Stop and Hear the Music: A look at live music venues in Cape Girardeau

Fans move to the music at Scout Hall during a performance by Dawson Hollow.

(Photo by Aaron Eisenhauer)

Third place. It is a term in sociology to represent those environments outside of the home and workplace. Third places can be coffee shops, libraries, parks, churches, bookstores, bars, music venues and community centers — they all function as places an individual can go to regularly and be around others.

Many chambers of commerce and economic development organizations are pushing for more “third places” to be created in their communities as they can be a valuable tool for economic development.

Enter a specific “third place”: The Music Venue.

Live music venues and event spaces offer a blank canvas for connection and community engagement. Local artists can share their music, touring artists can tap local markets and people can exist and appreciate art together — something the young workforce is seeking out.

Scout Hall manager Jeff Rawson says studies show younger demographics are looking for experiences and activities so they can engage with their community outside of work.

The bar at Scout Hall is open during music events, offering different drinks, including non-alcoholic options.

(Photo by Aaron Eisenhauer)

“I think it’s really important to have these options available to a young and growing workforce. That they see this place as an interesting space to spend their time, to raise a family potentially, and not just be in the office and go home but have opportunities to connect with people and experience new things,” Rawson said.

Let’s look at the music venues in Cape Girardeau that are quickly becoming our community’s ideal “third places.”

A crowd watches the band Noir Daze close out the CGMO Rock Show at The Rude Dog Pub on February 10, 2024. Nik Scarpaci, Nate Comer and George Adams from Noir Daze are pictured playing.

(Photo submitted by Nik Scarpaci)

Rude Dog Pub

This staple of Main Street nightlife has hosted live music shows since its inception in August 1996. General Manager Davey Jackson says “friends, family, good times and live music” was always the vision for Rude Dog Pub.

“We’re the most laid-back bar in Cape. It really is. Everybody is welcome,” Jackson said.

Jackson says all types of people will converse and enjoy their time together at Rude Dog Pub —background and incomes do not matter. Everyone gets along, he says.

In Rude Dog’s early days, Jackson says they mostly brought in jam bands to play shows for their guests; now, they host a wide range of genres and musicians: punk, bluegrass, rock, country, metal and everything in-between. Sometimes they book touring musicians, but for the most part, Jackson says Rude Dog Pub sticks to supporting local musicians and bands.

In the spring and fall, they have Grateful Thursday once a month when Deuce Denninger and Jason Heeter play Grateful Dead cover songs. Jackson says those nights usually draw a decent crowd.

Jackson has worked in downtown Cape for the last 25 years; bartending and helping book music shows at different establishments like Rude Dog Pub and Broussard’s. He says he has seen the music scene change drastically over the past decade.

“There’s every genre of music out there and pretty much every night in Cape you can go somewhere and catch live music ... times when everyone is flourishing there are more people out and about doing things. I think live music helps that,” Jackson said.

Fans move to the music at Scout Hall during a performance by Dawson Hollow.

(Photo by Aaron Eisenhauer)

Scout Hall

Rawson has seen this same phenomenon at Scout Hall. When groups of people buy tickets to a show at 7 p.m., they will be downtown by 5 p.m., shopping at local boutiques and eating at local restaurants; after the show, people will stick around for drinks at downtown bars.

Scout Hall, located at 420 Broadway, houses retail and dining experiences, along with luxury apartments and event spaces. Unlike some of the other venues on this list, Scout Hall is not a bar functioning as a music venue; it was built for shows and events.

Rawson says the vision for Scout Hall evolved from his team’s experience with organizing Shipyard Music Festival.

“The catalyst ... was seeing people come together for things we can all agree are good. Good music, good food, good drinks. ... There was an opportunity to bring that kind of experience from Shipyard to a brick and mortar more regularly,” Rawson said.

Scout Hall includes an underground intimate venue with a stage, bar and prep kitchen, and an outdoor patio with a stage.

Local band Community Sadness’s album release show was the first concert to be held at Scout Hall in June 2023. The venue’s first touring act was Fox Royale in July 2023, who are slated to return this March. Rawson says although Cape is a smaller market, it is geographically well-placed for touring artists, being close to St. Louis, Memphis and Nashville.

“They [musicians] really enjoy the area when they come. We hear that time and time again from artists. ... [Artists tell us] we love the town, we love the people, and everyone was so nice when we went to restaurants and shops. It’s something Cape does really well when we bring these folks in is the hospitality ... these guys are treated like rock stars and they really appreciate that,” Rawson said.

All genres of music are welcome at Scout Hall — both local and touring artists. Rawson says without good local artists, a city wouldn’t have good touring groups come through, which is why it’s important to support those individuals who are dedicated to fostering a music scene in Cape Girardeau.

