Cory Branan
Music
Cory Branan
Daytrotter
Tuesday, August 2, 7:30 p.m.
On August 2, Daytrotter hosts a night with alternative-country singer/songwriter Cory Branan, and writing on PopMatters.com, Scott Recker stated, “Like all good country music, Cory Branan is hard, if not impossible, to define.” Perhaps Mr. Recker hasn’t read many of the artist’s reviews, because it seems that, over the years, Branan’s signature talents have been defined awfully nicely.
A Mississippi native currently residing in Nashville, the 41-year-old was initially influenced by hard rock, fronting a Black Sabbath cover band while in his teens, and then by country and folk, exploring the repertoire of John Prine while in his early 20s. Yet his professional breakthrough came in 2000, when the Memphis chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences named Branan “Newcomer of the Year,” an accolade that led to the self-release of Branan’s The Hell You Say debut in 2001, with the LP re-released by Madjack Records the following year.
By the end of 2003, Branan had made appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman and Last Call with Carson Daly, and over his subsequent years of tour stops and recording sessions he’s collaborated with the likes of Craig Finn, Steve Selvidge, Jason Isbell, Caitlin Rose, and Tim Easton, with Chuck Ragan calling Branan “the greatest songwriter of our generation.” But in performing his blend of country, folk, rock, and Americana on albums including 2006’s 12 Songs, 2012’s Mutt, and 2014’s The No-Hit Wonder, Branan has earned some particularly descriptive praise from reviewers – so take note, Scott Recker!
Interview magazine wrote, “Whether the protagonist or antogonist in his own set of narratives, Branan coaxes listeners firmly to his side with his whiskey-smooth croon and a transparency that is somehow bold and vulnerable all at once.”
Paste magazine wrote, “Few songwriters sum up the contradictions of a beery romance – of bad men drinking in barrooms, of heartbreakers darkening your door – with quite as much grit, wit, and compassion as Branan, who can turn a phrase on a dime.”
Noisey wrote, “He’s a powerful songwriter, a world-class guitar player, a singer with enough melody and grit to please the ear and stick to the bones ... toying with structures and characters in ways most songwriters never consider, let alone have the guts to commit to record.”
And my favorite is probably the review of The No-Hit Wonder that said the album “will make melodies stick in your head for days and have you listening to songs over and over just to catch the missed lines on some of the record’s more fast-paced and lush verses that make him likably sound like a backwoods beat poet on speed.” The author? PopMatters.com’s Scott Recker. So perhaps he does read Branan’s reviews – just not his own.
For more information on Cory Branan’s Davenport concert, visit Daytrotter.com.
Music
Future of Rock Fest with Red Sun Rising
The District of Rock Island
Saturday, July 23, 7 p.m. gates
Teaming up to present an evening of shredding guitar licks, propulsive percussion, and exultant vocals, the Rock Island Brewing Company and Daiquiri Factory will present the Future of Rock Fest on July 23, an outdoor District of Rock Island concert event boasting as its headliners the Akron, Ohio-based chart-toppers of Red Sun Rising.
If we’re to trust RevelatorShow.com, though, this particular future might sound a lot like the past, considering that the site’s rave review of the band’s 2015 Polyester Zeal closes with “Long hair, plaid, and ripped-up jeans are back in style thanks to Red Sun Rising.” Which means, if I grow my hair out a tad and pull my ’90s wardrobe out of mothballs, I will, for the first time in decades, be back in style. I haven’t met the Red Sun Rising musicians, but I’m pretty sure I love them.
Formed, like all great musical outfits, after its two co-founders struck up a conversation at a gas station, Red Sun Rising first joined the talents of Mike Protich and Ryan Williams – guitarists and former high-school classmates – in 2007, and by 2010 the young men were independently releasing their band’s self-titled album debut and its follow-up Making of Kings within mere months of each other. Yet after several more years of touring and building their fan base through Red Sun Rising’s Web site and social-media presence, the group’s professional turning point came with the record label Razor & Tie, which signed the band in 2014 and released Polyester Zeal the following year. Not only did the album debut at number 11 on Billboard’s hard-rock chart, but in its mainstream-rock chart two of Polyester Zeal’s singles – “The Otherside” and “Emotionless” – peaked at number one.
