Live Music: Low Cut Connie

[bedsitter23]

When a friend told me to go see Low Cut Connie last year, I passed. So when he invited me this year, I had to go. I wasn’t familiar with them though apparently they have done well (Barack Obama is a fan). So I looked them up online and they seemed fine though I secretly wondered what the big deal was.

 

 

I saw some big name critics were calling them great (meh, critics). Then I saw them called the best live band this side of Gogol Bordello (intrigued).

 

I went to my go-to (Allmusic) and there was something like 120 related bands. I had never seen anything like it. More importantly I liked probably three-quarters of those bands. But what a list. Joe Jackson. Slaughter and the Dogs. Jon Spencer. RL Burnside. The Black Keys. Afghan Whigs. Elvis Costello. The Raconteurs. Ian Dury. Derek Trucks. And so on. What was this?

 

The last review that sold me (I was already sold, I swear) compared them to the New York Dolls. This seemed unlikely but here we go.

 

Oddly, the first thing I thought seeing them was the Dolls. Though not like I imagined and probably not what you are imagining either. When I think of the Dolls, I think of the band that gave us the interplay of guitars of Sylvain and Thunders on Jet Boy. A sound distilled by the Sex Pistols in London and Hanoi Rocks in Sweden to influence every major rock release of the late 80s.

 

No, the Dolls were more than Thunders. They were the swagger of David Johansen informed by the Blues and 50s Rock as witnessed on covers like Pills and Daddy Rolling Stone.

 

Adam Weiner has a stage presence that could probably only come from a Philly. He commands attention. He has an old piano which makes you think of Elton John (also a fan) or Jerry Lee Lewis. It’s hard to characterize his music, though it’s certainly fitting in a post-Black Keys universe. It’s like Van Morrison’s “Wild Night” as played by John Cougar, not John Mellencamp.

 

Most telling is LCCs signature song which is a cover of “Controversy”. Indeed, maybe this is what Prince would have sounded like if the Purple One was in the English scene during the pub rock or possibly punk rock years.

 

LCC delivers on their promise. Weiner has an amazing charisma. Yes, there’s some Jon Spencer. Yes there’s some Replacements. There’s the Killer and Captain Fantastic . It is well augmented by a great backing band and Shaundra Williams of the Dap Kings. The hype (for a change) is true and it’s no wonder they sell out so often wherever they go

 

Ruby Boots isn’t a standout name but Perth born, Nashville based singer Bex Chilcott is fantastic. She plays Americana that brings to mind Lucinda Williams which is pretty heavy (ahem) boots to fill. That said, there’s a particularly Stonesy, bluesy sound mixed with honky tonk and plenty of raw emotion that very few others comes to mind. She can belt out too like the a cappella I Am A Woman. Recommended