The exact moment I was “all in" on the Alternating Currents Festival happened early Friday evening at the fest. I had just finished hearing my friends in the Avey Grouws Band play for the second time this summer, and was on my way to the next act I wanted to see when I heard more music. Soon after, I was in the crowd in an alley behind the Mississippi River Distilling Company Downtown Lounge, while the Missouri band Me Like Bees performed on the lounge’s actual loading dock.
Yup, that’s all it took! Now I’m convinced this is one of the area’s best music festivals, and possibly even one of the area's best events overall.
As someone who grew up in the Quad Cities and still has family in the area, it’s more than a little embarrassing that I’d never previously made it to Alternating Currents. It’s only a few weeks after Hinterland, which is always a big weekend for us here at Studio One. But the stars aligned this year and I was able to make the trip.
Alternating Currents is a four-day event that runs Thursday through Sunday, and almost every individual event is free. There's live music the whole four days, with performances by mostly local and regional artists at a variety of venues across the Quad Cities area. Part of what makes Alternating Currents unique in Iowa's festival landscape is the various locations of the stages. There were performances at brewpubs, small pocket parks, a pop up tent near the Saturday morning market and even a hardware store parking lot. There’s also a film festival that runs through the four days, a community mural project, a silent disco, panel discussions on a variety of subjects and more.
Unfortunately, and uncontrollably, there was another thing that made this year’s Alternating Currents memorable: the weather. Apparently Hinterland used up all the good weather this summer with their 70 degree weekend. Many of Friday night's Alternating Currents performances were canceled because of a major thunderstorm (fortunately, most of the cancellations were a second performance by the bands, so we still got to see many of them take the stage earlier in the fest). Then heat indices hit over 110 Saturday, making for some unbearable conditions that afternoon. Thankfully, most of the venues had readily available and accessible fans and water stations. The biggest weather hit for me was missing Me Like Bees' performance of their very apt song, "Feel the Heat," which should have happened in their Friday night set (thanks thunderstorm!).
Incredibly, festival organizers managed the Herculean task of moving Friday night’s big outdoor show indoors to the Redstone Room, and it even started roughly on time! Hembree and Post Sex Nachos saved the thundery evening with back-to-back sets in a loud, sweaty environment, where everyone cut loose and had fun. Everything seemed to be running seamlessly, even though everyone I spoke to made it clear that changing the venue was a huge challenge. Being ready to roll with the punches is essential to running a festival, and the Alternating Currents team managed with flying colors.
Artists from all over the state were tapped for this year's event, including Des Moines singer-songwriters Abbie Sawyer and Dickie, Iowa City duo Sun Centauri and Dubuque's own River Glen. It was great seeing several Davenport area acts — Lady Igraine, Charlotte Blu and Alexa Mueller, Wolfskill & The Wild and Subatlantic — representing their hometown at the fest as well. Other noteworthy regional acts, including Ontario singer-songwriter Terra Lightfoot, Minnesotan alternative foursome Gully Boys and viral hit Michigan rapper THOT SQUAD brought flair, energy and an exciting diversity of sound to the fest as well.
After a full day of running around Davenport and catching some great performances by some of our favorite local musicians at Studio One, I was excited to finally catch a performance by Running Man Saturday night. The band's a bit of a “super group,” made up of several veterans of the Quad Cities music scene. Running Man was founded in 2022 when Skip Greer, also the lead singer of the Dead Kennedys (yes, those Dead Kennedys) moved to Moline and was looking to start another band.
If you’re into the “post punk” sound, Running Man is as good as it gets. It was a high energy set full of songs from the band's debut album and some great covers, including The Clash’s “Police and Thieves” and (incredibly) “Marquee Moon” by Television, a song I never thought I’d hear performed live.
Amidst all the great music, the thing I’ll remember the most about Alternating Currents is the people who made it happen and the community that came together to support it. I talked to a lot of volunteers who are very passionate about what they’re doing and who feel very strongly about getting people to try new things once in a while. As for the crowds at the events, I don’t know who came out to hear specific bands and who came because it was a weekend in the Quad Cities. I’m sure it was a mix of both, and everyone was having a great time, which is the important thing.
I’m looking forward to Alternating Currents 2026, no matter what the weather forecast looks like. Until then, we’re not quite done with this year’s festival season, so hopefully I’ll see you at the next one!
