Koo’s to Celebrate With Fund-Raiser

The founder of Koo’s Art Cafe hopes this weekend’s celebration of its fifth anniversary will kick off a new era for the nonprofit, youth-oriented music and arts venue in downtown Santa Ana.

On Saturday, Koo’s is throwing its first major fund-raising event--not at its headquarters, an old wooden building at 1505 N. Main St. where musicians play on the floor in a front parlor, but at the Discovery Museum of Orange County.

Koo’s Fifth Anniversary Revelry will feature a vegetarian dinner, presentations about Koo’s history and programs, a performance by the Koo’s-based break-dance group, the 17th Parallel, and a concert by local rockers Smile, singer-songwriter Lysa Flores and hip-hop act Zaire Black.

Founder-director Dennis Lluy said the event, with a suggested donation of $25 a ticket, will be a departure from the benefit rock shows Koo’s has staged in its own building to help balance its shoestring budget.

Lluy said Koo’s has invited prospective arts patrons and business sponsors, hoping they will back the cafe’s concept of reaching teenagers through music, then exposing them to a wider range of arts, including dance, poetry and drama.

Among other things, funds raised would be used for the kind of eclectic musical programming Lluy has long wanted to offer. Until now, the cafe has relied mainly on the most popular forms, ska, punk and alternative rock, to draw crowds that will help pay the bills. A solid base of donors and sponsors would let Koo’s be more experimental, branching out with world music, singer-songwriters and acts that mix genres, taking cues from Beck and Ozomatli.

“I’d like to get more traditional sounds” at the cafe, Lluy said. “Up-and-coming youth could use them as a palette to create new music. I’d like to participate in the next evolution of music, and Koo’s would be perfect because of its intimate environment.”

* Koo’s Art Cafe’s Fifth Anniversary Revelry is Saturday at the Discovery Museum of Orange County, 3101 W. Harvard St., Santa Ana. 5 p.m. $25 suggested donation. (714) 612-7513.