Quadsville

Tuesday night's Daytrotter Presents show at RIBCO featured the perfect lineup for a Tuesday night.

Hallelujah the Hills, The Wooden Birds and The Uglysuit all played sets that were chill enough for a weeknight, with just the right amount of intensity to keep the crowd's focus on the music instead of the burger baskets.

Hallelujah the Hills incorporated the trumpet and cello into its set, adding depth to their set up of standard electric instruments. The set ended with a lively rendition of "Fight of the Paper Pilots, " off the band's second album, "Colonial Drones."

The highlight of The Wooden Birds performance was the warm, captivating vocal harmonies of singer/songwriter Andrew Kenny and Leslie Sisson, who is joining Kenny for the current tour. Their voices sounded as if they were made to accompany each other, each compl e menting and fitting in perfectly with the other.

The Wooden Birds performed a faster, electric version of its debut album, "Magnolia," but the live show still had the mellow feel of the record . The drummer, Sean Haskins, used brushes instead of sticks, allowing the delicate vocals to come through clearly.

The Uglysuit , a six-man band, turned the energy up. Originally playing quieter than I expected from such a large ensemble, the band quickly increased the volume with flowing keyboards and beautiful vocals from Israel Hindman. The band is best known for its song, "Chicago," which was featured in the final scenes of the TV series "ER," performed some new material including "1902 Deep Ocean."

While I have yet to be disappointed by a show put together by Daytrotter and RIBCO, Tuesday's show was definitely one of the duo's better offerings. Keep the indie rock coming.

Show to see - Raised in Rockford, Ill., Ernie Hendrickson, an Americana folk singer/songwriter will have a CD release party at 10 p.m. tonight, Thursday, Oct. 29, at RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave., Rock Island.

"Walking with Angels" is Hendrickson's second full-length solo album. Cover for the album release show is $4. For more information, visit www.ribco.com or www.erniehendrickson.com.

For teens - The "Twilight" events have already begun as fans gear up for next month's release of "New Moon," the second movie based on the popular series of vampire romance books. The Moline Public Library, 3210 41st St., will have a showing of "Twilight" at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31.

The event is free and open to all ages. For more information, visit www.molinelibrary.com.

For the family - Families can take advantage of pleasant fall weather and work off the calories from their Halloween candy during a bicycle tour of Arsenal Island at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1. The tour will include the Colonel Davenport Home, the old Moline Lock, Arsenal Quarters One and the Confederate Cemetery.

Helmets are mandatory, and adults must accompany children younger than 12 years. Register for the free ride by calling (309) 794-5338.

He said what? - Kyle Peters, the owner of the Daiquiri Factory in The District of Rock Island, on Michael Jackson's "Thriller":

"I don't think you can have Halloween without 'Thriller.' It's one of those things. I grew up with it. At Halloween, you always heard the 'Thriller' song. You just naturally associated it with Halloween."

I've officially caught the "Twilight" fever.

Knowing that I'll likely be interviewing teenagers at movie theaters for the midnight showing of "New Moon" on Nov. 20, I finally downloaded the audiobooks for "Twilight" and "New Moon" so I can get caught up on the series that has captured the hearts of teenagers and adults alike.

I'm also attending a "New Moon" release party that a friend of mine from our book club is hosting at her house before we all head over to the movie theater on opening night. (Note: This is not your average book club. We're a group of 20-something ladies who discuss novels once a month over beer at area bars.)

The hostess is very craft-y and creative, so she made the invitations herself and wrote on the seal, "You are never too old, mature or responsible for a little Edward Cullen," referring to the vampire heartthrob of the series. I think that phrase appropriately captures the fascination people of all ages have with the love story between a vampire and a teenage girl.

We're supposed to bring a "Twilight"-inspired dish to the pre-movie party. I'm thinking cupcakes made with red velvet cake mix would be appropriate.

Libraries across the Quad-Cities also are gearing up for the next month's release of "New Moon." Click here for a link to some of the upcoming "Twilight"-related events. Is anyone else out there planning a "New Moon" or "Twilight" party?

When Wayne Hancock was 25, he had trouble finding a job. There was plenty of work to be had, but all of the positions wanted applicants with experience, which he couldn't get because nobody would give him a job.

