Iowa City-based underground jack-of-all-trades Samuel Locke Ward is one of those dudes around whom a scene seems to coalesce. He plays in numerous bands and one-off projects, maintains a busy slate of releasing new solo music, and recently dropped a full duo album with Mike Watt of Minutemen on which, not to put too fine a point on it, he served as the D. Boon-esque singer/songwriter/guitarist foil to Watt’s still-sick bass shredding.

Members of a six-piece jazz-fusion and soul band that plays an abundance of jazz from the late 1960s to the '70s, the Midwestern artists of Bigfuniowa serve as the latest musical guests in Polyrhythms' Third Sunday Jazz Series, with the ensemble's repertoire in its July 18 concert boasting magnificent tunes by the likes of Herbie Hancock, the Jazz Crusaders, Jeff Coffin, Fred Wesley, Eddie Harris, Monk, and other genre masters.

Winners of two Loudwire Music Awards for Live Act of the Year, and one of the only groups to achieve top-five Billboard success on both the Hard Rock and Comedy charts, Steel Panther brings its unique blend of glam metal and hilarious lyrics to East Moline's The Rust Belt on July 10, the California musicians' outfit lauded by Blabbermouth.net as “a genuinely brilliant '80s-inspired heavy metal band.”

After 15 months of darkness, the Quad Cities' amphitheater the TaxSlayer Center is again ready to rock with its special live concert event on July 9: an evening of powerhouse arena rock featuring the legendary lineup of Dokken, FireHouse, and Jack Russell's Great White.