One of the area's most eagerly anticipated sales events returns to Rock Island's QCCA Expo Center March 6 through 8, as Melting Pot Productions, Inc. presents this year's spring Antique Spectacular Vintage Market, allowing hunters of vintage goods an all-weekend opportunity to shop for a wide range of quality antiques.
A Midwestern comedian, New York Times bestselling author, Emmy-winning journalist, and musician whose content for his various social platforms has amassed more than 10 million followers, Charlie Berens brings his "The Lost & Found Tour" to Davenport's Adler Theatre on March 8, the Wisconsin native famed for his appearances on Comedy Central, Funny or Die, and MTV News.
Patrons of the German American Heritage Center are invited to discover the history of one of the world's most recognizable dolls – and how she evolved from a comic for adult men in Germany (!) – in Barbie: An All-American Girl?, with Putnam Museum and Science Center Curator of History and Anthropology Christina Kastell leading a fascinating March 8 program in the Davenport venue's popular "Kaffee und Kuchen" series.
Beloved for his 1996 to 2003 tenure on Saturday Night Live, where he was best-known for characters including Mango, Mr Peepers, and one of the Butabi brothers opposite Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan performs as the latest guest in the "Laugh QC" Thursday Night Comedy Series held in the Mississippi Hall of the Davenport RiverCenter, the comedian's March 12 engagement treating fans to a night (at the Roxbury) with one of SNL's longest-serving cast members.
An engaging and fascinating exhibit developed by the Davenport venue's curatorial staff, the Putnam Museum & Science Center's Indigenous Roots of Mexican Americans will, through March 22, treat guests to artifacts and textiles from areas in Mexico that are housed together alongside some 250,000 objects from the Putnam’s collections.
As expected, we did not see a whole lot of spending increases in Governor JB Pritzker’s state budget proposal last week. Last year, Pritzker said his budget limited discretionary spending to less than a one percent increase. The plan unveiled last week limits discretionary spending to less than a half a point increase.
As I write this, Governor JB Pritzker is preparing to give his annual budget address. It’s an unenviable task. Earlier this month, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget released a report showing federal tax cuts caused a $587 million reduction in state revenues this fiscal year.
Governor JB Pritzker announced a plan last week to “manage Illinois pension commitments through a set of proposals designed to build on the state’s recent fiscal progress and further reduce long-term risk for taxpayers and retirees.” The price tag, however, is already giving one legislative leader pause. And “fiscal progress” is not the reality when factoring in federal funds.
On January 22, 2026, the Scott and Muscatine GOP county parties co-hosted a 2026 Gubernatorial Primary Candidate Forum live in Eldridge, Iowa. The event was the first of its kind in Iowa's history and the first time any substantive questions were presented to Republican want to be governor candidates in a primary race in more than 20 years.
The ACLU's 63-page report released last month is a very valuable and exhaustive work product that every elected official who has an oath of office to uphold the state and federal constitution, and protect the governed who consented to have their rights protected, should read.
What do you get when four young adults’ lives are entangled with one another, yet the full picture doesn’t come into focus until the final moments? You get word play, written by fellow Reader reviewer Alexander Richardson: a tightly woven one-act that asks its audience to lean in, listen closely, and trust the unraveling.
A Tony Award winner hailed by Variety magazine as “elegant, acerbic, and entertainingly fueled on pure bile,” Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage opens the 2026 season at Moline's Playcrafters Barn Theatre, the comedy's February 27 through March 8 run treating audiences to a Broadway hit that, according to the New York Times, “delivers the cathartic release of watching other people's marriages go boom."
The recipient of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Drama that, according to Intermission magazine, "cuts to the heart with a simply constructed story, understated humor, and dialogue unburdened by purple prose," playwright Eboni Booth's Primary Trust makes its Iowa City debut at Riverside Theatre February 27 through March 15, the work also hailed by The Daily Beast as "beautifully written" and "a 95-minute, intermissionless, buffed-to-gleaming jewel.”
Director/choreographer Ashley Becher and musical director Ethan Hayward, alongside their wonderful crew and energetic, talented crème de la crème cast, elevate the solid script and score into the realm of delight.
Praised by WhartonPlazaTheatre.com for its "rousing musical numbers, hilarious social commentary, and heavenly harmony," the feel-good, foot-stomping, country-music sensation Honky Tonk Angels enjoys a March 11 through April 25 run at Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse, RochesterMedia.com adding, "To paraphrase a well-known movie quote: Is this heaven? No. It’s Honky Tonk Angels. Welcome to heaven on earth.”
Celebrating their sixth decade of professional performance, and with accomplishments including chart-topping success, tens of millions in album sales, and 2000 induction in the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, the rockers of Three Dog Night play Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort Event Center on February 28, their repertoire including such timeless hits as “Mama Told Me (Not to Come),” “Black and White,” and the iconic “Joy to the World.”
