Center Stage

In the summer of 1980, two of the top rock venues in Providence, Rhode Island happened to be directly across from each other: The Living Room and Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, at 380 and 377 Westminster Street respectively. Each club opened in 1975 and some acts appeared at both, but there was relatively little direct competition because they had rather different rosters; The Living Room hosted mostly rock, punk, postpunk and new-wave acts while Lupo’s was more blues-focused. The biggest live-music venue in the city by far was the 14,000-capacity Providence Civic Center, which presented a who’s who of regionally, nationally and internationally acclaimed rockers and poppers and continues doing so today as Amica Mutual Pavilion.

But the area’s musical landscape changed significantly in September 1980 with the opening a new club at 2224 Pawtucket Avenue in East Providence, Center Stage, which had a capacity of 700 – more than double The Living Room’s and Lupo’s – and owners with deep pockets. Unlike its smaller competitors, the new venue offered a smorgasbord of rock, folk, jazz, funk, country, soul, blues and pop, drawing a doubly impressive number of household names from all those genres during its roughly 18-month existence while promoting itself as “An Elegant Concert Hall in a Nightclub Atmosphere.” Among those who appeared were Muddy Waters, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, George Jones, Joe Cocker, Iggy Pop, Peter Tosh, Harry Chapin, Maynard Ferguson and U2.

OPENING, DESIGN, NOTABLE APPEARANCES

A one-story building previously owned by Flynn Towel Supply Co., Center Stage opened on September 13, 1980. It was divided into two rooms, a lounge with a 55-foot-long bar and a concert hall with tables and table service, and co-owner Martin Lehrman told The Providence Journal before the opening that the venue had “state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems superior to any in this area.” According to Richard Zimmer, who designed the interior and booked talent at the venue, the owners invested over $100,000 (about 383,000 in 2025) on the sound system alone.

The acts at that appeared at Center Stage in September 1980 set the tone for the club’s remarkably multigenred roster: R&B/soul/funk/rock keyboardist-vocalist Billy Preston; Allman Brothers offshoot Sea Level; jazz-rock band Dixie Dregs; jazz saxophonist Stanley Turrentine; jazz singer Ester Satterfield; folk icons Aztec Two-Step and Jonathan Edwards; country great George Jones; country singer-songwriter-trumpeter Don King; soul singer Syreeta Wright; punk-funk act The Probers; Blue Angel (with Cyndi Lauper, three years before she went solo); and English rockers The Psychedelic Furs. The wide variety continued in October with shows by B.B. King, Spyro Gyra, Nervous Eaters, Split Enz, Gary Burton, Herbie Mann, Eddie Money, Maynard Ferguson, The Neighborhoods, The Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Band, George Thorogood, John Lee Hooker, James Montgomery, Duke Robillard & The Pleasure Kings and Wilson Pickett, among others.

The last two months of 1980 saw acts as wildly diverse as Iggy Pop, Freddy Cannon, The Shirelles, NRBQ, Cozy Powell, Mission of Burma and Captain Beefheart. Among others who took the stage were Muddy Waters, Joan Jett, Thin Lizzy, Joe Cocker, The Jim Carrol Band, The Vapors, Martha & The Muffins and Mink DeVille. James Brown appeared in the first half of 1981, as did punk icons The Stranglers, rockabilly pioneer Carl Perkins, ‘60s rockers Spirit, English art-pop group XTC, jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and singer-songwriters Harry Chapin, Garland Jeffreys and Paul Geremia.

U2 appeared on May 25, 1981, six months after Island Records released their debut album, Boy, and returned to Center Stage on November 17 that year, five weeks after the label issued their second LP, October. Acts that took the stage in the second half of ’81 included Chuck Berry, Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Rich, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Pat Benatar, Pousette-Dart Band, Missing Persons and Sam & Dave (backed by Roomful of Blues). By the start of ‘82, the number of shows at Center Stage was dwindling and it hosted its final shows early that year, including ones by ‘70s chart-toppers The Ohio Players and Rhode Island-based synth-country band Rubber Rodeo in February.

Center Stage shuttered in the spring of 1982, vanishing almost as quickly as it had appeared on the Ocean State’s musical map. The Living Room remained open for 26 more years, closing in October 2008, and Lupo’s operated for 34 more years under Rich Lupo’s proprietorship; it became part of The Strand Ballroom & Theatre at 79 Washington Street in Providence in 2017.

(by D.S. Monahan)