Hinterland announced the lineup for its 2025 festival, returning to St. Charles the first weekend in August. The announcement comes with assurances from organizers that changes will be made to improve the Hinterland experience. Reports of overcrowding and inadequate measures to deal with Iowa’s brutal summer heat, particularly in the early days of the weekend, […]
Central Iowa Arts & Entertainment
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Peak Iowa: The Clown prince of heavy metal reigns on, 25 years after Slipknot’s Safari Club debut
Since the release of their eponymous debut studio album in 1999, and the even more hellacious follow-up Iowa in 2001, the music and masked musicians of metal band Slipknot have resonated with irrefutable musical defiance for millions of “maggots,” as their fans proudly call themselves, the world over. It all started in Des Moines, hometown […]
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Japan’s BABYMETAL bring the ‘Metalverse’ to Waukee’s Vibrant Music Hall
BABYMETAL delivered a striking performance at Vibrant Music Hall in Waukee for their 2024 World Tour.
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Peak Iowa: Arthur Russell, Oskaloosa’s lost genius
Tape hung like curtains in Arthur Russell’s apartment. The recording devices responsible were powered by an extension cord that ran out the window and down a few floors to Allen Ginsberg’s. Russell left behind 166 feet of tape when he died, only 40 years old, of AIDS-related illness in 1992. And if you’ll let me […]
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An online collection of ‘outsider art’ enters the real world for the first time in Des Moines
What does it look like when a social media feed jumps onto the walls of an art gallery? Visitors to the Fitch Building in Des Moines from Nov. 8-30 will find out during “Faces in the Crowd,” showcasing the work of 14 artists you’ve probably never heard of (but probably should). The exhibition was curated […]
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Des Moines’ Sensi’il Studios makes its cinematic debut Nov. 15 with a new kind of comic book movie
Sensi’il Studios, the brainchild of Des Moines artist Basi Affia, is the only Black comic book publisher in the states of Iowa and Nebraska. Pyramid Theatre Company, meanwhile, is Iowa’s first Black theater company. Before he founded Sensi’il Studios in 2022, Affia was a critically acclaimed performer in two of Pyramid’s stellar early productions, A […]
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80/35’s future ‘is not currently determined’ as the Des Moines Music Coalition shuts down
Three months after the last performers left the stage at this year’s 80/35, the organization behind the music festival has announced it is shutting down. “After nearly twenty years of volunteers and staff working passionately to grow central Iowa’s music scene, the non-profit Greater Des Moines Music Coalition (DMMC) has made the heartfelt decision to […]
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The Slaughterhouse in Des Moines sates its fiendish fanbase with year-round haunts, escapes, ‘spookeasies’ and Slipknot-inspired scares
Driven by a voracious appetite for fright, Central Iowa fans of haunted house experiences continue to seek the best venues for adrenaline rushes. One dark destination stands apart from the others, a haunt with a novel-length backstory and themed experiences all year: The Slaughterhouse. A growing fanbase awaits the latest offering from the immersive fright […]
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Jazz, drag and ballet combine for Noce’s Voix de Ville, a nightclub cabaret that’s never the same twice
There is a guiding axiom in show business that provides some clarity when things go wrong. That axiom (which we should note is sometimes superseded by, say, a pandemic) is, “The show must go on,” of course.
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Vietnamese-American painter Teo Nguyen reimagines battlefield photos without the soldiers, violence and ‘machinery of war’
Teo Nguyen, “The Politics of Worthiness” Opening reception, Moberg Gallery, Friday, Sept. 13, 5-8 p.m. Artist reception and discussion, Moberg Gallery, Saturday, Oct. 5, 1-3 p.m. Teo Nguyen is a painter’s painter. His parents were a poet and glass painter, and he applies their attention to detail to his canvas. Moberg Gallery in Des Moines […]
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Photos: Hinterland 2024
Day 1 Day one saw headliners Hozier and Orville Peck on the main stage. Before that, festival goers caught the likes of Debbi Dawson, Valencia Grace and The Last Dinner Party, to name a few of the stacked Friday lineup. Day 2 Day two of Hinterland saw some readjustments from the festival organizers as many […]
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Locals gather at the Blazing Saddle to watch six-part series on its history, ‘The Last American Gay Bar’
A viewing party at a bar is an everyday occurrence, but what about if the bar itself is the subject of said viewing party? That’s exactly what has been happening every Wednesday of this month at the Blazing Saddle in Des Moines. Opening in 1983, the Blazing Saddle is the oldest gay bar in Des […]
