Artists to see at Alternating Currents

There are two things I love most: organizing big lists and seeing live music. Alternating Currents is my pipe dream.

The completely free local music festival starts Thursday night and runs through Sunday across Rock Island, Bettendorf and Davenport. There are more than 100 concerts, with 75 musical acts and 275 total musicians participating this year.

With that high of volume (pun intended), and 44 participating stages, it can be a little bit overwhelming to parse through it all and know who to see.

But organization, list-building and puzzle-solving is my secret talent. I made class schedules for all my closest college friends, multiple semesters in advance. I have a ranked, color-coordinated spreadsheet of the 1,000+ albums I’ve listened to in the last three years. I wake up every morning and do all the New York Times puzzles. I was built for this.

Quad-City Times Reporter Gannon Hanevold

GARY L. KRAMBECK

On my list of skillsets, clinical categorization is right up there with emo song lyric memorizing and existential anxiety.

And when I look at the Alternating Currents schedule, it all looks like one big puzzle. I’m not alone. Downtown Davenport Partnership program director Alisha Espey used that word when describing putting the schedule together on the organizing end.

Thankfully, there’s an Alternating Currents app that allows you to bookmark shows for your own personal schedule. It’s simple, easy to use and has been my favorite way to pass the time the last couple of days.

Einstein’s Sister will perform twice at Alternating Currents this weekend.

Provided

This week, I feel like Doctor Strange in “Avengers: Endgame” — I have looked through 14 million Alternating Currents possibilities and there is only one where I can see every artist I’d like to.

So I thought I’d pass this organizationally-obsessed wisdom along. Consider this my answer key to the Quad-Cities’ coolest crossword puzzle. Here are the musicians on my personal Alternating Currents schedule.

Elizabeth Moen

Elizabeth Moen, a singer-songwriter from Iowa City, performed in the Quad-City Times newsroom on May 7, 2018. In the Quad-City music scene, Moen say she feels like a local.

Kevin E. Schmidt, QUAD-CITY TIMES

Thursday at Schwiebert Riverfront Park, 7 p.m.

It goes without saying that you should go out to support all the great local Quad-Cities bands this weekend: Frozen Fructose Laundromat, Subatlantic, Running Man and Einstein’s Sister are a few personal favorites on the lineup. But there are also many honorary locals, like born-and-raised Iowan Elizabeth Moen, who is now based in Chicago.

When she wraps up with Alternating Currents, Moen will be heading out on tour opening for Wilco and Uncle Tupelo songwriter Jeff Tweedy. Moen’s bluesy indie-rock cuts like a serrated knife. The drum build on “Ex’s House Party” sounds like an angry sprint, and Moen’s vocals are the banshee cry. In case the Tweedy co-sign isn’t enough for you (it should be), Moen has also opened for acts like Hozier, Lucy Dacus and Buck Meek.

Belt

Friday: Armored Gardens, 6 p.m.; Kaiserslautern Square, 9 p.m.

Many of my favorite artists are the ones that can juggle whimsy and frustration on the same track. That’s what Nashville’s Belt can do. Their 2024 EP “This One’s For You” is one of the best this year. I’d even go as far as to say that it reminds me of acts like Petey and Slaughter Beach, Dog. And if you know anything about me, you know that is the highest praise I can give.

“Not a Hatchet, but an Axe” sounds like both a busy living room and a bedroom diary. His buddy “Jimbo” is right there. The refrain — a simple “F**k yeah, hell yeah” — is repeated first as a scream but later as a lullaby.

“My empty wallet has developed a cough,” singer Tommy Creighton quips on “Party Pt 2.” Twinkling accents and fuzzy guitars arrive simultaneously on the breakdown for “Laugh it Off.” This EP rocks.

Hembree

Friday: Raccoon Motel, 9 p.m.

I’ve sat with how to describe Kansas City indie band Hembree’s sound, but here’s the best compliment I can give: their newest album “Better Days,” released last week, sounds like it belongs on a FIFA video game soundtrack.

