THE WEEKENDER
Your weekly editor-curated arts compendium
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Need a reason to enjoy the outdooors this weekend? There are many: Here you go! Get ready for next month’s Iowa State Fair and learn how to sculpt butter with Sarah Pratt and the Central Library. Catch a floating light at Family Night with the Fireflies at the Brenton Arboretum Pavilion, take in some music from Recoil at Copper Creek Lake’s Chill on the Hill, try not to strain your eyes keeping up with SWAY’S BLOOM! atop 14 foot poles at Cowles Commons, or shuck some corn at the Cornbred Cornbread Festival at Riverview Park. That inaugural event will have contest, tournaments, exhibits and plenty of cornbread! Top Pick: Family Night with the Fireflies. Imagine being a kid again: running around at dusk with the neighborhood kids, catching fireflies in the summer heat. That’s the nostalgia awaiting at the Brenton Arboretum Pavilion.
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Browns Woods
Bat Survey
Jul 20 – 7:45pm
Join Russ Benedict, Professor of Biology at Central College, to learn about bat biology and mist net bats as the sun sets.
More info >>
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xBk Live
Emma Butterworth
Jul 20 – 8:00pm
Chicago songwriter Emma Butterworthis carving a niche for herself in the American indie scene with her uniquely soulful brand of indie-leaning folk rock.
More info >>
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Platform
Disco Thursday
Jul 20 – 9:00pm
Come enjoy one of our delicious cocktails while reliving the best of the disco era!!
More info >>
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Cowles Commons
SWAY’S BLOOM!
Jul 21 – 12:00pm
SWAY’s Bloom! is the newest creation of SWAY (formerly known as Australia’s Strange Fruit) atop their signature 14 foot sway poles.
More info >>
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Mainframe Studios
DWB (Driving While Black)
Jul 21 – 2:00pm
Susan Kander and Roberta Gumbel’s dwb (driving while black) tackles what it means to be a parent of a Black child who starts driving. In its swift 45 minutes, the listener spends 16 years with a Black
More info >>
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East Village
Summer Stir
Jul 21 – 5:00pm
SUMMER STIR IS BACK IN DES MOINES’ EAST VILLAGE!!!
More info >>
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Copper Creek Lake
Chill on the Hill with Recoil
Jul 21 – 6:00pm
New to Chill on the Hill and wrapping up the season is Recoil.
More info >>
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xBk Live
Love, Lani – Album Release Show
Jul 21 – 7:00pm
Join me in celebrating the release of my first *professional* original album!
More info >>
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Noce
Fly Me To The Moon: The Max Wellman Big Band Plays Sinatra, Connick, & More
Jul 21 – 8:00pm
Coming off the success of the Sinatra Come Fly with Me revue at Noce, Max Wellman and his big band highlight not only the works of Frank Sinatra, but of his contemporaries and those that came after.
More info >>
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The Brenton Arboretum Pavilion
Family Night with the Fireflies
Jul 21 – 8:30pm
Bring the whole family for a beautiful night with the summer fireflies at The Brenton Arboretum.
More info >>
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Boggs’ Hull Avenue Tap
Scarlett Tangerines, Waar Party, @Boggs Hull Ave Tavern – Des Moines
Jul 21 – 9:00pm
Scarlett Tangerines – 9-9:40
More info >>
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Riverview Park
Cornbred Cornbread Festival
Jul 22 – 10:00am
This Festival is unapologetically corny!
More info >>
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Central Library
Gamer Jazz! — Presented by the Des Moines Gamer Symphony Orchestra
Jul 22 – 2:00pm
After an amazingly successful run of shows last year, the Des Moines Gamer Symphony Orchestra is once again transforming into a big band this summer to play the jazziest video game tunes out there.
More info >>
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Blank Performing Arts
Bluebeard’s Castle
Jul 22 – 7:30pm
The mysterious Bluebeard welcomes his new bride Judith into his ominous castle, where rumors have been swirling concerning one question: what happened to his previous three wives?
More info >>
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Noce
Come Together: Guitarist Dan Padley & Co. Play The Beatles
Jul 22 – 8:00pm
Dan Padley is a guitarist/composer based out of Iowa City, IA.
More info >>
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Big Grove Brewery & Taproom
Summer Jam Concert Series: Nate Sparks Trio
Jul 23 – 11:30am
It’s Big Grove Des Moines’ inaugural Summer Jam Concert Series!
More info >>
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Cowles Commons
SWAY’S BLOOM!
Jul 23 – 12:00pm
SWAY’s Bloom! is the newest creation of SWAY (formerly known as Australia’s Strange Fruit) atop their signature 14 foot sway poles.
More info >>
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Hoyt Sherman Place
Still Life Watercolor (Floral)
Jul 23 – 12:30pm
Learn watercolor techniques that will make your still life POP. Flowers and greenery. Materials are provided.
More info >>
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Tallgrass Theatre Co.
Broadway Karaoke
Jul 23 – 6:00pm
Join us for our July installment of Broadway Karaoke at Tallgrass Theatre Company after Wonder of the World!
More info >>
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Noce
Kansas City’s Grand Marquis
Jul 23 – 7:00pm
Formed in 1998, Grand Marquis has since become solidly rooted in the Kansas City music scene as one of the hardest-working bands in the region, playing over 100 shows per year!
More info >>
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xBk Live
King Bartlett w/ Ariias
Jul 23 – 8:00pm
Experience the electric and eccentric sounds of psychedelic shoegaze with local bands King Bartlett & the Royal Band and Ariias.
More info >>
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Central Library
Learn to Sculpt Butter with Sarah Pratt!
Jul 24 – 5:15pm
We’re gearing up for the state fair with a very special guest!
Join special guest Sarah Pratt, the Iowa State Fair’s butter sculptor, to talk about what it’s like to sculpt the butter cow and to teac
More info >>
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Essay: RAGBRAI’s one-note music lineup is an insult to riders
by Kent Williams, Jul 19
This is the 50th anniversary of the RAGBRAI, the yearly summer bike ride from the Missouri to the Mississippi. I remember the first one happened when I was in high school. Between being a fan of Donald Kaul and John Karras’ writing in the Des Moines Register and hanging out at the local hippie bike shop, RAGBRAI seemed revolutionary at the time. Bicycle touring events were rare, and unheard of in the Midwest. It was a crazy idea that became sane because people showed up. Kaul and Karras built it, and they came. Fifty years of an event like this is worth celebrating, but Kaul and Karras are gone, and RAGBRAI has lost some of its edge. RAGBRAI’s staff resignations in 2019 and the Des Moines Register’s awkward reaction to it tarnished its reputation. |
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Album Review: Miss Christine — ‘Bittersweet’
by Avery Gregurich, July 19
Christine Moad, who records under the moniker Miss Christine, gave themself an unenviable task: to take the dumpster fire of the last three years and turn it into music.
Their latest album Bittersweet released in June, and in both its construction and its resultant music, this is a pandemic album through and through. None of the musicians who play on the record were ever in the same room together, and the musicians all recorded and communicated through a music software called LANDR. In spite of this, the album is both sonically cohesive and verbally focused, a musical dispatch rooted in a not-so-distant time.
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