The first thing I noticed as I walked into Thursday's stunning, powerful, opening-night performance of the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's Cabaret was the temperature. As I glanced around looking for meat hooks, I realized that many of the theatre's more seasoned attendees had brought along sweaters, coats, and even blankets. But the chill in the air gave no indication of the show's eventual heat.

You know a disaster movie is mired in cliché when a character, in the final minutes, is asked what we do now in the wake of so much destruction, and replies with an earnest, determined “Rebuild” – just like Dwayne Johnson did at the end of San Andreas. You know an action thriller is mired in cliché when a character, in the final minutes, finally takes a breath after so much breathless activity, and utters an earnest, plaintive “Let's go home” – just like Dwayne Johnson did at the end of Snitch.

In the final minutes of the new Skyscraper, a disaster-movie-cum-action-thriller starring Dwayne Johnson, you will hear both these lines.

Lauded by Paste magazine for their “emotional urgency” and by the Chicago Tribune for “the sheer force of the trio's aching, tight-knit harmonies,” the Americana and alt-country musicians of The Lone Bellow perform a July 19 Moeller Nights concert at Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, demonstrating why NPR raved about “the group's earnest, ingratiating charm, dispensed via charisma-drenched songs that amble and soar.”

With ClashMusic.com praising the venue's headliner for her “honest, emotive songwriting,” “stirring, affecting work,” and “remarkable sense of depth,” Davenport's Redstone Room hosts a July 25 concert with alternative-folk and rock musician Maggie Koerner, whose talents inspired ItchySilk.com to rave, “There is something Janis Joplin about Koerner, whose ability to tear into songs is aural ecstasy brimming with controlled power.”

Described by Examiner.com as “a band unlike any other” and Blurt magazine as “a hybrid of Idris Muhammad, George Clinton, Ohio Players, and Earth, Wind & Fire,” the tightly-wrapped funk, rock, and R&B musicians of Here Come the Mummies take the stage at the Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center on July 20, their infectious grooves leading The Bob & Tom Show co-host Bob Kevoian to call one of their concerts “the most fun I've had in 20 years.”

Held in celebration of the Daiquiri Factory's 14th anniversary and the Rock Island Brewing Company's 40th, the District of Rock Island will house its annual, dual anniversary party for both venues on July 20, an outdoor event featuring the latest area appearances by the glam-rock tribute artists of Hairbanger's Ball.

With her most recent album Highway Queen lauded by The Guardian as “a boisterous collection of firecracker 'outlaw country,' singer/songwriter Nikki Lane headlines a June 30 Moeller Nights concert at Maquoketa' Codfish Hollow Barn, her performance sure to underscore why Rolling Stone labeled her songs “inspirations cased in a streetwise, modern shell that's as unapologetic as Johnny Cash's middle finger.”

If you’ve never been privy to the theatre-audition process, you may not realize how intense and cut-throat an experience it can be, and as A Chorus Line – currently being presented at Quad City Music Guild’s Prospect Park Auditorium – teaches us, it’s not always about how talented you are; sometimes it’s merely who you know. But while that bias can be an unfortunate reality, Music Guild’s vast display of on-stage talent dazzles you into momentarily forgetting the injustice.

“I saw Won't You Be My Neighbor?. Friggin' face faucet, dude.” – actor/writer Kumail Nanjiani, in a recent tweet

Unless you're too young to be aware of the man and his legacy or too jaded or angry to care, it's hard to imagine who won't dissolve into a blubbery mess watching Morgan Neville's documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor?, a supremely intelligent, bighearted look at the life and career of Fred McFeely Rogers, host of the beloved PBS children's series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. (And were you aware that his middle name was “McFeely”? Landing on that information recently, I got choked up anew with the refrain “Speedy delivery! Speedy delivery!” in my head.)