For music reviewers nationwide, Red Sun Rising’s most recent album is pretty damned number-one, too. Writing that its musicians “have created a sound that is both new and nostaligic,” the aforementioned RevelatorShow.com added, “If you are a person who gravitates to the grunge music of Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, or Soundgarden, then this is a new, fresh-sounding band that incorporates the best of the ’90s.” Lauding Red Sun Rising for providing “a new alternative while retaining and paying homage to their forefathers, sisters, and brothers in rock,” CrypticRock.com raved about the group’s “lush guitars and sweeping drums headed by rich vocals.”
As for Examiner.com, the site called Red Sun Rising “a fantastic surprise” and “an example of a modern-day hard-rock outfit that does more than simply regurgitate the past or close out the sound of the countless other bands treading water about them.” The site went on to say this about the Polyester Zeal single “Amnesia”: “If Pearl Jam and Cheap Trick ever fathered a child, this song would be the result.” One would hope that if we ever witnessed Pearl Jam and Cheap Trick fathering a child, we’d all get amnesia.
Red Sun Rising performs on the Future of Rock Fest bill alongside 3 Years Hollow, Another Lost Year, Remember My Name, and Bigger on the Inside, and more information is available by visiting RIBCO.com and DaiquiriFactory.com.
Music
QC Metalfest
Bierstube Moline
Saturday, July 30, and Sunday, July 31
While our July 30 weekend will find thousands of participants in Davenport’s Quad-City Times Bix 7 running on pavement, it’ll also find patrons of the Bierstube Moline running on metal – roughly 24 hours of metal (along with rock, punk, and thrash) on hand in the venue’s fourth-annual QC Metalfest, taking place July 30 and 31.
With more than two dozen local and regional music acts scheduled to perform, the musical celebration boasts an intimidating number of hardcore talents – a lineup that, according to festival co-organizer Andy Daggett, is nearly double what the Bierstube presented in its original Metalfest debut.
“I think we had about 14 or 15 bands,” says Daggett of 2013’s one-day event that featured metal outfits from the Quad Cities along with a few Iowa City groups. “And the first two years we did it, we were kind of doing a Battle of the Bands thing. It wasn’t bad, but the voting thing was kind of weird; it was a lot of work to get the tallies counted, and to get people to stay around all night to do the voting.
“So we decided to get away from that,” he continues, “and just let all the bands be together. Because that’s another reason we didn’t want to continue the Battle of the Bands, you know? That made it a competition, but we’re all friends.”
As this year’s QC Metalfest roster suggests, the event has consequently amassed a lot of friends, and Daggett says that it has actually been “too easy” to get bands on board. “It was like every time I would get online and start to do some talking about Metalfest, I had three bands wanting to jump on,” with some agreeing to visit the Quad Cities from hundreds of miles away.
“We’ve got this band from Madison coming down – Dos Malés – and I’m really excited for them to be here, because it’s pretty much their first out-of-town gig, and one of their members is in the band Bongzilla, which is pretty huge. And then they’re playing here with this band Oryx from Colorado.
“I didn’t plan, necessarily, on our getting that regional,” says Daggett with a laugh. “But when a band starts seeing who’s playing on the Metalfest set, and they say that they want to play it, too, while they’re out on tour, you just kind of have to say, ‘Yes!’”
In addition to Dos Malés and Oryx, other visiting artists for QC Metalfest include the doom-metal musicians of Disrotted (pictured) out of Chicago, prog-metal ensemble Cantharone from Minnesota, Dubuque’s Telekinetic Yeti and Dredge, punk bands Growing Cold and Chain of Command from Cedar Falls, Muscatine’s Closet Witch and Cranial Decay, and Aseethe, Obsidian Hammer, and In the Mouth of Radness, all out of Iowa City.
But the Quad Cities themselves are incredibly well-represented with sets by such outfits as Kronos Resistor, Circadian Rhythm, Six to the Chest, and more than a half-dozen others.
“That does seem like a lot!” says Daggett, laughing, while discussing the proliferation of area metal bands. “And when I’m talking to some of these guys about what else they do, you find out that some of them are in, like, four different bands in the area. You’re like, ‘How do you ever find time for yourself?!’
“But it’s so cool to have them all,” he says, “and the lengths of their sets all kind of vary. Some of the headliners on Saturday night are releasing full-length albums – some of them are double albums – and they’re getting about 45 minutes. But then, you know, we’ve got an opening act [Kentucky Meat Shower] that’s kind of doing a noise project, and they only wanted a 15-minute set. So for all the bands, their time goes anywhere from 15 minutes to a half-hour to 45 to about an hour.”