“The idea behind the venue is really to have a blank canvas for whatever that show is that day. Whether that’s an indie rock show or a jazz quintet or a classical performance, it’s really about opening the doors to all performance arts,” Rawson said.

Scout Hall also prides itself on offering special events outside of live music that bring people together such as the Putt Putt Pub Crawl and the Grown-Up Book Fair. This diversity of events and music is important to give all demographics something to enjoy and participate in.

Rawson says one of the most fulfilling parts of hosting shows is seeing diverse groups of people get together and have “a great time for a few hours.”

“[Other venues like] Spectrum has done a great job at bringing diversity [and] Rude Dog bringing different shows in. The River Campus obviously does a lot of stuff. So, we’re looking to be a part of that team bringing in more diverse sounds into Cape,” Rawson said.

Elf Power plays at Spectrum Record Lounge on June 23, 2023. Parker Bond called it one of their "bucket list" shows.

(Photo submitted by Travis Tyson)

Spectrum Record Lounge

Reviving and diversifying Cape Girardeau’s music scene is a collaborative effort, as every local music venue owner and manager will tell you. Owners of Spectrum Record Lounge, Parker Bond and Travis Tyson, are certainly no exception.

“One of the biggest complaints I heard [a couple years ago] was ‘Man, in Cape you used to be able to go anywhere and hear music. You could go anywhere on a weekend, and they’d have a band.’ And I think we’re getting back to that now where more people are booking music and you’re getting more diversity in the music scene here like Scout Hall booking shows, and then, I think everybody’s realized it’s a good way to get people into your store, but also, it’s good for everybody in general,” Bond said.

Tyson said during the summer when there are a lot of live music shows happening around downtown Cape, he will see people hopping from one show to another show. He says the diversity of music booked at each venue around Cape helps give everyone an option to enjoy, whether they are looking for a high-energy hip hop show or something acoustic and laid-back.

Spectrum Record Lounge, located on 113 Broadway, is a bar and record shop. When Bond and Tyson were dreaming up the business, they envisioned having monthly shows but now they are hosting almost weekly music shows and events.

They will consistently host Jazz Night, collaborating with musicians out of Southeast Missouri State University’s River Campus. They bring in local bands, but they will also snag touring artists if they are between stops on a tour — such as the indie rock band Elf Power, which played in the summer last year. Bond called that night “a bucket list” show.

When touring bands are brought into the shop to play, Bond and Tyson like to schedule local musicians as the opening acts to give artists a chance to collaborate and network with those outside of the area. As a musician in Community Sadness, Bond can’t overstate the importance of connections as an artist.

Spectrum is an intimate performing space. Artists play on the floor at eye-level with their audience and there is no Green Room or separate space for artists to hang out before and after the show. Bond says he loves booking bands that an audience would normally not see in a space as small as Spectrum, as it provides an intimate experience for music-lovers and musicians alike.

Bond and Tyson both agree that having more music venues in Cape Girardeau will benefit talent retention and overall community growth. Bond says a major reason for the drought of live music Cape Girardeau experienced a few years ago was due to a lack of music venues.

“The more people that have space for musicians to play, that are getting people in their shop, that’s more people that are downtown and that’s more crossover,” Bond said.

The Library

Located on Spanish Street, The Library boasts a large indoor and outdoor space for congregating and enjoying music together. Owner Cathy Thompson opened the venue in November 2009 when she noticed a lack of bar options for adults outside of the college-age demographic in Cape Girardeau.

The Library has live music every Friday from 6 to 9 p.m., when Thompson says most adults tend to go out.

“I thought there was no live music early and the adults are out early, and they go home early. They listen to music from 6 to 9 [p.m.] then everyone can come home and stay on their same schedule,” Thompson said.

Thompson says they can house a two-piece band indoor and a four- or five-piece band outdoors. Usually, she sticks to local bands and musicians; Thompson says every genre of music is welcome at The Library, but they have a lot of musicians who focus on rock, blues and jazz music.

Live music is important not just for Thompson’s business, but also for all of Cape Girardeau. She says when more places downtown host shows, the rest of the shops, restaurants and bars reap the benefits.

“People are downtown. They mingle around. They don’t just stay in one place. We all benefit from it,” Thompson said.

Ebb & Flow Fermentations

Across from The Library, on the corner of Spanish and Main Street, Ebb & Flow Fermentations houses an eclectic mix of furnishings, art and craft brews — along with a large outdoor patio space.

Talent director Amanda Camp has been booking talent for Ebb & Flow Fermentations since 2020. They have live music regularly throughout the year on weekends, including two punk music festivals, Summer Slaycation in the summer and Punktoberfest in the fall, through a partnership with Red Claw Productions.

“It’s something we really wanted to do. Most of us were little punk kids at heart anyway, so we were like, ‘you know we haven’t really seen a good punk show except for here and there in the Cape area for a few years.’ ... we used to have a decent punk scene and a lot of us were missing it,” Camp said.

