Lauded by Album of the Year for his "vivid imagination and a strong sense of surrealism," Emperor X, the indie-rock project of Chad Matheny, headlines a June 27 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, his talents inspiring Echoes & Dust to label him "one of the most subversive American songwriters" who "is f---ing on fire now."

Performing locally in advance of the July 11 release of their latest album Longtime Friend, the brother-and-sister folk and Americana duo The Wildmans headline a June 29 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, with Aila and Elisha Wildman's outfit inspiring American Songwriter to rave, "The storytelling, Aila’s vocal delivery, and the siblings’ harmonies all carry the fingerprints of generations of mountain music."

Performing in Bettendorf as part of the venue's Summer Concert Series, the nationally known, Quad Cities-based power-pop artists of Einstein's Sister play The Tangled Wood on June 27, the outfit's previous singles “Begin Again / Standing Still" mastered by Abbey Road Studios' Miles Showell, who also mastered and cut vinyl for Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, Queen, The Police, and The Beatles.

Delivering bluegrass versions of Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, and the artist's own classics with harmonious singalongs and a hint of psychedelia, revered singer/songwriter/instrumentalist Keller Williams brings his concert event DeadPettyKellerGrass to Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn on June 28, this "one-man jam band" hailed by AllMusic as "“an utterly unique performer whose musical eccentricities don't keep him from being immediately accessible.”

Delivering a weekend of family fun that blends history with excitement, the city of LeClaire and its Buffalo Bill Museum are proud to treat guests to the outdoor delights of The Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, the June 28 and 29 celebration at LeClaire's Cody Elementary School boasting horse-riding events, children's activities, live music, food vendors, and much more.

Annual explosions of fun followed by literal explosions in the air will be taking place in Davenport's LeClaire Park, Rock Island's Schwiebert Riverfront Park, and Davenport's baseball stadium Modern Woodmen Park when the Quad Cities hosts its Fourth of July celebration Red, White, & Boom!, the bi-state July 3 event delivering a spectacular fireworks display over the Mississippi River as well as live music, food and beverage vendors, special presentations, family programming, and more.

In a special Moline Public Library on July 1, two science-fiction visionaries who were able to imagine the world we now inhabit – and beyond – will be celebrated through story in song in Barry Cloyd's solo performance Jules Verne & H.G. Wells: The Birth of Sci-Fi and the First Citizens of the Future, a salute to the literary geniuses who peered beyond the curtain of time to predict the far distant future.

One of the most adored hits in the Disney/Pixar canon will be brought to delightful stage life at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts from June 27 through 29 when the student talents of the Young Footliters present Finding Nemo Jr., a 60-minute adaptation of the Oscar-winning animated comedy boasting new music by the songwriting team of Kristen Anderson-Lopez and double EGOT winner Robert Lopez.

They're creepy and they’re kooky, but I must tell you: For a musical comedy about a clan that generally lacks enthusiasm for anything other than the macabre, the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre's The Addams Family was truly a high-energy showcase of talent and spectacle. Director Courtney Ryan Crouse, who's also the company's artistic director, brought the ghoulish tale to light in a way that was hysterically heartwarming.