The Lost Woods Music Festival returns to the Cedar Falls area for its third iteration on Saturday. What started as a party in the woods in 2023 has… kept on being a party in the woods, actually. Salt Fox, the band behind the fest, have resisted the scope creep that plagues so many other festival […]
Arts & Entertainment
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘Clarence Darrow’, a play about the storied American lawyer, is coming to five Iowa cities in October
“History repeats itself — that’s one of the things wrong with history,” Clarence Darrow once said. Darrow, who died in 1938 at age 80, understood history, or at least how to make it. The most famous trial lawyer of his era, he mounted eloquent and ingenious defenses for the accused in some of the biggest […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
As filmmakers compete this festival season, DSMUFF offers a DIY, low-pressure alternative
It is far too cliché to begin this story with the same overdone explanation that cool arts stuff does, in fact, occur in the Midwest. So I won’t start there. But I will rant about the thrill of discovering something underground, especially when it’s in a place you least expect it. It feels special, uncovering […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
This weekend in Iowa: Mt Thrashmore in Cedar Rapids, an electronic pioneer in the Quad Cities and more
Established 2001 | Always free! We’re back with another batch of events in today’s Weekender. The Infinite Dream festival takes place at Hancher Auditorium in Iowa City. Another IC highlight is the “cello-and-kazoo-metal” stylings of Rushadicus with Weapon X at the PS1 Close House. In Des Moines, the Goth Rockers Vision Video hit up Lefty’s […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Iowa theater companies aren’t afraid to unsettle as they hold a mirror up to our times
Let’s start this survey of Iowa’s local theater landscape with a bit of a dramatic flourish: The start of the COVID-19 pandemic was half a decade ago. Apologies if that messes with your tethering to time, but I bring it up for a reason. When looking at the last five years of local theater output, […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘The Whisper Place’ by Mindy Mejia
Mindy Mejia’s The Whisper Place continues her Iowa Mysteries series, following cop-turned-private-investigator Max Summerlin and his psychic friend and work partner, Jonah Kendrick.
Posted inEastern Iowa
Photos: Iowans recreate Civil War encampments, battles and the Gettysburg Address at annual Muster on the Maquoketa
Iowa may have been the scene of only one minor skirmish during the Civil War, but historians and live-action roleplayers stage battles in the state annually to highlight Iowa’s larger role in the fight to end slavery and preserve the union. The Jackson County Historical Society gathered historians, schoolkids and dozens of Civil War reenactors […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: Bards bask in the joys, discuss the challenges of their craft at the first Iowa City Songwriters Festival
On Friday at The Den, legendary star and Wilco lead singer Jeff Tweedy spoke with Hancher’s Executive Director Andre Perry about the mourning process he goes through after an album does not perform as expected. “After a while, you just have to let go,” Tweedy said.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
This Iowan attends up to 100 concerts a year. Here’s what he’s learned — and why he’s not slowing down
You meet a lot of music fans as a professional concert photographer, but over the past couple years, one has stood out to me the most. When culling through my photos from events across the state, I kept seeing the same guy, always up front by the barricade. Show after show, photoset after photoset, there […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: River Glen — ‘Poignant Folk-Pop’
Poignant Folk-Pop by River Glen There’s a certain cyclical nature to the poignancy of folk in popular culture. Turned to most in times of turmoil, folk music is perhaps the most durable music genre as a medium for both protest and comfort. Particularly provocative is folk’s inherent warmth, with full-bodied string instruments and vocals, in […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
This weekend in Iowa: an evening with Dave Moore, Tropa Magica in Davenport and more
Established 2001 | Always free! Looking for local music and arts events? The Weekender has you covered. Morbid Saint plays Gabe’s with Frontal Assault, Traffic Death and Ill Omen. Roll into Hispanic Heritage Month with Festival Latino in Cedar Rapids or the opening of Aliza Nisenbaum’s “Dia de los Muertos” exhibit at the Des Moines […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Lene Lovich is launching her new U.S. tour with an intimate Iowa show
Avant-pop icon Lene Lovich hasn’t mounted a major U.S. tour since 1989, but that will change this September when she opens for the B-52s and Devo on their 11-date run of amphitheaters. Those concerts will be interspersed with several of her own headlining club gigs, and Lovich’s triumphant return to the States will kick off […]
