AN ELECTRIFYING EXPERIENCE

Sounds of festival music take over downtown

Southeast Missourian/Chris Stanfield

Jason Keese, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist with the band Crossfire, played for the crowd during opening night of the City of Roses Music Festival in downtown Cape Girardeau Friday. The festival ends tonight.

Friday's first night of the City of Roses Music Festival crackled with electricity both the musical and Ben Franklin variety.

The festival opened with the hard rock sounds of Third Gear reverberating down Main Street and the country band Crossfire singing "Lonesome Me" on Water Street.

After some early electrical problems, the Scott City, Mo., band No Expense thundered beneath the full moon on a stage fronting the brick handball courts at the River Campus. It was a Cape Girardeau version of the Grateful Dead at the Pyramids.

Chad Corgan sang his voice raw, and guitarist Brandon Drury paced the stage draped in an American flag, the red paint on his face streaming with sweat.

At the Spanish Street Stage, Homer Gilbert had just begun accepting the honor of having a scholarship established in his name when a burst of sparks on a nearby building signaled a power outage that silenced the microphones and turned out the lights at the opening ceremony for the festival.

The 87-year-old Gilbert, a fixture in the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band for 73 years, decided to go on home while repairs were made. Vi Keys, herself a longtime Cape Girardeau musician, accepted a similar award made to her husband, the late Eddie Keys. She was there to perform in a band that had three generations of Keys musicians herself, her son Eddie and Eddie's son Billy. Eddie was associated with the band TUFA for many years. Billy, a music teacher with the Cape Girardeau schools, leads the band Papa Aborigine.

The late William Shivelbine, a well-known figure in promoting school band participation in the region, also was honored with a scholarship.

Music at the Spanish Street stage got under way about an hour later.

Crowds were light at the festival early on but built through the evening. Festival-goers also could hear bands at nine nightspots downtown.

The festival resumes today at 3 p.m. at the River Campus, at 5 p.m. at the Water Street Stage and at 7 p.m. at the other stages. More music is scheduled at the nightclubs and restaurants later tonight.

What Gilbert wanted to say to the crowd is that 3,000 years ago King David practiced and persevered to become an accomplished musician. "Maybe this scholarship can help some poor young person go on to be a musical king," he said.

"... Music is a language. It's eternal. Whether it's an angelic choir or the Beatles, it's still music."