Saltpetre Cave:bringing back the 70s

Concerts in a cave planned for this weekend

Factoid:Tickets to the concert are $10 in advance and $15 at the gate. Parking will cost $3, and there will be a shuttle to transport people from the parking lot to the cave. For more information about tickets or space rental for a craft table, call 687-9663 or go to www.shawneecave.com

Ghosts of hippies past will fill Saltpetre Cave with the nostalgic sounds of 70s-tribute bands Saturday.

The new owners of Saltpetre Cave, Bob Goodale and his wife, plan to bring annual concerts back to the cave. Goodale, who attended SIUC in 1976 and 1977, helped organize concerts at the cave during that time, including the Shawnee Jamboree concerts in 1978.

We’re bringing the cave back to the 70s, Goodale said.

This weekend’s concert will be the first rock concert to take place at the cave since the late 80s. A blues concert was held there May 6, and more than 700 people were present.

Located six miles south of Murphysboro on Highway 127, the Saltpetre Cave concerts began in 1974 with four or five concerts a year. The concerts included bands like the Ozark Mountain Dare Devils and the Steve Miller Band. These music festivals continued to take place in the cave until the late 1980s, when the owner was no longer able to carry the tradition on.

This weekend’s show features No Quarter, a Led Zeppelin-tribute band, Uncle Pacos and The Country Funkins, described as a rock and deadhead band, the Hurd Brothers, a rock blues band, and Stank Willie and The Red Hots, a jazz rock band.

Goodale seemed most impressed with No Quarter. He said the band has been together for 15 years, and the band looks and sounds like Led Zeppelin.

If you close your eyes, you wouldn’t know the difference, he said.

Goodale said the cave enhances the band’s sound and described it as being like a band shell. The acoustics are perfect, he said.

The Goodales also offer spaces for artists to sell their jewelry, herbs, artwork, games and other crafts during the concert. The spaces cost $20, which includes the ticket to the concert. Artists are required to bring their own table and set-up.

We’re trying to help the starving artists of Southern Illinois, Goodale said.

The concert will go on, rain or shine. It is large enough to hold more than 2,000 people and the band. As Goodale said, It never rains in the cave.

Goodale urges people to bring blankets and coolers to have picnics and take hikes while at the concert. He said it is a good place to listen to music in an open-air atmosphere.