Low Cut Connie's Adam Weiner Takes Over Radio With The Connie Club

When life gets to be too much, there’s now a place you can go to cut loose. Step into The Connie Club, a new weekly radio show hosted by Low Cut Connie frontman Adam Weiner, which airs this Sunday on Indie 102.3.

Designed to feel like a dive bar where the music is blasting and the joint is jumpin’, this club welcomes everyone who wants to escape into the party.

“I’m playing records, playing piano, guests are dropping by — it’s getting crazy,” says Weiner, who came up with the idea after growing up listening to radio stations in Philadelphia that offered weekend live broadcast shows that put a spotlight on everyday people.

He contacted stations who’d championed his band and found enthusiastic support for the idea. The Connie Club is set to broadcast as a one-month run on six stations across the country and to stream online.

Listeners can expect to hear Weiner spinning what he calls "Saturday night party music" — a mix of rock and roll, soul, salsa, hip-hop and country, from deep vinyl cuts to field recordings.

"It’s anything you can dance to, whatever feels good,” he says.

He’s got special guests dropping by, including Caroline Rose, Cait O’Riordan of the Pogues, and Big Freedia, who will chat and play an acoustic song on Weiner’s piano. He also invites in unknowns, such as a woman he found rapping in a train station and another he discovered at an open-mic night.

“I’ve seen amazing performances in random places, and we’ll never hear of them," Weiner says. "There’s enough media focused on what’s famous. My show is not about that. I wanted to create a place where everyone is welcome and everyone is a star.”

For anyone who’s seen Low Cut Connie live, it’s not surprising that Weiner is pushing the party atmosphere. The band puts on a fierce live show, thanks in large part to Weiner’s stuntman-like stage presence. He climbs all over his piano and across the stage, getting the audience revved up. He takes his job of entertaining a crowd seriously.

“I want to make people feel elevated," he says. "I have to remind myself and my band that this is not a party for us, but for the crowd. We are not there to be admired or display our skills or impress. We are there to facilitate magic for people in the room.”

As an unexpected reward, Weiner said he discovered the power of music and how it can touch people and affect their world.

“We get these messages from people who tell us that we’ve lifted them up from a dark place and that our band and our shows have been therapeutic for them," he says. "This thing that started eight years ago as kind of a crazy act has become something very meaningful to people who follow us. I don’t take that lightly.”

Low Cut Connie returns to the Denver area on November 12 at the Gothic Theatre, opening for Big Freedia. In the meantime, turn the dial to The Connie Club. It’s going to be a wild ride!

The Connie Club airs on Indie 102.3 at 7 p.m. Sunday, October 6, and runs every Sunday in October. Low Cut Connie plays the Gothic Theatre with Big Freedia at 8 p.m. on November 12, at 3263 South Broadway, Englewood. Tickets are $27.75 to $30 and available at the Gothic website.