Touring in support of his 2025 release Mississippi (unplugged) that Americana Highways deemed "hushed and straight from the heart," country-music singer/songwriter Jason Eady headlines a March 4 engagement at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the artist's 2021 album To the Passage of Time also hailed by Saving Country Music as "a gorgeously crafted record of purposeful expressions."
Traveling the country in support of their 2025 release For the People, an album in which, according to Kerrang!, "the Celtic punk legends are in reeling, anthem-filled form, bolstered by their trademark gang vocal hooks," the Boston-based rockers of Dropkick Murphys bring their "For the People in the Pit St. Patrick’s Day 2026 Tour" to East Moline venue The Rust Belt on March 5, the group's latest release also lauded by TheRazorsEdge.rocks as "driving punk rock, run through with a huge amount of Irish green."
Traveling the country in support of his 2025 release David Wimbish & the Collection, headliner David Wimbish makes his debut at Davenport's Raccoon Motel on March 5, Pop Passion Music Blog raving that the artist's "brand-new, self-titled album takes classic The Collection fan favorites and gives them a fresh, raw, emotional spin that sheds a whole new light on their meanings."
A consistently popular performer touring in support of his March 8 release Homeaid, beloved Midwestern folk singer/songwriter Cody Diekhoff – better known by his recording alias Chicago Farmer – headlines a March 6 concert with his band The Fieldnotes at Davenport's Redstone Room, the artist a soulful crooner and guitarist who inspired No Depression to rave, “If the Midwest is looking for a voice, the search is over.”
With the series' first episode widely regarded as one of the greatest two-hour works in television history, the international pilot for David Lynch's iconic Twin Peaks enjoys a screening at Roxk Island venue Rozz-Tox on February 28, the spoiler-filled overseas version featuring 20 additional minutes not broadcast in the states until it was eventually released on VHS and laser disc.
Going to the cineplex or staying in and streaming this weekend? Every Thursday morning at 8:15 a.m. you can listen to Mike Schulz dish on recent movie releases & talk smack about Hollywood celebs on Planet 93.9 FM with the fabulous Dave & Darren in the Morning team of Dave Levora and Darren Pitra. The morning crew previews upcoming releases, too. Or you can check the Reader Web site and listen to their latest conversation by the warm glow of your electronic device. Never miss a pithy comment from these three scintillating pundits again
Thursday, February 26: Discussion of How to Make a Killing and I Can Only Imagine 2, previews of Scream 7, Pillion, and EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert, and a shameless plug for Mike's new Playcrafters Barn Theatre comedy God of Carnage, running February 27 through March 8. Well, look at that. Another shameless plug.
In this dark comedy thriller, and in a change of pace for the performer, Margaret Qualley turns out not to be an on-screen firecracker. She's more like a countdown clock, the type that requires action heroes to cut either the blue or red wire before everything gets blown to bits
Documenting the urgent efforts to combat coral decline in local fishing communities from Hawaii, Kenya, Australia and Indonesia, director Stephen Shearman's Reef Builders serves as a final presentation in River Action's QC Environmental Film Series for 2026, this fascinating exploration of the hexagonal structure known as a Reef Star screening in St. Ambrose University's Galvin Fine Arts Center on March 1.
Now playing at area theaters.
With the exhibition's trio of artists three hoping that viewers will take some time to look for joy in their work and enjoy a diversion from the tension happening around us, Mutschler, Quick, & Westphal will be on display at the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery through March 2, the showcase of Midwestern talent featuring photos by Pete Mutschler, folded paper by Rebecca Quick, and serigraphs by Keosha Westphal.
In celebration of National Quilt Day on March 16, Davenport's Figge Art Museum will again showcase a number of colorful and hand-crafted functional artworks in the March 3 through 8 Mississippi Valley Quilters Guild Display, with a special reception for the exhibit's gifted artisans scheduled for March 5.
A wide range of disparate mediums and gorgeous artworks will be on display at the Quad City Arts International Airport Gallery from March 4 through April 27, with art lovers area-wide invited to view new metal and fiber sculpture by Amanda Langer, encaustics by Cindy Lesperance, and Japanese tiles by Nick Schroeder in the exhibit Langer, Lesperance, & Schroeder.
Held in conjunction with the current exhibit The Golden Age: Featuring Northern European Works from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Davenport's Figge Art Museum will host a special Art Conservation Talk on March 12, the event featuring a program conservator visiting the Quad Cities from the National Gallery of Art.
With the works of both Iowa-based artists boasting vivid colors and expressive storytelling qualities, the dual exhibition Laber & Mullins will be on display in Rock Island's Quad City Arts Center through March 20, this showcase of local talent boasting evocative, thrilling paintings by Phillip Laber and Rachael Mullins.
You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Real Astrology and RCR Crossword every week?)
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