CITYWATCH The demise of the Safari Lounge BY IAN DONNIS

In another blow to the Providence music scene, the Safari Lounge — the beloved Eddy Street dive that has offered a welcoming home to local musicians for 17 years — is closing after a dispute between impresario Jimmy Ilarraza and landlord Stanley Weiss. Coming after the shuttering of the Call and the end of original live music at the Green Room, the situation leaves AS220 and the Living Room as the only established venues featuring local musicians on a frequent basis.

Kevin Ryan, a longtime local music aficionado who explored the possibility of buying the club, says, "It’s terrible. The Safari Lounge has been sort of a pagan temple to the local music scene, and we need that. It’s a little chaotic, it’s a little unscheduled, and it’s not overly uncontrolled. You can’t have an overly controlled rock ’n’ roll club, or else it’s dry and sterile. Providence used to rock. And it used to have many venues — many forums for bands to play in, and for people to watch them in — and it’s drying up."

Although Providence went through a similar withering of the club scene when earlier incarnations of Lupo’s and the Living Room, as well as the Met, closed in the latter ’80s, the forces driving this situation — including the soaring amount of development near downtown, and the heightened scrutiny facing underground venues in the aftermath of 2003’s Station fire disaster — don’t augur well for a broad resurgence. (That said, AS220 is exploring hosting "low impact" music in a small basement room in its new space in the Dreyfus Hotel building, says artistic director Bert Crenca, and artist Nick Bauta is transforming the Firehouse, a property he owns off Broad Street, into a music venue.)

In 2000, the Safari came close to closing after a rent dispute between landlord Weiss and tenants Jimmy and Cathy Ilarraza. The club has operated without a lease since then, leaving its future uncertain. Jimmy Ilarraza, a colorful, tattoo-flecked 60-something who has warmly presided over the Safari, blames the current situation on a disagreement over repaying Weiss about $9000 in sewer fees for the club. When they were unable to agree on a payment plan — a move that Ilarraza attributes to Weiss’s purported interest in selling the building — he delayed paying rent and was told to vacate the premises. (Weiss, who owns the nearby Hotel Providence, among other downtown property, did not return a call seeking comment.)

Lightning Bolt headlined what was billed as the Safari’s final show on Sunday, although Ilarraza, a Warwick resident, didn’t rule out the possibility of hosting more music before the club’s scheduled closing on Monday, September 19. "I’m leaving," he says. "I’m tired. I’m not going to win this thing." Although his wife owns the liquor license for the Safari, he adds, "I have no plans. I don’t know what to do."

The Safari’s closing represents the end of an era — a local counterpoint to the eviction being faced by New York’s similarly grungy CBGB. Ilarraza seems most concerned about his youthful customers. "There’s nowhere for these kids to play," he says. "What are they going to do?"