Touring in support of their first live album Live at the Star Theater, guitarist Eddie Brnabic, bassist/vocalist Laura Phillips, and drummer Harry Silvers bring their psych-rock outfit Hippie Death Cult to Davenport's Raccoon Motel, on September 1, the group's latest recording inspiring TheRazorsEdge.rocks to rave that "on every single level, it works so wonderfully well."

Although the band has been lauded by Today's Country Magazine as "one of the must-see acts when you visit Nashville," you'll only have to travel as far as Davenport to see the Southern-rock and soul musicians of Hippies & Cowboys, who, at the Raccoon Motel, will headline a September 2 concert on their Midwestern tour.

Currently traveling the Midwest in support of their debut album Georgia, the Atlanta-based Little headline a September 3 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the nascent Americana and country-rock outfit composed of musicians Sydney Rhame and Brock Shanks.

Rodney Shaw, River Shaw, Matt Friesz, and Joe Friesz of Burnt McMelba Toast [Photo by Laura Heath]

Rod had invited us to hang out with his co-founder Matt Friesz and each of their sons who had joined the [Burnt McMelba] Toast band this year to hear them rehearse for two gigs in August. He wanted us to learn more about how Toast was not having a reunion. The band was having a revival with second-generation blood and new variations on past themes.

l to r Rodney Shaw, River Shaw, Matt Friesz, and Joe Friesz of Burnt McMelba Toast

Tucked away in a string of houses between the highway and the river somewhere north of the Quad Cities is an old river cabin, marvelously redone and modernized into a rock 'n' roll minimalist dream. There's no reason to believe that Burnt McMelba Toast are practicing here until I finally step out of the car, a few wrong turns finally pointing me to the rumble of a bass amp in the riverside seclusion.

Delivering a blues-rock tribute to legendary musicians of the past, Iowa City's ever-popular ensemble The Beaker Brothers Band returns to the Quad Cities for a concert at Davenport's Gypsy Highway Bar & Grill, the August 23 show one of the last touring stops the beloved ensemble will make before signing off as a publicly performing band at the end of 2026.

Touring in support of their acclaimed July 31 release Mirrors, Shapes, Objects, the multi-instrumentalist trio of veteran genre benders David McDonnell, Christopher Kalis, and Dylan Ryan bring their outfit Michael Columbia to Rock Island's Rozz-Tox on August 28, the musicians hailed for drifting effortlessly between the Soft Machine-style soprano saxophone leads, interlocking riffs of Discipline-era King Crimson, and psychedelic-hypno-funk rhythms of Can.

On August 28, patrons of the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts are invited to join award-winning Palestinian American composer and buzuq/oud player Wanees Zarour and his ensemble for the Middle Eastern Jazz Fundraiser, a special performance in support of Hope Foundation’s Gaza humanitarian relief efforts.

For this year's annual Riverfront Pops concert event in Davenport's LeClaire Park, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and Quad City Bank & Trust invite audiences to rock out with the talents of Jeans 'n' Classics and conductor Hisham Bravo Groover during the August 22 extravaganza The Best of the Who, a night under the starts featuring powerhouse hits including “My Generation,” “Behind Blue Eyes,” “Pinball Wizard,” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

With this year's musical guests including Nina Nicole Little, the Pippi & Daniel Music Experience, and Erech Bruce, Polyrhythms proudly presents the 12th-annual Bill Bell Jazz & Heritage Festival at Rock Island's Martin Luther King Center and neighboring MLK Park, an August 21 and 22 celebration of cultural heritage in the Quad Cities named after the late musician, educator, and East Moline native lovingly known as “The Jazz Professor.”

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