us rock out?
Yes, I do. I have a lot of heroes in terms of performers, songwriters, vocalists, and piano players. But as I said in my mission statement, some of my greatest heroes are artists who could do both things. When you listen to Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, or Bob Marley, or one of my all-time heroes, Sly Stone with Sly and the Family Stone—Stand! and There’s a Riot Goin’ On—or Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Willy and the Poor Boys, or Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A., these are all albums that are social commentary albums, but they’re also really fun and pretty rockin’ albums you would put on at your barbecue and just enjoy. They’re entertainment. I don’t think those two things should be mutually exclusive. We should be able to entertain people and have social commentary at the same time. That’s what I’m trying to do with this album.
Last year, you canceled a show at the Kennedy Center for obvious reasons. I would love to know what your hopes are for the future of that venerable venue.
I’m happy to see that so many artists have done the same, but I’m sad to see that the institution has essentially been ruined—renamed and ruined. I sincerely hope that at some point that institution will get back to its core mission, which was elevating a diversity of voices in a nonpartisan way.
I was supposed to perform as part of what they called the Social Impact series, which was music and performances that advocate for positive social change. I would like to see the Kennedy Center one day get back to that mission, being a force of positivity and positive social change through art. It’s completely abandoned that mission. It’s gone completely off the rails. A lot of people have been fired or let go. (Trump) says they’re going to shut it down for two years to potentially tear down parts of it. I think that’s really sad, but I hope it will return one day and go back to its original mission.
On a more positive note, in line with the intimate shows, do you ever see yourself releasing an album, perhaps under your own name instead of Low Cut Connie, that’s more in that vein?
Yes, I sure do. I intend to. But this year I’m focused on this pretty rockin’ band album, Livin in the USA, and really making an impact with the band out there on the road. In future years, though, you’ll be hearing a lot of solo music and solo performances, and I’m looking forward to that.
What is the appropriate level of eye contact with the audience at this intimate show before it starts feeling weird for both of us?
(Laughs) Well, there’s good weird and bad weird. I like to look at everybody in the crowd and make eye contact with everyone, so I’m not afraid of that. I hope everybody will feel comfortable looking at me and letting me look at them. I think it’s part of the connection, and it’s part of why people love live music. It’s not a screen. It’s an actual, real, molecular connection that we have in the room.
Adam Weiner appears at City Winery (1200 W. Randolph St.) on Tuesday, March 3, at 7:30pm. Tickets (starting at $30) are available now. All ages.
