Koo’s returns to Santa Ana

PHOTO by JENNIE WARREN

After five years spent crouching on Broadway below tenants in the Lafayette building, Koo’s Art Center has packed up and returned to Santa Ana, leaving behind in its wake an even emptier East Village—and not a few deflated hopes for what could have been. But our city’s loss is everyone’s gain come Saturday, when Koo’s founder Dennis Lluy restores his all ages vision during soundDowntown at the Yost, a former Mexican movie house and 700-seat vaudeville theater in downtown Santa Ana that’s now Koo’s HQ. Among the 50-plus acts booked for soundDowntown—which Lluy will also produce—are Long Beach bands Blank Blue, Look Daggers, Free Moral Agents and former Fieldingers Two Guns (pictured), playing the Yost at 4 p.m., between sets by fun time rockers the Flying Saucers and one man wonder Free the Robots. The 12 hour event will be split among 10 locations downtown, from Festival Hall (stay put for Mika Miko/the Growlers/Mexican Institute of Sound/Busdriver/Look Daggers beginning at 6 p.m.) and Bistro 400 (Secret Affair DJs at 10 p.m.!) to new It-spot the Crosby (DJ Nobody followed by Shepard Fairey and then From Elsewhere beginning at 9 p.m.) and the Gypsy Den (grab a bottle of wine and the soup of the day with Blank Blue at 5:30 p.m.). And if the sheer concentration of great acts alone (Free Moral Agents at Memphis at 9 p.m., Sparrow Love Crew at Proof Bar at 7 p.m., not to mention Chapman University film school screenings at Rude Guerrilla at 9:30 p.m.) don’t ensure soundDowntown a spot on your schedule, consider it homework: Now more than ever, we need more events like this here in our city, too.

SOUNDDOWNTOWN MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL WITH TWO GUNS, BLANK BLUE, LOOK DAGGERS, FREE MORAL AGENTS AND MORE TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE YOST THEATER | 307 N SPURGEON ST | SANTA ANA 82701 | 714.285.9144 | DOWNTOWNOCFEST.COM | SAT 2PM-2AM | $10-15 | SOME VENUES 21+

Tags: DENNIS LLUY, East Village, koo's, Music, Santa Ana, sounddowntown