Their 2020 album Ancient Homies lauded by Everything Is Noise as “an absolute must-listen” that “is fun, engaging, and well worth your time,” the funk and groove musicians of lespecial headline a December 9 concert set at Davenport's Redstone Room, the group delivering a sound, according to Relix, that owes as much to Radiohead and The Mars Volta as it does Medeski Martin & Wood and Umphrey’s McGee.”

With Pop Matters describing his most recent album as delivering “a unified message of love, kindness, and island vibes,” Grammy-winning singer/songwriter and guitarist Jason Mraz brings his national tour to Davenport's Adler Theatre on December 7, the pop/folk, jazz, and reggae artist hitting the road with longtime collaborator Toca Rivera, who has performed with Mraz since his coffee-shop days.

A remarkable 13,000 years of state history will be explored in a virtual event on December 16, with the Davenport Public Library hosting the online presentation Iowa's People & Places: A Program Commemorating 175 Years of Iowa Statehood. a fascinating webinar stroll through the centuries led by State Curator Leo Landis.

A debuting musical of holiday favorites and an original comedic script close the curtain on the Mockingbird on Main's inaugural 2021 season, with the Davenport venue's December 9 through 18 run of Deck Halls treating audiences to six evenings of yuletide revelry written and directed by the theatre's co-founder Tristan Layne Tapscott.

Instrumental and vocal celebrations of overseas beauty will be on the docket as the Quad City Symphony Orchestra continues its Masterworks season with the musicians' third showcase for 2021-22: English Serenade, December 4 and 5 presentations held at the Adler Theatre and Bartlett Performing Arts Center highlighted by the performances of Grammy Award-winning tenor Karim Sulayman and the QCSO's longtime principal horn player Marc Zyla.

Touring in support of their October release Georgia Blue, an album that Pitchfork deemed “a joyful affair with sadness lurking in the shadows,” Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit headline a December 4 concert event at East Moline's The Rust Belt, the alternative-country and Southern rock ensemble's frontman a four-time Grammy Award winner who was also a member of Drive-By Truckers from 2001 to 2007.

Lauded by Paste magazine as an artist whose “remarkable repertoire” boasts compositions that are “intriguing and alluring,” acoustic guitarist and singer/songwriter Keller Williams headlines a December 4 concert at Davenport's Redstone Room, a “one-man jam band” whom AllMusic.com also deemed “an utterly unique performer whose musical eccentricities don't keep him from being immediately accessible.”

After a virtual version of their annual program was streamed in 2020, a sextet of Augustana College music ensembles reunite in person for December 4 and 5 presentations of Christmas at Augustana, a yuletide celebration at Centennial Hall boasting the collective talents of the Augustana Brass Ensemble, Augustana Symphony Orchestra, Ascension Ringers, Augustana Choir, Jenny Lind Vocal Ensemble, and Augustana Concert Chorale.

Praised by Invisible Oranges for their “psychedelic take on classic death metal” and by Loudwire for their sound that melds "tectonic riffs, cavernous vocals, and eerie, Dodsengel-like moments of caustic stillness," the rockers of Blood Incantation headline a December 3 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the group also lauded by Stereogum for "blending the bright melodicism of late-period Death with the alien tones of Morbid Angel circa Domination."

With The Guardian deeming the 2015 work “a thrillingly transgressive hit,” the unorthodox and unforgettable comedy Er Ist Wieder Da – also known by its English title Look Who's Back – enjoys a December 3 screening at Rozz-Tox, serving as the final 2021 presentation in the Kinogarten series of acclaimed, German-themed works hosted by the Rock Island venue and Davenport's German American Heritage Center.

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