With his popular band Jared & the Mill lauded by College Times for its "its willowy jangle rock and hook-laden lyrics," the group's frontman Jared Kolesar will perform as a solo artist when his outfit Wheelwright headlines a concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the artist's May 28 engagement treating fans to the talents of a singer/writer whose band, according to PopMatters, delivers "a scorching rock performance that consistently shifts in how it musically tells its story."

Currently touring in support of his March album Little Sun, a work that Americana Highways deemed " a masterful record with stunning production and musicianship of the highest quality," Charlie Parr headlines a May 26 record-release show at Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, the country and blues-rock singer/songwriter's most recent offering also leading PopMatters to rave that Parr "never betrays his own vision, one that continues to find new routes to explore even 18 albums in."

Noted for being the Midwest's only act expressly dedicated to recreating the music of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, the, Chicago-based tribute artists of The Four C Notes play a May 18 concert event at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse. performing from a vast pop, rock, and ballad repertoire boasting such iconic smashes as “Sherry," “Big Girls Don’t Cry," “Walk Like A Man," “Workin’ My Way Back To You, (Babe)," "Let's Hang On," and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You."

Hailed by Variety as a slapstick in which "the audience almost never stops laughing," with "handkerchiefs wiping away tears of merriment," Larry Shue's screwball stage classic The Nerd opens the 2024 mainstage theatre season at Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse, its May 30 through June 9 run sure to demonstrate why the Milwaukee Journal raved that "Shue delivers a neatly crafted package that uses some classic comic forms to bring the audience to its knees laughing."

Presented by the Quad Cities Bicycle Club and returning to the Village of East Davenport, an eagerly anticipated Memorial Day tradition returns for its 57th year in the Quad Cities Kwik Star Criterium – a May 27 event featuring hundreds of adult and youth cyclists from across the U.S., Canada, and Europe participating in a dozen bicycle races, with thousands of dollars in cash prizes awarded throughout the day.

Through September 15, fascinating stories of struggle, perseverance, tragedy, and triumph will be shared at Davenport's German American Heritage Center in the venue's Immigration Then & Now: Finding Refuge in the Quad Cities, a meaningful, locally themed exhibition presented in partnership with World Relief Quad Cities and supported by the Moline Regional Community Foundation.

On May 30, area art lovers are invited to enjoy their "Last Chance" at touring the Figge Art Museum's popular 43rd Rock Island Art Guild Fine Arts Exhibition, with the Davenport venue's exhibit boasting 62 works – paintings, sculptures, installations, and more – by 42 artists living within a 200-mile radius of the Quad Cities.

Considering that nearly all of its performances are motion-capture ones, I didn't expect to spend so much time at Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes marveling at the nuances of naturalistic human acting.

In collaboration with Augustana College, a world-renowned chef and leader in the field of entomophagy – the eating of insects – will introduce participants to familiar foods augmented by some unfamiliar ingredients on May 11 and 13, when Chef Joseph Yoon presents a tasting event at Rock Islanmd's Nest Cafe on May 11 and a lecture at Augustana College's Gerber Center on May 13.