"At the same time, we had George Bush Sr. telling everybody that this isn't a depression, it's a recession. There's all these good jobs you can have if you had experience," Hancock said. "But there were a whole lot of people out there that didn't have experience."

So the budding songwriter from Texas wrote "Workin' at Workin,' " which contained the line, "the rich folks call it recession, but the poor folks call it depression."

Yet Hancock never released the song he wrote during the early 1990s until his seventh full-length album, "Viper of Melody," came out this year.

"About the time when all this stuff came down, I was going through my catalog, looking for stuff to use, and I found it and I thought that was perfect."

When Hancock wrote "Workin' at Workin,' " he had hopes of becoming a big star in the music industry. But he's perfectly happy these days to make a living by setting up his four-piece juke joint swing band in bars and pool halls across the country.

"I think I made it pretty big," he said. "I don't have to punch in and I don't answer to anybody else, except my wife."

At the age of 44, Hancock performs about 200 shows a year and usually plays sets that last three hours. But he's not exhausted by the schedule and set times that are twice as long as those of most touring bands.

"It's really easy," he said. "It's like having sex. It's fun."

Show to see - If you're looking to take in some local music without emptying your wallet, check out the RIBCO Fall Homegrown Showcase.

The show will feature Quad-City bands On Distant Shores, Post Mortems and Forty Minute Detour, all for a $3 cover.

The music begins at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, at RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave., Rock Island.

For teens - Aspiring teenage writers can attend a free workshop taught by Ryan Collins of the Midwest Writing Center.

After the workshop, participants will decide when a new teen writers inspiration group will meet at the Moline Public Library, 3210 41st St.

The workshop begins at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26. Registration is required by calling (309) 736-6883.

For the family - Fright Night is back in The District of Rock Island. This year's festivities include a costume contest, a 3-D mystery hunt, scary stories and a free candy bag for the first 1,000 children.

The family-friendly event is 5-8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29. For more information, visit www.ridistrict.com on the Web or call (309) 788-6311.

He said what? - Violent J from Insane Clown Posse on the Dark Carnival, a concept on which the horror-core rappers base their music and tours:

"The Dark Carnival really is a carnival that evil souls visit on their way to hell, and they sometimes go through the house of mirrors, which shows them who they really were and why they're going to hell."

It's not often that I get to announce a giveaway deal. In fact, this is the first time.

But The Wooden Birds have sent us one pair of tickets to their Daytrotter Presents show at RIBCO, 1815 2nd Ave., Rock Island. The show begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27. The Uglysuit and Hallelujah the Hills are also on the bill.

But this is how the ticket giveaway will work. Keep an eye on my Twitter account, @S_DePasquale, on Friday. At some point, I will send out a tweet that reads, "The Wooden Birds." When you see that, reply to me as fast as you can, and the first person to respond will get the free tickets.

For those of you who aren't on Twitter, it's a social networking site where you can let people know what you're up to and have conversations with folks - in 140 characters or less at a time. It's free to use and you can sign up for an account at www.twitter.com.

Before my interview with Violent J from Insane Clown Posse, I asked readers whether they had any questions for him.

While @THE_matticus on Twitter and Aiwass on MySpace expressed their distaste for the horror-core rappers, @am_studios posed this question:

"What was the most effective thing they did to break themselves into the industry?"

Here's Violent J's answer:

"I would have to date it back to the first album, our first Joker's Card. We were basically nothing, nobody, we had no name at all. But we wanted all the record stores in Michigan to carry our album, so what we did was we went and we paid the two biggest stars in Michigan at the time, the two biggest rappers; one was Esham, the other one was Kid Rock. We paid them both to be on our album, to do a song with us. That way our brand-new album, which nobody had ever heard of the group or the album, we could say it features Esham and Kid Rock on it and they were both big sellers.

"So that was probably the best move we ever did because that got us in the stores and the record stores agreed to carry the album because it had them on it. That would be my suggestion if you're brand-new and nobody's interested in your album or who you are yet. A quick way around it is to put some stars on your album if you can do it because then people kind of accept you into the club."

Violent J went on to say that he still talks with Esham, and while their producer still works with Kid Rock, he doesn't talk to the Kid anymore.

"He's too Hollywood now," Violent J said. "He's a big star, huge star."

Follow me on Twitter @S_DePasquale to submit questions to the other artists I interview each week.