When Khaled Tabbara and Katianne Timko-Tabbara were at Westside Bowl last year helping Red Wanting Blue shoot video footage for its concert, the couple talked about having their own show there.

Khaled, an Austintown native, and Katianne, who is from Hubbard, is how they’re known when they’re back home in the Mahoning Valley from southern California. In music circles, they’re Khaledzou and K808 of MUNNYCAT, who readers probably have heard of, whether they realize it or not. Its music has been used in commercials for Target, Apple, eBay, Google and many other nationally and internationally known brands. Its songs have been featured in TikTok videos with more than 40 million combined views.

MUNNYCAT also gets regular airplay locally on The Summit, the adult album alternative public radio station that is based in Akron but also heard on WKTL (90.7 FM) in Struthers. So when Program Director Brad Savage invited them to come play at his birthday bash in Youngstown, it was the perfect opportunity — if not the perfect time — to make those Westside Bowl plans a reality.

“We kind of swore up and down to ourselves we wouldn’t step foot in Ohio until the weather was nice,” Timko-Tabbara said. “But then Brad told us it was his birthday, and he asked us if we wanted to come back and play for it, and it was just kind of perfect, because we’ve been manifesting a Westside Bowl show for a while. It’s just such a fun place. I think it’s one of the coolest spots in the country.”

“We were telling a friend about it in L.A., and they were like, ‘Oh, that sounds cool for Ohio,'” Tabbara added. “I’m like, ‘It’s not cool for Ohio. If you dropped this in Brooklyn, it’d be cool. If you dropped it in Tokyo, it’d be cool.'”

MUNNYCAT will be joined by Demos Papadimas and Ohayo on Feb. 22 at Westside Bowl for Brad Savage’s Birthday Bash.

“They are three really strong, well known and well-respected Youngstown acts, so how perfect to do a Youngstown party with those three,” Savage said.

Last year Savage organized a show at Musica in Akron to coincide with his birthday.

This year he wanted to expand it to two events, one in Akron and one in Youngstown, the two primary markets where the radio station is heard.

“I really like Westside Bowl,” Savage said. “I think it’s such a cool set up there for music, but also just all the stuff that’s there. They actually have a good restaurant that people are intending to go to rather than just bowling alley food. And, of course, the record store is great and all the video games, so it should be pretty fun.”

JD Eicher, Megan Bee and Katy Robinson will play the Feb. 21 bash at Akron’s Rialto Theatre. Savage planned to invite Marc Lee Shannon to play one of the two dates. When he was unavailable because he had a Feb. 23 show at Music Box Supper Club in Cleveland already booked, they decided to turn it into a third “bash.”

One reason MUNNYCAT hadn’t booked its own Westside Bowl show is that the duo was waiting until its first vinyl release was available. That project has been delayed because the couple’s creativity extends beyond music, and they’re still trying to make some of the more adventurous packaging ideas they have for the project a reality before committing to a manufacturer.

“We’re really experimenting with a lot of different, fun ideas,” Timko-Tabbara said, and Tabbara quickly jumped in, “It’s not going to be a normal vinyl.”

But they’ve also given themselves a deadline of the end of March to make a decision, so they can get through the manufacturing delays and test pressing steps and still have the record out before 2025 ends.

However, new music is coming later this month. The single “Lift Me Up,” a collaboration with hip hop artist MC LG (Team Genius), will be released Feb. 28 as a fundraiser to support relief efforts following the southern California wildfires.

Tabbara said their home wasn’t in the path of the fires, but they had power outages, scary winds and couldn’t work, so they decided to evacuate to Irvine, Calif. LG had to evacuate her home near the Altadena fire and then had to evacuate where she was staying in Hollywood because of the Pacific Palisades fire.

“Because it was sort of a long road trip, we put our music on shuffle — let the Gods choose for us — and this song we had worked on with LG a while ago but never had a home for it came up, and it was called ‘Lift You Up,'” Timko-Tabbara said. “We just started wailing. It was an emotional week. It was what we needed to hear, and it made us feel better. So we were talking to LG and we were like, ‘I think this is the right time to release this song.'”

All the revenue from streaming “Lift You Up” will go to WalkGood LA, a non-profit organization that has helped thousands with food, water, clothing and shelter during the wildfires. As any musician will tell you, those streams don’t generate a lot of revenue, so MUNNYCAT also is raising money through its social media platforms and Tabbara said he believes they’ll meet their goal of raising $2,500.

Even though MC LG won’t be in Youngstown, MUNNYCAT hopes to include at least a portion of “Lift It Up” in the Westside Bowl setlist and plenty more.

“The good thing about a MUNNYCAT set is that our songs are, like, under three minutes, so we can actually cram a lot of songs in,” Tabbara said. “We’re going to do pretty much anything that people hear on The Summit. We’re going to make sure we prioritize those, because people know those songs. We’re also going to do a couple of covers.”

The show also may include a song by The Zou, the Youngstown band Tabbara fronted for years before moving to California. Unlike MUNNYCAT’s Kent Stage appearance for The Summit’s 330 Day concert, when the couple played solo and relied on Tabbara’s DJ skills for musical accompaniment, MUNNYCAT will have a live band at Westside Bowl, including former Zou members Bob Young on drums and Rob Thorndike on guitar joined by Adam DeAscentis on bass. Bernadette Lim will be part of the “hype posse.” The show will be closer to the vibe of MUNNYCAT’s last Youngstown appearance, when it played an outdoor show for Youngstown State University’s Fall Fire Fest in 2018.

“We’re having a full band to come and reinforce the tracks, and we’re going to have hype girlies and be unhinged, I hope,” Timko-Tabbara said.

While there won’t be new vinyl at this month’s show, Tabbara’s friend Mike Rutushin, who fronts the band Larry Elefante, has created a special MUNNYCAT hot sauce for the show.

“He created a recipe based on his most popular one, but he made it a little more MUNNYCAT-centric, so it’s hotter and it’s filled with edible glitter, bright gold glittery flecks in it. It’s going to be pretty, pretty fun.”

If you go …

WHAT: Brad Savage’s Birthday Bash with MUNNYCAT, Demos Papadimas and Ohayo

WHEN: 8 p.m. Feb. 22

WHERE: Westside Bowl, 2617 Mahoning Ave., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: $12 in advance through Eventbrite and $15 at the door day of show.