QC Metalfest will also feature its musicians playing both in the Bierstube’s outdoor biergarten and within the venue’s adjoining Black Hawk Room, resulting in a two-day celebration that Daggett says is “gonna be a really, really good time.” Just don’t ask him which band he’s most excited to hear.
“Aw, ma-a-an,” he says upon hearing the question. “Can I go with ‘all of the above’? Yeah. All of the above.”
For the full QC Metalfest lineup, visit the Reader’s Live Music section on pages 17 and 18, and for more information on the event, visit the QC Metalfest Facebook page or Bier-Stube.com.
What Else Is Happenin’ …?
MUSIC
Thursday, July 21 – The Stooges Brass Band. Concert with the New Orleans-based jazz and hip-hop musicians. The Redstone Room (129 Main Street, Davenport). 7:30 p.m. $13.75-17. For tickets and information, call (563)326-1333 or visit RiverMusicExperience.org.
Friday, July 22 – Josh Turner. Multi-platinum-selling, chart-topping country artist in concert. Rhythm City Casino Resort (7077 Elmore Avenue, Davenport). 8 p.m. $35-55. For tickets and information, call (563)328-6000 or visit RhythmCityCasino.com.
Saturday, July 23 – Miracle Legion. Concert with the independent rockers and New England natives, with opening sets by The Ghost Wolves and Keeps. Codfish Hollow Barn (5013 288th Avenue, Maquoketa). 7 p.m. $25-35. For tickets, visit CodfishHollowBarnstormers.com.
Saturday, July 23 – Tommy James & the Shondells. Concert with the pop musicians of “I Think We’re Alone Now” and “Crimson & Clover” fame. Rhythm City Casino Resort (7077 Elmore Avenue, Davenport). 8 p.m. $30-40. For tickets and information, call (563)328-6000 or visit RhythmCityCasino.com.
Sunday, July 24 – The Ghost Wolves. Texas-based indie rockers Jonny and Carley Wolf in concert. Rozz-Tox (2108 Third Avenue, Rock Island). 8 p.m. $6-12. For information, call (309)200-0978 or visit RozzTox.com.
Wednesday, July 27 – Gaelic Storm. Celtic musicians perform in support of their latest release, Matching Sweaters. The Redstone Room (129 Main Street, Davenport). 8 p.m. $27.25-32.50. For tickets and information, call (563)326-1333 or visit RiverMusicExperience.org.
Wednesday, July 27 – Pinegrove. Concert with the New Jersey-based rockers, featuring opening sets by The Soil & the Sun. Sports, Half Waif, and Chris Dertz & the River. Rozz-Tox (2108 Third Avenue, Rock Island). 7:15 p.m. $10. For information, call (309)200-0978 or visit RozzTox.com.
Wednesday, July 27 – Dinosaur Jr. New England-based rockers in concert, with an opening set by Arbor Labor Union. Codfish Hollow Barn (5013 288th Avenue, Maquoketa). 7 p.m. $30-35. For tickets, visit CodfishHollowBarnstormers.com.
Thursday, July 28 – Matthew Curry & the Fury. Roots-rock guitarist and his ensemble in concert, with an opening set by the 2016 Winter Blues All-Stars. The Redstone Room (129 Main Street, Davenport). 7:30 p.m. $9.50-12. For tickets and information, call (563)326-1333 or visit RiverMusicExperience.org.
Thursday, July 28 – JR JR. Concert with indie-pop musicians Daniel Zott and Joshua Epstein. Daytrotter (324 Brady Street, Davenport). 8 p.m. $12-15. For tickets and information, visit Daytrotter.com.
Friday, July 29, and Saturday, July 30 – Street Fest 2016. Annual outdoor party on downtown Davenport’s Second Street between Brady and Ripley streets, with arts and crafts vendors, children’s activities, and concert sets with more than a dozen local bands and musicians. Friday 11:30 a.m. music, Saturday 10 a.m. music. Free. For information, visit DowntownDavenport.com.
Friday, July 29 – 5 Seconds of Summer. Australian pop-punk musicians in concert. iWireless Center (1201 River Drive, Moline). 7:30 p.m. $29.75-79.95. For tickets, call (800)745-3000 or visit iWirelessCenter.com.
Friday, July 29 – The Baseball Project. Concert with the super-group composed of Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Scott McCaughey, Steve Wynn, and Linda Pitmon, featuring an opening set by The Wooldridge Brothers. Codfish Hollow Barn (5013 288th Avenue, Maquoketa). 7 p.m. $20-25. For tickets, visit CodfishHollowBarnstormers.com.
