Fust, April 12

With their March release Big Ugly hailed by Americana Highways as "a big, riffy record full of Southern observations" that "may just end up being this year’s best album," the alternative-country talents of Fust headline an April 12 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the musicians from North Carolina also praised by Post-Trash for their "inescapable sense of wonder and excitement that's both exhilarating and full of charm."

LEYA, April 14

Delivering what Pitchfork described as "ambient music that's eerie, beckoning, and tinged with horror." the Brooklyn-based duo of harpist Marilu Donovan and vocalist/violinist Adam Markiewicz bring their outfit LEYA to Davenport's Raccoon Motel on April 16, The Guardian hailing the pair for producing "music that sounds simultaneously 300 years old and somewhere from the distant future."

With the artist's 2023 debut Don't You Dare Make Me Jaded lauded by Americana UK as "highly accomplished and noteworthy" and its creator "a voice to reckon with," contemporary-folk singer/songwriter Olive Klug headlines an April 16 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the artist touring in support of their upcoming April album Lost Dog and currently amassing more than 8 million streams on tracks including “Raining In June."

As the largest and longest living plant on earth, trees have inspired art for centuries. And in celebration of spring, the area's professional vocal ensemble the Nova Singers invites patrons to experience the beauty and wonder of trees through song in the group's 2024-25 season closer Come to the Woods, being performed at Galesburg's First Lutheran Church on April 12 and Davenport's First Presbyterian Church on April 13.

Touring in support of his new album Here We Go Crazy, a recording that Rolling Stone raved "mixes raw power and deep honesty," iconic alternative rocker Bob Gould and his band open the 2025 season at Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, their April 15 concert treating fans to a night with the artist principally known for his work as guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for Hüsker Dü in the 1980s and Sugar in the 1990s.

Boasting the talents of Emmy Award-winning composer Randy Rogel on piano and the vocal talents of Emmy winner Rob Paulsen (famed for voicing Yakko and Pinky on Animaniacs and Raphael on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), the touring sensation Animaniacs in Concert lands at Galesburg's Orpheum Theatre on April 12, the show delivering a zany, animany, totally insanely time as Rogel and Paulsen perform popular songs from the beloved cartoon series backed by the original projected animation.

Closing the University of Iowa School of Music's 2024-25 opera season with a trio of ravishing performances April 11 through 13, the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts will house a pair of obscure yet treasured pieces that have enjoyed a recent resurgence: Gaetano Donizetti’s Rita, a darkly comic look at power dynamics in relationships, and La Colombe, in which Charles Gounod’s sparkling score accompanies a farcical tale of seduction.

Featuring paintings both from the museum's collection and on loan, the Figge Art Museum's current exhibition Marvin Cone: Painter celebrates this exceptional artist and teacher who pursued artmaking for more than 50 years, and in an April 17 Curator Talk, the Davenport venue's senior co-curator Vanessa Sage will speak about the artist, his long career, and the evolution of his style.

Having made Vulture’s 2023 list of “Comedians You Should and Will Know,” and having been identified by GQ as “at the front of a new wave of comedians," Stavros Halkias brings his tour to Davenport's Capitol Theatre on April 12, the funnyman also noted for being a founding member of the popular podcast Cum Town and appearing in Steven Soderbergh’s sci-fi series Command Z.

With Kirkus calling her 2025 novel All the Water in the World "gripping, beautifully descriptive, and likely to stay with you," its author Eiren Caffall will be the featured guest in the Archway Reading and Lecture Series at the University of Dubuque, her April 14 reading and subsequent Q&A session taking place in the campus' Multicultural Student Center at the Peter and Susan Smith Welcome Center.

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