The legendary Pittsburgh rock clubs Daisy Jones & the Six didn't feature, but should have

Daisy Jones & The Six – a saga from Amazon Studios that follows the rise of a Fleetwood Mac-inspired music group – starts on two different coasts. Daisy (Riley Keough) grows up in Los Angeles in the 1960s. She spends her youth surrounded by iconic musicians and venues, sneaking into places like the Whiskey a Go Go. The show is like a little time machine back to a legendary moment in L.A.’s storied music history.

Meanwhile, Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin), his brother Graham (Will Harrison), drummer Warren Rojas (Sebastian Chacon), bassist Eddie Roundtree (Josh Whitehouse), and photographer Camila Alvarez (Camila Morrone) get their start in Pittsburgh. But unlike the well-crafted L.A. time warp, we get only a hint of Pittsburgh’s throwback rock ‘n’ roll scene in the first episode.

When the band steps into a dark club, excited to play their first big show, it’s hard to tell at first where they are. But the bright yellow posters lining the walls let the audience know they’re at the Staircase Lounge, which is exactly where they should be.

The Staircase Lounge, formerly located on Liberty Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh, was the place to be for rock music in the late ‘60s. By the time Dolores "Dee" DeMase and her husband Henry Sonny DeMase took over, it had already served as a dinner club and a go-go spot. Patrons would head to the Staircase to see shows from Diamond Reo, The Racket Squad, and Wild Cherry.

“I bragged everywhere I went that Pittsburgh had the best rock 'n' roll scene in the United States, and that someday everyone would know that we were the best bands anywhere," said Norm Nardini, a member of Diamond Reo, in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2001.

In fact, The Jaggerz, who had a hit with “The Rapper,” took up residence at the club every Friday and Saturday night, even turning down gigs at other venues to play there. Pittsburgh had several other iconic venues that didn’t get their time on screen, but they merit a walk down memory lane. What other famous Pittsburgh venues could Daisy Jones have woven into the story? Consider this a righting of historical (and TV) wrongs.

Music lovers in the late 1960s could head to McKees Rocks-based Mancini’s Lounge, about a 10-minute drive from Downtown, to hear local bands that made it big, like The Jaggerz and Sweet Lightning. Outside of Pittsburgh, in Beaver County, you could catch a show from the Granati Brothers at Morry’s Speakeasy.

Then there was The Decade in Oakland, which opened in 1973. At first, owner Dom DiSilvio was skeptical about hosting live shows. Then The Ramones performed there.

Located at the cross of Atwood Street and Sennott Street, it would become known as “the corner of rock ‘n’ roll.” Lines would snake around the outside of the building every weekend, while inside, bands like U2 and Iron City Houserockers played. Like The Jaggerz, Iron City Houserockers had a residency, playing two shows per night every Thursday. The place earned such a reputation as a rock ‘n’ roll venue that big names like Aerosmith and Bruce Springsteen came to perform.

What happened to these places? While the Whiskey, the Troubadour, and Sound City Studios featured in Daisy Jones are still around, all the Pittsburgh venues that thrived in the same era changed or closed entirely. Mancini’s Lounge went on to showcase blues and rock performers in the 1980s. Pat Benetar made appearances at Mancini’s, as well as The Ramones and B.B. King.

However, in 1988, owner Robert Mancini was mysteriously killed from a gunshot wound. The club would later close and transform into Club Erotica in the 1990s.

Morry’s Speakeasy would undergo its own metamorphosis into Arthur’s Lounge in the 1980s, featuring big names like Stevie Ray Vaughn and Muddy Waters. Sadly, the building fell into disrepair in the early 2000s and recently burned down.

Even though the Staircase Lounge was beloved – and was once The New York Times’ pick for “best rock club” in Pittsburgh – it closed in 1979. The space would go on to house the Pegasus Lounge, an LGBTQ+ club that offered a haven to queer folks for nearly 30 years.

With the closing of the Staircase, the center of rock ‘n’ roll moved to Oakland. The Decade was one of three well-known clubs in Oakland in the “Triangle,” along with punk rock venue The Electric Banana, and Graffiti. Then The Decade broke hearts when it closed in 1995. But the memories of these clubs – and the musicians that played there – live forever in the hearts of their fans.

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The final two episodes of Daisy Jones & the Six premiere Thu., March 23 and Fri., March 24 on Amazon Prime.