Adam Weiner, the frontman-pianist and creative force behind Philadelphia rock band Low Cut Connie, is bringing his piano-pounding, protest-and-party sound back to Cleveland Heights, where the band plays the Grog Shop with special guest JT Loux. Doors open at 7 p.m. at the venue, located at 2785 Euclid Heights Boulevard, marking Low Cut Connie's first appearance there in a few years.
The show arrives months after Weiner made headlines for a very different reason. As reported by Cleveland.com, Weiner withdrew from a Kennedy Center performance that had been booked in 2024 to take place in 2025, saying the purpose of the show would be lost after changes at the institution. Writing on his own newsletter, Weiner explained, “I immediately called my agents and told them to cancel my show. I knew that the mission of the Social Impact Series would be thwarted,” according to his newsletter post.
Weiner has said he received death threats after withdrawing from the Kennedy Center show, and he consulted security in response to the backlash. He also described receiving violent threats and show cancellations following the release of his band's new album, though he said the support he received far outweighed the backlash. Low Cut Connie wasn't alone in stepping back from the Kennedy Center: a touring production of Hamilton was among the first performers to cancel after leadership changes there, and additional artists and performance companies followed suit after Trump-appointed board members voted to rename the center in December, according to NPR. The Philadelphia Inquirer has reported that Weiner joined actress and comedian Issa Rae, TV producer Shonda Rimes, classical soprano Renée Fleming, and musician Ben Folds in distancing themselves from the institution.
A Protest Record Built the Old-Fashioned Way
Formed in Philadelphia in 2010, Low Cut Connie has spent 16 years touring behind a sound Weiner describes as piano-driven rock, garage, blues, soul and boogie. In July 2026, the band released its eighth studio album, “Livin in the USA,” which Weiner has called both a protest record and a party record. The album was recorded live in one take onto one-inch tape, a deliberately old-fashioned approach Weiner detailed in an interview with NPR's World Cafe.
Weiner has said his south Philadelphia neighbors have feared ICE and school gun violence, with some afraid to leave their homes and others anxious about sending their children to school. Those fears, per Cleveland.com's reporting, shaped the tone of the new record even as Weiner insists his band's performances offer audiences a release — a chance to dance and laugh even amid serious subject matter.
From New Jersey Basement to Rolling Stone's List
Weiner grew up in New Jersey in the 1980s and has named Bruce Springsteen as his hero. He was 36, and five years into working on Low Cut Connie, when he wrote “Revolution Rock n Roll,” a song later included on Rolling Stone's list of the 200 greatest rock songs of the 21st century so far, according to Rolling Stone. Weiner has said the song still gets played at both protests and parties. The band's profile got another lift in 2015, when Barack Obama included Low Cut Connie's “Boozophilia” on his summer playlist that year.
Weiner has said rock music has become mainstream and corporatized over the past 30 years, yet he maintains that rock and roll remains the people's music and will never die. He's said he's grown more explicit about social commentary with each passing year, and that Low Cut Connie draws a fan base spanning different political persuasions and walks of life. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Weiner broadcast a livestream series called Tough Cookies twice a week, drawing as many as 40,000 viewers.
Back on the Road, With Cleveland on the List
Weiner performed in Minneapolis earlier in 2026 as part of the tour supporting “Livin in the USA,” and he's said Cleveland is a rock and roll town with a strong music culture — part of why the Grog Shop stop matters to him. The Cleveland Heights date gives local fans their first chance in a few years to see the band perform its mix of piano-driven rock and road-tested showmanship in person.
