The musicians' most recent album Ghost Modern, according to Treblezine.com, boasts a “multi-layered, rich sound that infuses elements of various genres, from new wave to ’90s alt-rock, with some modern indie pop in between.” And on April 13, Mike Deni and his electronic-rock outfit Geographer will perform a Daytrotter concert demonstrating whyRiff magazine stated, “Deni has one of the best rock falsettos out there, and his tremendous vocal range is complemented by a prolific and varied output as a songwriter and the talented musicians with whom he’s able to perform and record.”

Praised by Pitchfork.com for “using her mordant wit to confront serious subjects, exorcising trauma with hooks and humor,” alternative-folk singer/songwriter Caroline Rose and her ensemble The Go Rounds play an April 17 Redstone Room concert in support of the band's February release LONER – a work that, according to Paste magazine, “is a singular artistic statement from its unforgettable album art all the way down.”

Descibed by Jazz Times as an artist who “cooks up a brilliant marriage of blues, jazz, gospel, and soul,” Blues Hall of Fame inductee Bruce Katz and his Bruce Katz Band play an April 11 concert sponsored by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society, showcasing the talents that led the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to declare, “This tight ensemble hits all the marks with deadly aim.”

Faith, hope, and brotherly love wrapped up in comic genius and superb writing was what I witnessed this past Good Friday. I must admit, I had never heard of the Church Basement Ladies series until recently, and was not sure what to expect. But the theatre's current The Church Basement Ladies in Rise Up, O Men was one of the best shows I've ever seen at the Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse.

Sometimes it seems as if very, very little separates a wretched Tyler Perry movie from a … . Well, not from a great Tyler Perry movie, because he hasn't yet made one of those. (He probably came closest with 2010's For Colored Girls, but those results were likely aided by Perry's choice to adapt a Tony-nominated Ntozake Shange play.) The auteur, however, has certainly made his share of terrifically entertaining movies, and for almost its entire length, I couldn't tell whether Tyler Perry's Acrimony was a stunningly confused and ineffective melodrama or an oddly irresistible one.

Winner of the 2016 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play, Lucas Hnath's The Christians serves as the first title in the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's 2018 season of Barn Owl Theatre productions, its April 6 through 8 run treating audiences to a work BroadwayWorld.com deemed “utterly engrossing,” with the Chicago Tribune calling its author “one of the most interesting, focused, counterintuitive, and intellectually compelling playwrights of our moment.”

Descibed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as the creators of “soul music that's so much of the old school that it might as well drive a car with fins,” Durand Jones & the Indications headline a Moeller Nights concert on April 9, the group's self-titled 2016 album leading Spill magazine to rave, “Jones absolutely dominates the songs with his powerful, soulful, and ever-evolving voice.”

Appearing in a concert benefiting local organizations for peace, cultural diversity, and human rights, folk singer/songwriter Charlie King performs his annual area show at Rock Island's Broadway Presbyterian Church on April 7, an event being held six months after King received the esteemed Phil Ochs Award in recognition of his music and activism for social and political justice.

Fronted by guitarist/vocalists and founding members Jasamine White-Gluz and Laura Lloyd, the acclaimed alternative rockers of No Joy play a Daytrotter concert on April 8, the band's sound described by the New York Times as “a tingling, immersive experience,” and the musicians' talents inspiring Fader to state, “They know how to write a gorgeous song.”