Low Cut Connie’s Adam Weiner came up playing in dive bars — Saturday night hangout spots full of neighborhood folks “getting down on funky records and good vibes,” he tells Rolling Stone. And that’s the feeling he’s aiming to emulate with his new syndicated radio show, The Connie Club. The show launches on October 5th, airing across the country on stations like WXPN and the Current.
“I grew up listening to these crazy freewheeling FM radio shows in Philly and New Jersey,” Weiner says. “I love those shows where people get up and sing karaoke live on the radio and do shout-outs. Local flavor to the max.”
The show will feature Weiner spinning vinyl live, playing his piano (nicknamed “Shondra”), and interviewing the likes of Big Freedia, Caroline Rose and Cait O’Riordan from the Pogues. Guests will also sing acoustic, dive-bar version of their songs — accompanied by Weiner and Shondra.
The Connie Club initially launched in 2018 via Minnesota Public Radio’s The Current, but, come October, will now be available on stations such as Radio Woodstock, WXPN, WFPK, WYEP and Colorado Indie 102.3. It will also be streaming on The Current’s website. “So here we are with a nationally syndicated weird little piece of radio that people are gonna be grooving on around the country,” Weiner says.
The Philly band has earned its share of famous fans since they released fifth studio album, Dirty Pictures (Part 2), in 2018, including Bruce Springsteen and Elton John. “[Elton John] said that I remind him of Little Richard and the piano players that he idolized when he was young,” Weiner told Rolling Stone backstage at Springsteen’s run of Broadway shows earlier this year. “I said, ‘I idolize those guys too — but you’re my other guy.’ That’s my constellation.”
In addition to Weiner’s radio show, the band kicks off the Azz Across America tour with Big Freedia at the end of October.