Bruce Springsteen sets a pretty high bar, but if there’s anyone close to resembling a second coming of The Boss, it’s Low Cut Connie frontman Adam Weiner. It’s not just the curly black hair—both are known for their raucous, high-energy live shows and have scored a spot on Barack Obama’s playlist.
If you haven’t heard of Low Cut Connie, you could theoretically listen to them on your streaming service of choice, but fans know that the band’s live shows are the best way to indoctrinate yourself. (There’s a good chance you’ll wind up dancing onstage yourself, at Weiner’s invitation.) Fortunately, Chicagoans who don’t mind going up north a bit can experience it for themselves when Low Cut Connie plays at Evanston SPACE on Saturday, October 4.
We talked with Weiner about connecting with fans, upside-down piano-playing, and getting locked out of his own concert.
Low Cut Connie’s live shows are practically a spiritual experience for you and the audience. The energy is unreal. Do you have any backstage rituals to get yourself in the zone before a show?
I just walk out on stage and stuff happens, you know? There's less of a plan than you would imagine. I've been doing this a long time and I really love performing and I truly love playing these songs, and the fans are just the most wonderful people. I truly have a back-and-forth love relationship with these fans.
You usually hang out with fans after the show, and I’m amazed you have the energy to do that.
I don't always, but I try to give as much as I can, and I love meeting these people. They're great people. A lot of them have been on this ride with me for a while. And then if I get new people, I want to meet them. We have people who come up to me and say, “This is my 80th show.” That means a lot to me because I never really thought this would happen for me, so I marvel at it every day.
There’s like a Low Cut Connie subculture reminiscent of Phish and the Grateful Dead, though maybe for different reasons.
There are artists that I've obsessed over. I know what that feeling is like and how much music can mean to you. People bring these songs into their lives. They teach them to their kids. They play them at weddings and funerals. And it means a lot to me too. I'm just hoping to keep this thing going and hopefully growing.
You always seem to make it to the Chicago area when you’re on tour, which we appreciate. What are your favorite things to do here in the city?
Unfortunately, it's not often that I get a lot of time to hang out, but Chicago is such an amazing city and it's an amazing food city, so I usually just eat my way up and down the street. I'm a big record and book collector, and I'll bop around the city to different record stores and bookstores. The rock ‘n’ roll bookstore, Exile in Bookville—you guys have some really great bookstores. It's a great city. I love Chicago.
The feeling is mutual. You have such an incredible voice, not just as a singer but also as a writer. Who are some of the influences that shaped you as a performer and songwriter?
Those are sort of two different questions because I have my performing heroes—the people I consider the greats that I've studied: Tina Turner, James Brown, Prince, Elvis, Mick Jagger, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Freddie Mercury, Bruce Springsteen, of course. These are people with genius-level stage IQ.
When it comes to songwriting, that's a whole other craft. I saw Tom Waits when I was 18 or 19 years old, and it was a life-changing show. I think he's an amazing songwriter. Smokey Robinson, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Lou Reed. So many. But I've really tried to develop my own style with songwriting, and I'm always hoping the next song I write might be the best one.
Your most recent one, “Livin in the USA,” is definitely one of your most powerful. What inspired that track?
Thank you. It's a really simple song. I was really inspired by Nina Simone on that song. I'm a piano player—everything with me starts with the piano. To me, I was just playing that song, that melody, and it felt like Nina Simone to me. It felt like a soul song, but her songs talked about current issues. She wrote about the civil rights movement, lynching, women's liberation, all kinds of things in her life.
It felt to me that this song, “Livin in the USA,” we wanted it to be about how people are feeling in America right now in 2025. I travel so much and I speak to so many people in different states, and the majority of people I speak to from all across the spectrum are fearful, nervous, worried. I tried to put those feelings into the song.
Is it a standalone single or the start of a bigger project?
I do have a new album coming next year, but I wanted to put that song out as a single this year, standalone.
You mentioned how everything starts with the piano for you. In your pandemic-era Tough Cookies virtual concerts, you talked about tuning and teaching piano. What was your introduction to the piano?
We had a piano in my house growing up and my older brother was a very good piano player. I would listen to him play classical, Broadway, and pop music. Then I'd sneak in there and try to figure out how to do it on my own by ear, even at the age of four. That's how it started.
Then I saw Amadeus when I was a kid. I loved the part where they flip Mozart over and he plays piano upside down behind his head. I thought that was very cool, and I tried to learn how to do that. Then I saw Little Richard and realized the piano can really be the whole band—it can be a very exciting instrument.
What were some of those early pop songs you learned by ear?
A lot of Motown. My family loves Motown and I always have too. The Temptations, Four Tops, Supremes, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder—all of those songs, which I still play now.
One of my dream fantasy collaborations is that I would love to see you, Sara Bareilles, and Ben Folds in a triple piano duel.
Sign me up for that because I think that'd be great.
Do you have any dream collaborators, current or past?
My favorite singer of all time is Etta James. Sometimes I write songs with other singers in mind. For instance, I have a song called “Are You Gonna Run?” that I really had Ronnie Spector in mind for. I wasn’t able to make that happen, and then she passed away. I ended up deciding to try to sing it myself, even though I thought it should be sung by an older Black woman. I gave it a shot, and that's the record you hear. But a lot of times I imagine a female voice singing my songs.
Thankfully, you’re able to perform live concerts now, but you continue the Tough Cookies virtual shows when you’re not on tour. What made you decide to continue those?
I do it as much as I can when I'm not touring. It's sporadic, but it's like group therapy, those shows. It's therapeutic for everybody, including myself. It's really nice for me to do something where I can talk directly to people. A lot of people don’t have a chance to see me live because of health, age, or geography. Being able to talk to people where they live on their screens is pretty great.
Those shows are how I discovered Low Cut Connie—my friend Andrew sent me your cover of “Let Me Roll It” by Paul McCartney and Wings. Discovering a new band brought me a lot of joy during that tough time.
Thank you. I covered over 600 songs during Tough Cookies, and “Let Me Roll It” was one of those amazing songs I took a shot at. It's a beautiful song. Love it.
There’s a best-of compilation on Spotify—is there any chance more of those 600 songs might be available for streaming?
Eventually, is what I'll say. I've got to put my own music out, and it's challenging to get the rights to put out covers, but there's a lot of good stuff in there. I hope so.
In all your years of playing live shows, what has been your biggest Spinal Tap moment?
Oh my God, there's so many. But the one that comes to mind, possibly because I'm playing tonight at the theater where this happened: a few years back, we were playing in Cincinnati at the Woodworth Theater. During the show, I ran through the audience, out the door, and around the block. I thought I was going to run around the side door and come back on stage, but I found myself locked in a parking garage next to the venue. All the doors were locked. I was trying to climb a fence, and the audience was like, ‘What's going on?’ Eventually, somebody came and found me and let me in, but I thought I was going to be stuck there forever.
Low Cut Connie appears at Evanston SPACE (1243 Chicago Avenue, Evanston) on Saturday, October 4, at 8pm. Tickets ($50.41 after fees) are available now. All ages.
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