When the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a halt, some resourceful musical artists transformed the epidemic into an opportunity for innovation.
Take South Philly’s Adam Weiner, the piano-pounding, tousle-haired, dancing, singing-songwriting front man of Low Cut Connie. This time last year, Weiner’s Low Cut Connie crew was busy releasing its more character-driven lyric-filled, Jerry Lee Lewis-on-steroids soul of ‘Private Lives.’
“The new songs are all mini-movies, character studies of people I observed while on the road,” Weiner told me last summer before the album’s release. “I have a little more of an agenda with these songs in terms of casting an eye on people that nobody is paying attention to. For instance, there is a song called ‘Quiet Time,’ about people in an old age home. Here, two older people are in love, but, one’s room gets moved from the other and in a separate wing, so that they don’t see each other anymore. We don’t notice things like that. We’re too busy with young people on Instagram.
“Everybody has these interior lives that we just don’t see or pay attention to. There are enough artists out there now writing about beautiful people or young love or fashion or things we see and hear on television and the radio. I’m trying to focus my music and videos on people on the fringes of society.”
Rather than be able to rage on stage, however, with ‘Private Lives,’ Weiner had to come up with another concept that would keep him playing live music, loud, alone, and often in his underwear, make a few bucks, and give his rabid fanbase the sort-of ritualistic and sweaty rock and roll show it craved, and expected.
That meant—and means as it still plays on—Weiner’s twice-weekly, live streaming showcase, ‘Tough Cookies’, from his living room in South Philly. There, Weiner soulfully and loudly plays piano, sings in his underwear and interviews some of rock and pop’s greats such as Michael Nesmith, Dion, Chuck Prophet and Beyonce’s dad, Matthew Knowles. And for this live, web display, Weiner has won an even greater fanbase and more friends.
Now, on Low Cut Connie’s current autumn tour, titled in honor of his ‘Tough Cookies’ program, Weiner will honor that which he created online, and will welcome special singing and talking guests with each gig.
“I’m starting to do ‘Tough Cookies’ with a live audience and with more of a band, rather than go it alone,” says Weiner during a fresh interview in November. “I’ve got Bettye Lavette sitting in with us onstage on the next Tough Cookies. I’m just expanding the format and seeing how far I can push it.”
Expanding and pushing is just what Weiner and Low Cut Connie do, naturally.
“This incarnation of LCC is fantastic and way looser than it was in pre-quarantine mode,” he says. “Doing ‘Tough Cookies’ was a totally liberating experience as a performer… I realized I could do any kind of material at any time and let it rain curve balls if I want to. So, I let every night with the band be an adventure. New Year’s Eve, though, that should be a smash.”
As for taking that smash to Atlantic City’s Anchor Rock Club – a down-the-shore live space owned and operated by several names associated with Johnny Brenda’s – Weiner is delighted to be near New Jersey’s seas and sand.
“I’ve always hosted some wild New Year’s Eve shows and parties — it’s my favorite night out,” says Weiner. “Everyone deserves to truly let their hair down this year, and I think AC on a New Year’s Eve is the perfect place for it. Between the show and the afterparty, it’s gonna be so sweet.”
Check out ‘Tough Cookies’ every Thursday and Saturday at 6 p.m. EST on Facebook and Instagram @lowcutconnie.
