With Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman's play lauded by the Los Angeles Times as a work "that ratchets the suspense to Hitchcockian heights," the fairytale-themed thriller The Secret in the Wings enjoys its area-debut staging in St. Ambrose University's Studio Theatre from April 12 through 21, this exciting, unsettling stage piece inspiring the Chicago Reader to state, "It's tasteful and smart, and it respects the mystery at the heart of the tales it tells."

2024 Reader Photo Contest Secret Records Transparent Promo Photo

With spring in the air, it's time again for the River Cities’ Reader's annual Spring Photo Contest!

For 2024, the three new categories for your submissions are: “Secret,” “Records,” and “Transparent.”

Entrants are welcome to interpret the categories however they wish.  Click photo or headline for full list of rules. 

A chart-topping American Country Award and Academy of Country Music Award winner currently touring in support of his 2023 album Loose Cannon, singer/songwriter Jake Owen headlines an April 19 concert event at Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center, his most recent recording inspiring OutKick to call it "a great reminder that there's nothing better than cracking a cold beer and just cruising through an exceptional country album."

Touring in support of their most recent album The Hell We Create that Wall of Sound called "10 tracks of polished metalcore that will keep fans satisfied," the Texas-based Christian rockers of Fit for a King headline an April 19 concert at Davenport's Capitol Theatre, their 2022 recording also inspiring Outburn to state, "This record's outstanding instrumental and atmospheric soundscapes, together with its unquestionable lyrical vulnerability, make it well worth listening to."

Renowned for such Billboard smashes as Ride 'Til I Die, The Hard Stuff, 2120 South Michigan Ave., and 2011's chart-topping The Dirty Dozen, blues-rock icons George Thorogood & the Destroyers play Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center on April 20, thrilling fans with a repertoire that ranges from originals such as “Bad to the Bone” to covers of “Move It on Over” and “Who Do You Love?”

Boasting numerous chart-topping albums on the iTunes Blues Chart and top-10 smashes on Billboard's Blues, Heatseekers, and Tastemaker charts, the roots and country-blues musicians of The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band headline an April 20 concert event as Davenport's Redstone Room, their discography including such hits as So Delicious, Poor Until Payday, Between the Ditches, and 2021's Dance Songs for Hard Times.

Treating jazz fans to the courageous and provocative voice of a true original, the Polyrhythms Third Sunday Jazz Series delivers an unforgettable evening performance by Lois Deloatch w/ the Polyrhythms Trio on April 21, this special event at Davenport's Unitarian Universality Congregation of the Quad Cities boasting vocalist Deloatch alongside Corey Kendrick on piano, Ron Wilson on bass, and Manuel Lopez III on drums.

With the musicians inviting audiences to sing along, dance, put their hands up, smile, and have a good time, the hip-hop performers of Shady: A Live Band Tribute to the Music of Eminem headline an April 20 concert at East Moline venue The Rust Belt, delivering high-energy numbers from the repertoire of one of the greatest rappers of all time.

Held as part of the unique concert series held in Davenport's intimate and cozy Redstone Room, the April 19 Songwriter Sessions event will find fans of Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Johnny Cash, Elton John, and other singing/songwriting greats treated to a seated evening of tunes hosted David G. Smith, with additionally winning performances delivered by Dave Moore and Catfish Keith.

Praised by the Memphis Flyer for "eschewing de rigueur hoarse screaming for simple but effective melodies (and yes, screaming!)," resulting in "an irresistible combination," the Japanese punk rockers of TsuShiMaMiRe make their debut at Davenport's Raccoon Motel on April 23, the female trio famed for mixing pop instrumental sounds with idiosyncratic, quirky, and oftentimes funny and disturbing lyrics.

With her March release Bite Down hailed by AllMusic.com as a work that offers "the best examples yet of her peculiar ability to craft songs that sound uncannily at peace as they explode," indie-rock singer/songwriter Rosali A. Middleman – performing under the moniker Rosali – headlines an April 19 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, her Bite Down raves continuing with Paste calling it "packed wall to wall with tunes that are unsettled but unhurried, generous with melody, wandering but never lost, and reliably steady despite the never-ending twists and turns of an earthly existence."

Coco, April 20

Their self-titled 2021 debut album lauded by Joyzine as "soft-edged and comforting," as well as a recording that "caresses you tenderly from the opening track," bandmates Maia Friedman, Oliver Hill, and Dan Molad bring their indie outfit Coco to Davenport's Raccoon Motel on April 20, the group's most recent release 2 also hailed by Swim into the Sound as " a lovely collection of tracks that glow with live set energy and pay homage to a myriad of genres and musical themes."

A consistently popular and lauded presence on the Midwestern touring circuit, beloved folk singer/songwriter Cody Diekhoff – better known by his recording alias Chicago Farmer – headlines an April 19 concert with his band The Field Notes at Galesburg's Orpheum Theatre, the artist a soulful crooner and guitarist who inspired No Depression to rave, “If the Midwest is looking for a voice, the search is over.”

Offering a thrilling salute to one of the most exciting chapters in music history - the birth, near death, and resurrection of rock 'n’ roll - the gifted musicians of the Neverly Brothers headline an April 20 concert event at Maquoketa's Ohnward Fine Arts Center, treating fans of classic tunes to a "magical history tour" in their stage spectacle A Rock 'n' Roll Evolution from Elvis to the Beatles.

Performing a special concert uring the Mt. Carroll venue's springtime Casino Night, Chicago-area native Peter Oprisko brings his concert event The Rat Pack: An Evening with Frank & Dean to the Timber Lake Playhouse on April 20, the Sinatra-and-Martin tribute artist known and loved for his recordings, his live performances, and singing the National Anthem for the home games of the Chicago White Sox.

Lauded by the New York Times as a "big bearhug of a musical" in which "even the most stalwart cynics may have trouble staying dry-eyed," the Tony Award-winning Come from Away makes its Quad Cities debut when the show's national tour lands at Davenport's Adler Theatre on April 23, this 2017 entertainment also hailed by Broadway World as "inspiring, funny, and kick-ass beautiful.”

This spring, the student talents of Augustana College's OperX ensemble will treat audiences to alternating performances of both a full opera and excerpts from the operatic repertoire, with the gifted singers and director Patrick McNally staging composer Henry Purcell's Dido & Aeneas on April 19 and 21, and works by Mozart, Bernstein, Bizet, and Donizett in the vocal revue Set the Scenes on April 20.

A 1930 Noel Coward play that has emerged as one of the most enduring comedies of the last 100 years, Private Lives will enjoy a student-directed and -performed April 25 through 28 run at Augustana College's Honkamp Myhre Black Box Theatre, with past productions of this supremely witty work attracting such stage and screen talents as Richard Burton, Alan Rickman, Tallulah Bankhead, Elizabeth Taylor, Elaine Stritch, Maggie Smith, and Succession's Matthew Macfadyen.

A tale as old as time will be given a magical new stage presentation when the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center unveils the classic story of Beauty & the Beast on April 21, with the gifted members of the Panto Company USA bringing the beloved musical to life with flawless comic banter and lavish dance routines.

In an April 20 program in which she will share her family history and how that history became the basis for her new book, the Quad Cities' esteemed poet, actor, and performance artist Shellie Moore Guy will take part in a special local-author visit at the Rock Island Public Library's Watts-Midtown Branch, treating family audiences to the saga behind her new release The Family Tree.

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