Low Cut Connie rides a new wave of success into Boston
Low Cut Connie rides a new wave of success into Boston
Jay N. Miller, For The Patriot LedgerWed, November 4, 2026 at 9:46 AM UTC
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Low Cut Connie’s music has always had a palpable human element, because singer/songwriter/pianist Adam Weiner writes about people and places he knows, and experiences he’s either had or observed. The fact that Weiner and his band deliver the music with the kind of all-out, joyous energy that often seems lacking in popular music today has made them a surefire live music sensation. Local fans who heard Low Cut Connie’s show at the Spire Center in Plymouth last year can attest to that.
But in the past year, Weiner’s writing took on a bit more of a topical tone, as the chaos and upheaval in American life left him dismayed. Last year’s single “Livin In the USA,” which is seemingly a plea for understanding and an end to hostility, led to some of the most far-reaching reaction of the band’s career. You could call it notoriety if you want, and not all the attention was positive, but the most tangible result is that Weiner’s music and the band he founded in 2010 has seen more exposure than ever.
Low Cut Connie is another example of that old showbiz cliché, an "overnight sensation" with their eighth album, after 16 years. A couple weeks back, they appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, performing their new summer fun anthem “Can’t Be Wrong.” Earlier this year, Rolling Stone magazine cited their older tune “Revolution Rock ‘n’ Roll” as one of the "200 Greatest Rock Songs of the 21st Century." And last March, the TV detective series "RJ Decker" used their song “Don’t Get Fresh With Me” on its soundtrack.
Low Cut Connie headlines Brighton Music Hall
Low Cut Connie headlines Brighton Music Hall in Boston on Wednesday, Nov. 18, part of a 21-date national tour that has brought them into bigger venues than at any previous time. (Brighton Music Hall is located at 158 Harvard Ave. in Boston, and the show begins at 8 p.m., with tickets priced at $42.50 and available through crossroadspresents.com)
The other intriguing aspect of Low Cut Connie’s music is that the Philadelphia sextet’s music draws heavily on the Bruce Springsteen/Southside Johnny brand of Jersey Shore rock, which means it delves easily and gleefully into soul music and classic rhythm and blues themes. They’ve paid their dues, but these are surely heady times for Weiner and his band. We caught up with Weiner by phone as the band was leaving a South Carolina tour stop and heading to Atlanta recently.
“You know, I’ve been so busy between doing shows and recording, I didn’t really notice the changes in our venues and so on,” said Weiner. “We have been very lucky this year, and the response to the music has been stronger than ever. At every show I have this habit of just asking people how they’re feeling, and you always got a mixture of replies. But lately, people are just pissed off, or scared, exhausted and frustrated. I’d be crazy to ignore that, and so that overall feeling in the country came out in some of this new music.”
Weiner’s older song “Revolution Rock ‘n’ Roll” is cathartic, but its theme might be encapsulated as just finding your joy again, giving yourself over to the freedom and sheer fun of rock, as noted in the chorus “touch my body, touch my soul.” That phrase in itself could be an apt description of quality rock. But Weiner points to another line that evokes his passion for basic rock, retro or classic or whatever you want to call it, when he notes the couplet “if we don’t preserve it, we don’t deserve it.”
On the new album, which was released July 3, also named “Livin In The USA,” the title cut attracted some controversy, as it begins “livin’ in the USA, but it ain’t my home.” This could be interpreted as life today is not the same as it was for the narrator, or perhaps the narrator is an immigrant. As the song bursts into a hard rocker, he adds “seasons are turning but we didn’t have a chance to change.” which certainly reflects the future shock we often feel. But another line really hits hard, “Pray for the children, Let the children have a chance to stay.” The song has been out since May 2025.
A major event that summer saw the Rockin’ the River Festival in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, cancel the band’s appearance, citing a desire to be non-political. Low Cut Connie got their performance fee, nonetheless, and shortly after, the nearby city of King of Prussia invited them to play a free outdoor concert there. Low Cut Connie was also one of the first acts to cancel their scheduled performance at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts after the changeover, and that led to the predictable online vitriol and death threats but also elevated their profile nationally.
“We’ve gotten a lot of notice with the album,” said Weiner. “But when I released the single last spring, I thought it’d be a quick hit, which would come and go within a few weeks. But ‘Livin In the USA’ actually ended up all over the adult-album-alternative charts. Now we have ‘Can’t Be Wrong,’ just a fun summer song, that is charting beyond anything we ever put out. It has made the top 300 on AAA, and the Top 75 on Americana. ‘Livin In the USA’ was played for over five months on over 100 radio stations. It has all been stunning for us – we’re a little cult act that never had airplay like this before.”
Pandemic put strain on Low Cut Connie
Since Low Cut Connie, like many bands, felt at times during the pandemic they might never be able to stay together, this sudden success and upgrade in venue sizes has been thrilling.
“After this many years in the business, it has never been more difficult or expensive to be a touring band,” Weiner noted. “The fact that this band still exists and people still want to see us is incredible, because during COVID-19, we never thought we’d get to be a full band again. When the pandemic ended, we came back stronger than ever. But as that line in ‘Revolution Rock ‘N’ Roll” says, if we ‘don’t preserve it, we don’t deserve it.’ A big part of my calling, I feel, is to keep this rock ‘n’ roll thing alive.
