Last week, Quad City Arts brought in Terrance Simien & The Mallet Playboys, one of Louisiana's top zydeco bands, for a residency as part of its Visiting Artist series. The band featured Simien on accordion and vocals, a rubboard or frottoir player, a guitarist, a keyboardist, a bassist, and a drummer.

All of downtown Davenport was transformed into a woofer on Friday, October 10, when Pigstock came to town. The metal music extravaganza, with Slayer as the headliner, drew an impressive crowd to the river side of Banana Joe’s, located in the old Freight House.

When the censors of Venice read the first libretto of the opera Rigoletto, they felt that the story was dangerous, shocking, and unflattering to the King of France. The original libretto and the Victor Hugo play on which it was based featured historical figures, King Francis I of France and his jester, Tribuolet. Giuseppi Verdi, who wrote the score, and Francesco Maria Piave, who wrote the libretto, made changes. The King was changed to a Duke, the setting from France to Italy, and the name of the jester to Rigoletto. The censors were satisfied, and the opera was first performed in Venice on March 11, 1851.

• As founder and frontman for Jason & The Scorchers, Jason Ringenberg's cowboy hat and corn-fed yelps fit his image of an original alt-country pioneer. This Tuesday it seems he's been spending more time corralling than hanging at the used-guitar shop, releasing his first-ever children's album, A Day at the Farm with Farmer Jason.