Support your local musician

Last weekend I went out on the town for a night of live music and drinks -- by far the best way to spend a weekend night in Cape.

I'm a musician and music lover, so maybe I'm biased, but for my money a few hours of loud, live rock music and intoxication beats dinner and a movie any time. This is real, vital entertainment. You can see the people on stage right in front of you, hear the sound of their fingers sliding along the fretboard, even smell their sweat if you want.

This is live entertainment, not something that's been filmed and displayed on a huge movie screen, disseminated to the masses in the hopes of scoring big cash for some Hollywood execs.

But on any given weekend night, where are the hot spots in Cape Girardeau? They are the restaurants (of which we do have many good ones) and the movie theaters (where you pay way too much for what you get and you can't smoke or drink).

My question is why.

What prompted this question was last weekend's foray into live music land. Some friends and I headed down to Rude Dog Pub, a place many of my friends and co-workers frequent. I usually hate seeing live music at the Rude Dog because the place gets so crowded, but not this night. I was there to see a new local band, Fill, which was opening for Carbondale-based jam band Defined Perception.

When I arrived, the place was the least crowded I'd probably ever seen it on a live music night. When I left, same thing. But on this weekend, the first one after the start of the new college semester, I expected to see young faces crowding just about every downtown venue with live music.

No way, man. Not this January weekend, not at Rude Dog.

Of course, Defined Per?ception's hourlong soundcheck, which pushed into Fill's set, could be part of the explanation, but I don't think so. Then there's Fill's philosophy of playing music that has no words. But I don't know if that was the problem, either.

If you ask me, the problem is a lack of people who actually care about live music for the sake of the art form.

For good or for ill, depending on your own preferences, Cape is just not an adventurous town in terms of live music. Sure, there are a multitude of bands around here. Sure, some of them pack shows every time they play (see Dirty 30s, Mike Renick Band and others). But those who go out on a weekend just to check out live music, maybe bands they've never heard before, are rare.

In the past few years Cape has made great strides improving its cultural offerings, and that includes live music. Any weekend night numerous bands are playing in downtown bars. Most of them play original music, where years ago many of those who did play relied primarily on cover songs, from my understanding.

Much of the time there is no cover charge. When there is one, it's usually small.

It would seem logical that, in a town with a university, there would be a large contingent of young people who really dig the whole live music experience. Not so much in Cape.

All too often, local bands are treated as background music while bar patrons drink away. Go to any local bar where a band is playing and you'll see them -- sullen guys and gals sitting at the bar, back turned to the band, swilling away on their drink of choice. Some of them act annoyed at the loud music, some don't even pay attention, but they hardly ever move to the music and they hardly ever stand.

I recently talked to a good country band that does draw a lot of people to its shows, which hardly ever take place in Cape. The band was the John D. Hale Band, and they tell me they don't play shows in Cape bars because they can't bring in the kind of money they can get at other places -- including Poplar Bluff.

And I can't blame the venue owners. They don't want to throw down big bucks for a band when said band won't draw the people the bar needs to make money. Meanwhile the few who do care about live music can't see the best local bands.

Nor can I blame older people with families. Who wants to take their children to a bar? Not many.

But where is the younger crowd? Where's that rebellious infatuation with rock that makes a great music scene?

The only solution is for the young crowd that feeds the success of live music in any town to get out and see some bands, instead of choosing to sing bad karaoke or sit through an overpriced movie. Get out, check out some local bands. You will find some you like, and as you support the music scene more, you'll see more and better bands take the stage.

A real music scene can be made here, we just have to support it.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182