After a staggered and protracted soundcheck – to a nearly full audience, no less – the Marlboro Chorus finally hit the stage in earnest roughly an hour after its scheduled start time. This is no sweat for me because it’s my first visit to the Quad Cities Brew & View and I’m just sort of touring the joint – a great venue for live bands, and for movies as well, I’m sure.
Luckily, the future of chamber music will fall on the broad shoulders of the Sauer family and its colleagues. With the Quad City Symphony Orchestra eliminating its chamber series for the 2003-4 season, music fans will have reduced concert offerings.
It's billed as the Midwest's largest gathering of motorcycles, and if you like bikes, you probably already know about Sturgis on the River. But the free event is also becoming something of a local band showcase, so if you're a fan of Quad Cities bands and music, it might well be worth your time on Friday and Saturday.

A Sound Business

On practically any given day or night in the Quad Cities, there's bound to be a band playing, an open-mic jam, or some musicians cranking it out in some way, shape, or form. One of the most important aspects, if not the most important aspect, of making music is the sound, and if you're making it around here, chances are you know who Frank Holst is.
Some musicians enter the recording studio expecting the producer and recording engineer to work magic. But if they come to Rob Cimmarusti, they should just expect the cold, hard truth. A lot of producers and engineers have reputations as alchemists, turning the raw materials into something more valuable, or stamping them with a signature sound.
MidCoast Fine Arts re-invented its annual pastel competition this year. The high-school-driven event was moved to the Bettendorf Family Museum campus and expanded beyond a visual-arts competition to a "trade show" of sorts that showcased our area's high-school talent in digital media, film, and music.
In her fifth month as director of the River Music Experience, Connie Gibbons is working against time. There was the time she's missed - more than a year of planning and community discussion - and the time still ahead, 12 months to the museum's anticipated opening in the renovated Redstone building on Second Street between Main and Brady in downtown Davenport.
Musically, we Quad Citians have a lot to be thankful for. Never mind the bullocks of national and statewide headline-making surveys, measuring our "cool" factor; the Quad Cities has it going on! Consider the number of opportunities this past weekend for music-related recreation.
Minimalism in rock music is a big risk. When an artist chooses to keep it simple – with pared- down instrumentation, lyrics, and vocals, and songs that move with the energy of a funeral procession – only the best material survives scrutiny, because there’s nothing to fall back on.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Queens of the Stone Age supplied the Quad Cities with some heartfelt rock, a little funk, a psychedelic harmony, and just a touch of the blues at their May 9 show – things that have been missing from The Mark in recent months.

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