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“Now, we’re headlining the biggest room we’ve ever played in Boston,” Weiner added. “We try to deliver the same show, whether there’s 50 people in the audience, or we’re at a festival in front of 10,000. I go in and play in front of a class of college kids, and I enjoy it just as much – I love all of it.”
Low Cut Connie's current lineup includes Weiner on piano and vocals, Amanda "Rocky" Bullwinkle on vocals; Kelsey Cork on vocals, guitar and sax; Nick Perri on bass; Rich Stanley on guitar; and Jarae Lewis on drums.
Jersey connections had impact on Low Cut Connie
That Jersey Shore connection is real, and it is also something Weiner and his band revere. He’s been lucky enough to meet and become friends with both Springsteen and Southside Johnny, and is gratified that they have told him they are fans of his music too.
“Southside Johnny is just a great, funny guy,” said Weiner. “I saw Bruce about two weeks ago, and a year ago I saw him in concert. They’re my musical heroes, no doubt. And they’ve both been so encouraging to me and my songwriting that I can’t express what it means. There IS a Jersey thing, a definite rock sound that is native to that area, and it is very influenced by soul music, and it is party music, but it also socially conscious. I think that what both those guys have epitomized is that even when your style is perhaps out of fashion, you keep doing it and keep saying what’s on your mind. And in that way, you get fans who are loyal to you and what you stand for.
“I’m learning as I go,” Weiner said with a laugh. “But even at times that Bruce Springsteen maybe was not at his commercial peak, the body of work that he has written over the decades, and how it makes you feel, was always consistent. To me, the most important part of music is not how much it sells, or what they were wearing at a show, but that feeling you get. All that really matters is how that musician or band makes people feel, whether you’re delivering something painful or joyful. In that way, you find an audience that stays with you through ups and downs. In my own music, I think, over 16 years of Low Cut Connie, we have earned an audience that knows us and what to expect, what we’re all about, and how we make them feel.”
A closer look at Livin In The USA
Some of the new songs on the new record are infectious but also poignantly evocative. “Oh Yeah” is a rugged piano romp, where those folks who compare Weiner to Jerry Lee Lewis will find their proof. “Little Freakers” is another piano number that crosses several moods within its basic rock structure – as if Billy Joel was aiming for a new style, piano noir. “Settle Down” is another somewhat topical song that comes at it obliquely, a soothing tune that suggests we all might need to just do that. Fans coming to the Boston show can expect a lot of the new album, but also the kind of surprises and unflagging energy that mark every Low Cut Connie show.
“Ever since we first played Boston, back in 2011, we’ve had a cool fanbase there,” said Weiner. “Boston is a real rock ‘n’ roll town, and the audiences there are not afraid to get messed up and get down. We have a catalog of over 100 songs now, and do dozens of covers, so we always love to change the setlist up night-to-night. We have enough curveballs to keep everyone on their toes, and we’ll definitely do that in Boston.”
Plymouth native Mark Chen Bryant releases two albums
It is not often any artist releases two albums in a year, never mind two in a month, but Plymouth native Mark Chen Bryant has down exactly that. But the music in some cases is 35 years old. A few weeks ago, Chen-Bryant released a dozen songs entitled “Pure Pop for Yesterday’s People,” under the band name Larxpurs. (There have been several bands using the name Larkspurs, with the K, over the years, including a folk trio from Vermont, so be sure to use the X spelling when searching for this music.)
As Chen-Bryant explained, he had been playing piano and writing tunes in a rock band called The Bitters 35 years ago, and they’d recorded 22 demos. Chen-Bryant might be best remembered locally for his three-decade stint as drummer with the local group Lonesome Jukebox, after the Bitters faded away. A few years ago, Chen-Bryant fell in love and married a woman from Taiwan and soon moved with his wife, Lini, to her native island. In packing up, he managed to salvage those old demos, and once settled in his new home, dug them out.
Chen-Bryant began tinkering in the studio, playing and composing on piano again, and with some studio wizardry (and AI), "fleshed out" those old demos. The title is an homage to Nick Lowe’s 1978 solo debut, “Pure Pop for Now People,” and Chen-Bryant admits he’s aiming for a throwback sound, to the mid-1960s heyday of melodic pop from the likes of The Byrds, The Hollies, The Searchers and so on. The collection includes some infectious stuff, like “God Can’t Play Electric Guitar,” which is surf-rock at warp speed, or the lovely “Just Like Everybody” a twangy number that evokes ‘70s country-rockers Poco.
But Chen-Bryant kept on writing new music too, and so Nov. 1 saw the release of “Grills Grills Grills,” another dozen tunes devoted to summer fun in the sun. Who can resist silly fun like “I’m In Love with the TV Weather Girl,” or the Massachusetts-inspired “Why’s the Water So Cold Here?” Chen-Bryant plays and sings all the parts on the second album, and there are even videos out already too. Listen to the lively surf rocking romp (and its video) for “Julie’s Smokin’ Pot On The Beach Again” and try not to smile. Chen-Bryant’s music fits neatly in that retro-60’s mode, and casual listeners might think it was Lowe or even Marshall Crenshaw on the microphone. The Larxpurs music is now available on all the major streaming services.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Low Cut Connie rides a new wave of success into Boston
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
