Soul artist James Carr made “The Dark of the Street” a hit in 1967, singing about a forbidden love that can only exist in the murk of night: Hiding in shadows where we don’t belong / Living in darkness to hide our wrong.
Musician Adam Weiner knows the tune well.
“I used to play that song when I played piano in gay bars, and it took on a totally different meaning in that context,” Weiner said. “That I find fascinating — the living, breathing context of music.”
Weiner, who has led the Philadelphia rock and roll band Low Cut Connie since 2010, makes context one of his two secret weapons. The other is an upright Baldwin piano named Nellie that’s both his sidekick and, as he said, “like a pommel horse for gymnastics.” He uses it to weave his own songs into a grand tapestry of his favorites, like Prince and Lou Reed.
Low Cut Connie shows regularly culminate in Weiner tearing his tank top in half and hopping onto his piano bench. The band brings that spirit to Water Street Music Hall on Oct. 13 in its first-ever headlining set in Rochester. It’s Low Cut Connie’s return to the Flower City after an afternoon slot at 2023’s Lilac Festival.
“Be gentle with us,” Weiner deadpanned.
But he doesn’t have much to worry about. Since the New Jersey native started the group, Low Cut Connie has released seven albums all independently, including 2023’s “Art Dealers.” A documentary of the same name recently made the screening rounds, complete with Weiner strumming an acoustic guitar and anchoring Q&A sessions.
Low Cut Connie has also toured internationally, earning fans like Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen and Elton John. The band’s live show is, in his own words, “a freight train.” He’s the conductor and he wants everyone to hop on board.
Part of the appeal is Weiner himself, a consummate entertainer who cut his teeth at those early bar gigs. He first thought he might study theater or dance — anything where he could be on a stage. Instead, he found music, where he could do it all.
“Coming up playing music in bars, your very job is to entertain people, which is different than the current landscape, where your job is to get followers,” he said.
Weiner’s version of entertaining, he stressed, is not overly rehearsed. At a Van Morrison tribute show in 2019, he covered “Here Comes the Night” and concluded by jumping offstage and high-fiving his way through the crowd. “That doesn’t sound wrong,” he offered, but didn’t remember the specifics. This was at Carnegie Hall, not a sweaty nightclub.
“People have shown me videos of me doing things onstage that I can’t even believe, that I would never do in the light of day,” Weiner continued. “If you’re thinking, you’re doing something wrong.”
It helps that he has a great band, typically a quintet, to back him up. And good tools, like his trusty upright Nellie, designed to be loud and punchy and used by choirs singing in auditoriums. Nellie’s logged between 500 and 600 gigs in Weiner’s estimation since she replaced her predecessor, Shondra, a $50 upright that aided him for another 1,000 or so.
The instrument harkens back to early rock and roll icons like Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, innovators whose respective physicalities made their piano-centered performances irresistible. A baby grand might fill a concert hall with rich dynamics. But the upright, perhaps even more than the electric guitar, just might be the secret cornerstone of rock and roll music in its most distilled form.
Weiner follows in their footsteps, a showman brimming with live wire energy. No matter the venue, he carries plenty of lessons learned. His piano-circuit training. Seeing Iggy Pop reunite with The Stooges in his early twenties. And naturally, a love of the patron saint of his home state, Bruce Springsteen.
All of them just want to meet the crowd where they are.
“If you go to see Oasis or something, they’re not on your level. They want you to admire them, and they assume that you do admire them,” he said. “That doesn’t appeal to me as a performer. I want to be on the same level, because I think of myself on the same level as the people I’m performing for.”
In other words, a Low Cut Connie show is for him. But it’s also for you. It’s for everyone.
Low Cut Connie plays at Water Street Music Hall on Oct. 13. Doors at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $25. More information here.
Patrick Hosken is an arts writer for CITY. He can be reached at patrick@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Oct 1-31, 2024.
