MUSICAL ALETERNATIVES: LIQUID MARY

Dressed like a GQ model in a stylish tie, shirt and pleated trousers, Liquid Mary's lead singer Todd Shaw curses blackly at the sound of his own voice bouncing off the brick walls at Jeremiah's. He charges off the stage at the soundmen, who turn knobs and press ears to speakers until he's satisfied that the ricocheting tones are under control.

The stage upstairs at Jeremiah's in downtown Cape Girardeau occupies a small room better suited to a piano bar than mega-decibel rock 'n' roll, but there it is. These are the places where musical dreams are hatched.

This is Liquid Mary's fifth gig at Jeremiah's and ever. Though a new band, they're convinced a market exists in Cape Girardeau and maybe elsewhere for their brand of alternative music.

For now, drummer Andy Salzman and bassist Matt Spinner, both 25-year-olds from Cape Girardeau, work at Jeremiah's. Guitarist Ron Stoehr, 27, is a senior majoring in marketing and management at Southeast Missouri State University. He's from St. Louis.

The sound check takes place a half hour before Liquid Mary is to start playing at 10:30 p.m. The 24-year-old Shaw, who is from Scott City, has just come from his job selling computer software, which explains the anti-rock 'n' roll attire. He disappears to change clothes while the rest of the members of Liquid Mary are interviewed.

Stoehr and Spinner taught themselves to play their instruments. Salzman was a drummer at Cape Central and majored in music for a while at Southeast Missouri State University. Shaw has had vocal training, and learned his chops singing in a hard rock band in Key West.

Stoehr and Shaw previously played together for two years in a Daytona Beach band called Big Wide World. Salzman is a former heavy metal drummer who has switched to synth drums and alternative music, while Spinner's long-ago background is in church music.

Salzman and Spinner formerly played together in the bands Rescue and Mersey Beat. They're all together, they say, mainly because they're best friends.

Liquid Mary's sound falls into the sometimes catch-all category of alternative music. To them, it means music that has no borders, and can include influences from everywhere country to classical.

The Cure, REM, U2 and Jane's Addiction are bands that can be classified as alternative. "The Beatles were the first alternative band ever," Stoehr says as a Fab Four song strung with sitar music drifts from the bar's sound system.

The Beatles' "Rain" is on their play list. They also play David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" and music by the Violent Femmes.

Other alternative bands might cover songs by bands like Smashing Pumpkins, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Cult.

Liquid Mary's own name is a meaningless combination of words they like the sound of.

They perform some original music, much of it about love gone sour. A sample lyric: "I said, `Anything for you/She said, `Everything will do.'"

Explains Stoehr: "Matt's the only one that's in a decent relationship."

It's showtime. Shaw, dressed in black, takes the stage in a writhing Jim Morrison-Bono Hewson fugue, a respectable voice steeped in attitude.

The band soon dives into "Mrs. Robinson," a pumped up version of the old Simon and Garfunkel hit recently resurrected by the Lemonheads.

He sings the "Hey hey hey" part with a surprising twist of vulnerability.

There's a lot of standing and staring among the 30 or so people in the audience at first, but they get restless, wanting to move. As the place fills up, the dancing begins.

"The first time we played for people they were dancing and moshing," Spinner said.

The band recently has been recording a tape for release in the summer. And when Stoehr graduates in June, Liquid Mary plans to head south "Atlanta is really starting to happen with the Olympics and the Underground," the guitarist says to see whether anyone wants to listen. He has some music business connections there.

"Bands make it strictly through all the crap of making it," Salzman says. "You have to work hard and keep believing in yourself."

Stoehr has his own reason for wanting to succeed in the band business: "I want to keep from working as long as possible," he says.