For their weekend shows, Camp says they book an eclectic mix of music, mostly local artists. Even if guests don’t know the artists by name, Camp wants them to remember their time at Ebb & Flow as a “whole experience,” complete with connection to their community and other people.

Camp grew up in Cape Girardeau and feels like the past five years have shown a resurgence in live music that rivals what she remembers as a teenager.

“I just remember how much better my teenage years were because I had somewhere to go. My friends had somewhere to go. We got to connect over music and kind of feel like there was something in our community for us,” Camp said.

Camp says the more places that are hosting live music regularly, the better. It benefits every business in Cape, especially the ones downtown where most of the music venues are located.

“Saturdays in the summer, you get up at 7 [or] 8 a.m., you go to the Farmer’s market, listen to music there, go to brunch at Ebb, go to all the shops. I mean if you really wanted to, you wouldn’t have to go [home] until bars closed that night. There’s just so much to do and I never thought I’d see Cape at that level,” Camp said.

Dr. Sara Edgerton conducts the Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra and the Southern Illinois Symphony in "Prelude to Die Meistersinger," an overture by German composer Richard Wagner, to open the Symphonic Spectacular in Bedell Performance Hall on April 29, 2013 at the River Campus.

(Southeast Missourian File Photo)

River Campus

The River Campus at Southeast Missouri State University opened in 2007. The campus houses the Holland College of Arts and Media and includes three professional performance venues: Bedell Performance Hall, Rust Flexible Theatre and the Shuck Music Recital Hall.

Dr. Sara Edgerton, professor of cello and string bass at Southeast Missouri State University and director of the Southeast Missouri Symphony Orchestra, says the resources provided by the university and these venues are quite rare and special to see in a town the size of Cape Girardeau. For example, she mentioned the recent performance of Carmen, one of the most famous operas of all time, which the Department of Music put on in January.

“We’re having performances here that otherwise you’d have to go to St. Louis or Memphis to see,” Edgerton said. “That’s very much part of the mission of the university is to serve the community, what we do here obviously it’s good for the students, and it’s good for learning, but it’s also good for the community as a whole.”

Edgerton is eager for their spring semester line-up of musical performances. She is especially looking forward to Mozart’s Coronation Mass on March 5, in which the orchestra and choir will provide Mozart’s most popular works, and the winners of the collegiate Concerto and Aria Competition will perform works by composer Ney Rosauro who is flying in from Brazil to conduct.

With Mozart’s Coronation Mass, she is hosting a second, private concert, which she’ll be inviting local schools and students to attend. This is something they’ve done in the past and will continue to do in the future — along with the many high school performances, showcases and competitions they host across all musical styles and genres.

“We want to build our audiences of the future and make them fall in love with this music,” Edgerton said.

Edgerton says they regularly book famous musicians, composers and ensembles to perform or lead performances at the River Campus — whether it’s the St. Louis Symphony in Bedell Hall or a soloist in the more intimate venue of Shuck Music Recital Hall, which used to be a chapel in the old seminary building.

Guests from all musical genres and styles are welcomed to Cape Girardeau to perform at the college. In February, legendary trombonist Andre Hayward came to Cape Girardeau for the annual Clark Terry/Phi Mu Alpha Jazz Festival.

Guests from all musical genres and styles are welcomed to Cape Girardeau to perform at the college. In February, legendary trombonist Andre Hayward came to Cape Girardeau for the annual Clark Terry/Phi Mu Alpha Jazz Festival.

“Andre is basically a jazz legend, and one of the best jazz musicians on the planet, so it’s great to have him in Cape Girardeau,” Dr. Felipe Brito, Director of Jazz and Assistant Professor of Trombone at Southeast Missouri State University, said.

One of Brito’s goals is to expose students to music venues off campus, through the SEMO Gigging Project, a partnership with the SEMO Department of Music and the nonprofit Old Town Cape. That's also why he took the opportunity during their jazz festival to partner with other local music venues like Spectrum Record Lounge and Scout Hall to provide supplementary shows. At Spectrum, they host a monthly jam session, and at Scout Hall, they host a jazz night with guest musicians from St. Louis, Memphis, Nashville and Chicago. Both shows offer more experiences for community members to experience music.

Brito says it is important to highlight other music genres together with jazz, and the community will see this often at River Campus. He says their next concert on April 16, 2024, will honor American composer Dizzy Gillespie and the Latin Jazz/ Latin Music repertoire for jazz band.

Edgerton believes the River Campus and other music venues in Cape all work together in a positive way to cultivate the area’s music scene. It’s all interconnected.

“I mean, honestly, I wouldn’t want to live anywhere that didn’t have all of this going on,” Edgerton said. “It’s so important to the quality of life.”