Monday, August 1 – Richard Buckner. Folk and Americana singer/songwriter in concert. Daytrotter (324 Brady Street, Davenport). 7 p.m. $12-15. For tickets and information, visit Daytrotter.com.
Wednesday, August 3 – Whitney Rose. Americana singer/songwriter performs in support of her new album Heartbreaker of the Year. Daytrotter (324 Brady Street, Davenport). 7:30 p.m. $12-17. For tickets and information, visit Daytrotter.com.
THEATRE
Thursday, July 21, through Sunday, July 31 – Grease. Tony-nominated musical-comedy salute to high school in the ’50s. Clinton Area Showboat Theatre (311 Riverview Drive, Clinton). Thursday through Saturday 7:30 p.m., Sunday and Wednesday 3 p.m. For tickets and information, call (563)242-6760 or visit ClintonShowboat.org.
Thursday, July 21, through Sunday, July 31 – Buyer & Cellar. Jonathan Tolins’ one-man comedy about Barbra Streisand’s basement shopping mall. Old Creamery Studio Theatre (3023 220th Trail, Amana). Thursday and Sunday 2 p.m., Friday 7:30 p.m. $12-30. For tickets and information, call (319)622-6262 or visit OldCreamery.com.
Friday, July 22, through Sunday, July 24 – Rock of Ages. Nolte Academy Productions presents the Tony-nominated musical comedy with an ’80s-hair-metal soundtrack, directed by Chad Larabee. Englert Theatre (221 East Washington Street, Iowa City). Friday and Saturday 8 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m. $18-25. For tickets and information, call (319)688-2653 or visit Englert.org.
Saturday, July 23, through Sunday, July 31 – Much Ado About Nothing. Genesius Guild’s presentation of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, directed by Mike King. Lincoln Park (11th Avenue and 38th Street, Rock Island). Saturday and Sunday 8 p.m. Donations encouraged. For information, visit Genesius.org.
Thursday, July 28, through Sunday, August 7 – Titanic. Tony-winning musical drama about the oceanic disaster, composed by Maury Yeston and directed by James Beaudry. Timber Lake Playhouse (8215 Black Oak Road, Mt. Carroll). Tuesday through Saturday 7:30 p.m., Sunday and Wednesday 2 p.m. $17-25. For tickets and information, call (815)244-2035 or visit TimberLakePlayhouse.org.
Saturday, July 30, and Sunday, July 31 – Midsummer/Jersey. On the Edge Productions presents Ken Ludwig’s take on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream set on the New Jersey shore, directed by Liz Sager. Central Performing Arts Center (519 East 11th Street, DeWitt). Saturday 7:30 p.m., Sunday 3 p.m. $5-12. For tickets and information, call (563)249-8541 or visit CentralPerformingArtsCenter.org.
COMEDY
Sunday, July 24 – Jim Gaffigan. Comedian performs in his Fully Dressed stand-up tour. Adler Theatre (136 East Third Street, Davenport). 7 and 9:30 p.m. $44.75-55.75. For tickets, call (800)745-3000 or visit AdlerTheatre.com.
EXHIBIT
Sunday, July 24, through Sunday, October 30 – 100 Years of Hollywood: The Laemmle Effect. Exhibit on German immigrant Carl Laemmle, who founded Universal Studios in 1915 and saved hundreds of Jews from Nazi Germany. German American Heritage Center (712 West Second Street, Davenport). Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Sunday noon-4 p.m. Free with $3-5 admission. For information, call (563)322-8844 or visit GAHC.org.
EVENTS
Saturday, July 23, through Saturday, July 30 – RAGBRAI 2016. The 44th annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa ending in Muscatine. For information, visit RAGBRAI.com.
Saturday, July 30 – Quad-City Times Bix 7. Runners from around the world compete in the annual foot race covering seven miles, beginning at the foot of downtown Davenport’s Brady Street. $50 Bix 7 registration, $20 Jr. Bix registration. For information, visit Bix7.com.
Tuesday, August 2, through Sunday, August 7 – Mississippi Valley Fair. Annual outdoor event with contests, games, pageants, food and crafts vendors, and nightly grandstand concerts with Chris Janson, Gary Allan, 3 Doors Down, Rascal Flatts, Alabama, and Montgomery Gentry. Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds (2815 West Locust Street, Davenport). $5-10 daily gate admission, $50-55 Fun Cards required for grandstand concerts. For information and tickets, call (563)326-5338 or visit MVFair.com.
