Headlining a September 24 evening at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the Heligoats – what NPR called “a strange name for a guy strumming a guitar, but oddly befitting someone who stuffs his songs with so many sideways ideas and observations” – delivers acoustic indie rock courtesy of singer/songwriter Chris Otepka, whom NPR declared “writes songs that are brainy in the best way: clever without straining for cuteness, wry but never smug.”

Presenting a sonically gorgeous recital offered as part of the 13th-annual Live at Heritage Center Performing Arts Series, the University of Dubuque hosts an afternoon with noted organist Colin Andrews on September 21, the musician performing on the John and Alice Butler Pipe Organ that was dedicated in May of 2021 and boasts an astonishing 3,033 pipes.

Two classic piano concertos, two world premieres by female composers, and the Quad Cities debut of a new saxophone concerto are among highlights of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra's (QCSO's) 111th season, which will formally begin with its first Masterworks program on October 4 and 5.

Lauded by The Guardian as "mercilessly catchy and meticulously camp," the Chicago-based garage-rock/pop trio of Dehd headlines a September 17 concert event at Rock Island venue Rozz-Tox, their 2024 album Poetry inspiring Pitchfork to rave, "With more ambitious melodies, bolder harmonies, and compositional complexity, the Chicago trio’s new album hypercharges their already electric sound."

With award-winning, Billboard-charting, internationally touring artists performing on the banks of a mighty river, the Mississippi Valley Blues Fest returns to Davenport for its 38th incarnation on September 15 and 16, the LeClaire Park event – hosted by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society – featuring seven thrilling Main Stage concert sets, eight additionally incendiary sets on the neighboring Pedigo-Jones Stage, and music lovers ages 16 and under admitted free with a paid adult.

Lauded by the Los Angeles Times for his “commanding presence” and “a voice that can yearn with crystalline purity or howl with guttural anguish,” Nathaniel Rateliff and his band the Night Sweats bring their national "South of Here Tour" to Moline's Vibrant Arena at the MARK on September 19, this 2024 album of the tour's title leading AllMusic to rave that "Rateliff leads his crew through a panoply of '70s-touched roots rock, delivered with warmth, sincerity, and occasional bursts of grit."

Touring in support of their 2025 album debut Afterglow that Bring the Noise UK called a "seamless blend of clean and screamed vocals, backed by guitar riffs that switch between groovy and crushing," the alternative-metal rockers of Sleep Theory headline the I-ROCK 93.5 Sixth-Anniversary Show at East Moline venue The Rust Belt, the September 19 headliners also praised by Dead Rhetoric for delivering a "fluid powerhouse of metallic urgency, R&B playfulness, danceable electronics, and modern rock energy."

Led by rock legend Buzz Osborne, who has been touring with his band for 42 years, and boasting the sterling musicianship of drummer Dale Grover, bassist Steven Shane McDonald, and drummer Coady Willis, the sludge-metal and hardcore-punk musicians of Melvins return to Davenport's Raccoon Motel on September 19 in support of their April release Thunderball, an album that, according to AllMusic, "confirms they haven't finished challenging themselves or their audience, not by a long shot."

On September 20, Quad City Symphony fans are invited to experience an elegant evening at Davenport's Figge Art Museum in one of our area's most education-programming fundraisers: Soirée: Mission (Im)Possible, which boasts a cocktail hour, dinner, and performance, plus a paddle raise and live auction with Maestro Mark Russell Smith as auctioneer.

Held as part of the unique concert series held in Davenport's intimate and cozy Redstone Room, the September 19 Songwriter Sessions event will find Common Chord guests treat to a seated evening of tunes hosted by David G. Smith, with additionally winning performances delivered by Chris Avey, Jenny Shawhan, and Jack Morrow.

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