Don’t take that comment lightly — the FIFA series is where I first heard staple ’00s indie-pop bands like Two Door Cinema Club, Atlas Genius and Passion Pit. “Better Days” singles “Monday Morning” and “Wonderful Life” move with an Antonoff-ish flair, but my personal favorite is “Wenatchee.” Hembree are multi-time Quad-Cities show alumni, so it’ll be great to welcome them back to town.

Me Like Bees

Friday: Great River Brewery, 5:30 p.m.; Stompbox Brewing, 10:30 p.m.

Me Like Bees is a recent obsession of mine and one of the acts I’m most excited for this weekend.

It takes real magic for a band’s most popular song to be a nearly nine-minute crescendo-ing outro, but that’s the case with their 2013 track “Pneumonia.” That song is a masterpiece, and lead vocalist Luke Sheafer sounds something like if Andy Hull from Manchester Orchestra was trained on listening to The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers’ somehow-not-British vocal flair.

That, accompanied with the band’s twinkly, dynamic instrumentation, is a perfect recipe for my enjoyment. If you want a peek at what a live show might sound like, check out their 10th anniversary live version of debut album “The Ides.”

Palo Brea

Saturday: Kaiserslautern Square, 11 a.m.; Daiquiri Factory, 3 p.m.

I’m a former Arizonan. So you’re crazy if you think I’m not going to shout out Phoenix band Palo Brea. I saw them advertised on so many lineups during my four-year tenure living in the Phoenix metro area that it’s almost silly that I’ll finally catch them performing here in the Q-C.

Most recent single “Latency” is so trippy and soulful that it somehow makes words like “pontificate” and “latency” sound effortless. The song strikes another gear when it beat-switches into a slow-jam 90 seconds in. I’m looking forward to seeing how that translates on-stage.

Clover County

Saturday: Raccoon Motel, 10 p.m.

I’ll make a prediction: Clover County is going to be a big deal by the time next year’s Alternating Currents rolls around, so see her while you can. The 22-year-old twangy indie singer has a short discography right now — only four songs on Spotify — but it’s a spotless one.

May’s “Black Leather Daydream” is the most recent gem, but I also love Bandcamp-exclusive track “blue suede eyes,” a lo-fi acoustic rumination on time and parenthood, seen through the lens of an old Elvis poster.

“Like a needle to the skin, is the music to my brain,” she sings. “There’s a scratch on side B, the blues don’t sound the same.”

If you have FOMO from missing Julien Baker at Alternating Currents in 2017 — who you can now see at the Grammy Awards and on just about every poster for the festival — Clover County is your chance for retribution.

On This Daytrotter: Michigander on August 14, 2015

Michigander performs on day three of the Lollapalooza Music Festival on Saturday, July 31, 2021, at Grant Park in Chicago.

AMY HARRIS, INVISION, AP

Nine years ago this week, Alternating Currents alum Michigander released a Daytrotter session. While it doesn’t have Michigander’s signature hit — “East Chicago, IN,” one of my favorite songs of all-time — it does have “Ghost,” a song never released on streaming services.

“Ghost” is worth digging in the Daytrotter archives for, with songwriter Jason Singer’s desperately pleading lyrics and entirely acoustic instrumentation. It begs to be seen. To be understood. To be heard. I’m listening.

Concert of The Week: Joy Oladokun at Codfish Hollow

I’ll close with a non-AC recommendation, if you want a warm-up before all the chaos kicks in. Folk-pop singer Joy Oladokun will be at Codfish Hollow in Maquoketa Wednesday night. Somehow, tickets are still for sale — for just $31!

Oladokun has worked with artists like Noah Kahan, Maren Morris and Chris Stapleton. With a voice that pure, she fits on basically any instrumental, but sounds best over a simple acoustic guitar. That means she’ll be a perfect fit for the barn.

This will be my first “Barnstormer” of 2024. It’ll be good to be back at Codfish, and better to be in Oladokun’s audience. The show starts at 8 p.m., with opener Julia Pratt up first.

Photos: Squonk performs during the Alternating Currents Festival

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Squonk performs during the Alternating Currents Festival in the Skybridge parking lot Aug. 20, 2021, in Davenport.

MEG MCLAUGHLIN, File