Friday, May 2, 2008

UPDATED WITH VIDEO: The Zou kicks off Fridays in Youngstown

By Sarah Poulton

YOUNGSTOWN — Thursday night, Khaled Tabbara of The Zou didn’t know how people were going to react to the stunt they pulled Friday on Federal Plaza.

At about 1 p.m., after being delayed an hour because of rain, The Zou plugged in their equipment on Central Square near the police memorial, and played a short-set, guerilla-style.

Collectively, the band says they had a great time and thought they had a positive turnout. With the exception of an angry man yelling after the show because The Zou put the Palestinian flag on the flagpole, they were well-received by passers-by. The flagpole was vacant when The Zou arrived and they hoisted the flag in honor of a band member who's of Middle Eastern descent.

“This was like the best show I’ve ever played in Youngstown,” guitarist Rob Thorndike says. “This is a sweet town. I love playing music. This constantly needs to happen.”

Tabbara says they’ve been talking about doing something like this for a while, but it was Phil Kidd, downtown’s special events director, who got the ball rolling.

“There’s all kinds of wonderful stuff,” Tabbara says. “The idea isn’t to promote a band... The idea is to get people who are downtown to stay downtown.”

Kidd says this will be a weekly event, with different bands each week.

“The city’s on board,” Kidd says. “Hopefully, this will encourage more people, artists, to come in and do their own thing.”

Kidd says they plan to do this 20 Fridays throughout the summer, weather permitting. He says this was only the beginning of many “quality of life” things happening in Youngstown.”

“The turnout was very strong for being a random, unpublicized event,” Kidd says. “Get ready for more to come.”