Adam Weiner, The Ark, Ann Arbor, March 5, 2026

Adam Weiner, who many of you know performs with a band under Low Cut Connie, is out on a solo piano tour until the end of April. There’s a new full band record coming out in July, but Adam is one of those guys that if you gave him a Fisher-Price keyboard and put a spotlight on him (hell, even without the spotlight), he could give a crowd of any size an incredibly solid 20 minute show that would have the audience demanding multiple encores. He is one of those old-school entertainers, or at least he full-bore unashamedly and robustly draws from that tradition. He is here to put on a SHOW. 

It’s easier to do that when you have a handful of onstage foils but what this outing amply demonstrates is that he doesn’t need a band. Or that the band doesn’t have to matter — which is not meant as a diss directed at anyone who has ever been part of LCC, because Weiner’s skill at finding the right human puzzle pieces to work with is also one of his great and mostly underrated skills. 

At a Thursday night show in Ann Arbor at the beginning of the month, I walked right past the seat that had been kindly reserved for me in the first few rows, dead center, because I wanted to sit where I could see Weiner’s hands on the keyboard. So I ensconced myself hard stage right. It was the same kind of strategy I use when I buy tickets to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band because I am always going to try to sit where I can closely observe Roy Bittan at work. This wasn’t something I thought about in advance, I just… did it. My instincts turned out to be correct.

It was an enormous, wonderful performance, full of the same stage presence, command and power that you experience at a full-band Connie show. And while I am never going to be tired of seeing loud, sweaty rock and roll performed full-throttle at close quarters, after watching Weiner front various flavors of Connie for the past decade I think I appreciated this solo performance more than seeing him and the band take no prisoners and win over the staunchest arms-folded, straight-faced dudes. That is not easy, but going onstage with just you, your songs, and a piano is hard in a different kind of way.

What I realized watching Weiner’s solo performance is that the full band actually obscures Weiner’s considerable talents. And while intellectually I know that the only reason he can engage in his usual full-band hijinks is because of his mastery of his instruments and talents, I kind of really liked just watching someone who’s incredibly gifted with an instrument be able to focus on just playing the instrument and not repeatedly walking through the crowd or balancing on top of the piano (we got exactly one one-legged balance-while-playing).

Of course I know that every element of a Connie show derives from deep knowledge and understanding of Weiner’s core musical influences and all of that is at least part of why I appreciate it as much as I do, but man, I also deeply appreciated the opportunity to just watch him work, stripped down to just the songs and the piano and the voice and the person wielding it.

The evening featured old favorites, everything from “Boozophilia” to “The Fuckin You Get for The Fuckin You Got” to new material from the upcoming Livin’ In The USA record, like the title track or the current single, “Little Freakers.” “Livin’ In The USA”’s lyric “The seasons are turning, but we didn't have the chancе to change” wasn’t written last week (or even last month! it came out last year!), but it could have been. 

Introducing the song, Weiner reminded the audience that it wasn’t just that he was one of the first artists to boycott the Kennedy Center but also told the story about how he got cancelled from doing a free show in a park in Pennsylvania because of “divisive” comments like “I love everybody in this room right now.” (Note: he still does.) My notes also say something about “it’s a sexy salad bowl” but I have no additional context or recollection but I like the image. 

The other part of the show consisted of Weiner’s always-inspiring choice of covers. Tonight there were about half a dozen: “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” “Let’s Dance,” “Lady Stardust,” “Little Red Corvette,” and my favorite, an inspired (and location appropriate!) “I’ll Be Around” by the Spinners, which Weiner pointed out he chose because it was written in Detroit but recorded in Philadelphia. 

But the element that really stood out is the richness of Weiner’s instrument. I wrote last year that I thought his voice had gotten richer and warmer but this particular outing solidified that. Of course, the power and strength of his vocals have to be there or it wouldn’t work with the band — the band could easily overpower him otherwise — but it’s sharing bandwidth with everything else happening sonically and you don’t get same the opportunity to appreciate it in depth and at length as you can in this kind of show. 

I won’t miss a Connie show if it’s nearby (and given that I’ve driven to Columbus, the definition of “nearby” is broad), but I loved this evening something fierce and appreciate that Weiner is willing to expand his audience’s goodwill and believe that if he keeps solo shows as part of his ongoing bag of tricks it will broaden that audience even further. Go check out this show if he's nearby.