Lifeline: 5 Things to Do in Charlotte This Week
March 23-29, 2026
Queen City Nerve’s motto has been the same since our start: If you think nothing is happening in Charlotte, you’re not trying. While we’ve always included a Lifeline in our print issue, here’s our online version to help give you weekly reasons to engage.
Pat Metheny
Tuesday, March 24 • 7:30 p.m. • Knight Theater • $65 and up
Guitarist-composer Pat Metheny goes beyond the strictures of jazz rock, incorporating funk, global folk and Afro-Latin rhythms into his extensive catalog. Debuting in 1974 on Jaco, a spontaneous project with jazz heavyweights including keyboardist Carla Bley and bassist Jaco Pastorius, Metheny has never looked back.
He forged a guitar style that has influenced generations of musicians, was among the first jazz men to treat the synthesizer as a serious instrument and experimented with digital sampling technology before midi was a thing. His 2026 album Side-Eye III+ reimagines past Metheny compositions and forges into the future with new pieces that hybridize blues, post-bop and rock.
Sami Stevens, Mariah Van Kleef
Thursday, March 26 • 7:30 p.m. • The Evening Muse • $20
Drawing on jazz, folk and soul, NYC singer-songwriter Sami Stevens crafts lively, intimate tunes that conjoin the personal and universal. With robust trumpets, ebullient saxophone and warm vocals, Stevens evokes the jazzier excursions of Joni Mitchell and Carole King on “Morning,” the title track off her 2023 self-titled debut album. She’ll be accompanied onstage by tenor saxophonist and long-time collaborator Kazemde George.
Charlotte singer-songwriter and folklorist Mariah Van Kleef conjures complex ethereal and bewitching music that exudes a familiar yet alien beauty. “Saraswati,” Van Kleef’s depiction of dueling feminine divinities entangling in a vertiginous freefall, embraces mythology as a tool to explore self-actualization.
Maximum Air
Thursday, March 26 • 4-9 p.m. • Blume Studios • Free
Black culture spawned sneakerhead culture, then propelled it into the mainstream. It’s fitting then that Black-owned studio-boutique-event space DUPP&SWATT and fashion accessories and lifestyle brands shop Kicks & Fros have teamed up for Maximum Air, a celebration of Air Max Day, which honors one of the most iconic sneaker franchises.
For sneakerheads, the annual event commemorating the launch of Nike’s Air Max 1 in 1987, is one of the most important days of the year. Billed as a celebration where “style meets sole,” Charlotte’s 2026 iteration of culture-forward experience highlights classic silhouettes, classic colorways and celebrity collaborations while conjoining sneakers, fashion and community.
Zack Fox
Friday, March 27 • 8 p.m. • The Fillmore • $62
When asked about the Blackest moment of 2026, Zack Fox cited former Panthers quarterback Cam Newton inadvertently inventing a new word “nclecta” by insisting that his mispronunciation of “eclectic” was correct. “Doubling down when you’re wrong, and then creating a new piece of culture, that’s what being a Black man’s about,” Fox said with sly sarcasm.
The rapper, comedian and Abbott Elementary guest star also called fascist-enabling stoner bro Joe Rogan anti-human for comparing humanity to a virus and once rapped, “I’ma dip my balls into some Thousand Island dressing/ ‘Cause I got depression…” Fox’s sharp, absurdist stand-up combines cultural satire with irreverent social commentary. But is it a comedy show or music show? Yes.
‘Nouveau Now’
March 28-29 • times vary • Carolina Theatre • $16-$33
The UNC Charlotte departments of dance and music present Nouveau Now, a dance and music performance choreographed by dance professors at the university celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the Martha Graham Dance Company, America’s oldest and arguably most influential dance ensemble.
The program includes a reconstruction of Graham’s work by Kim Jones, titled “Reimagined;”; Tamara Williams’ jazz choreography set to Duke Ellington’s “Praise God and Dance,” played live by the UNC Charlotte jazz ensemble with soprano Sequina DuBose; Delia Neil’s choreography set to music by Debussy, Satie, and Ravel; and Ashley L. Tate’s contemporary, jazz and hip-hop choreography set to an electro-soul and alt-rock soundtrack.
