Disco 2000 Finds Fast Shelter at Roxbury South

Promoter Gary Blitz didn’t miss a beat. His weekly, 3 1/2-year-old Disco 2000 operation rose from the ashes of Costa Mesa’s recently defunct Empire Ballroom to reappear at Roxbury South in Santa Ana on Thursday nights.

It features five DJs (its full roster from the Empire days except for Sean Perry, who moved to Germany) spinning three styles of dance music. Roxbury manager Greg Mandel said landing Disco 2000 was a stroke of luck.

“I know that Roxbury had been pursuing [Blitz] for at least a year. The close of the Empire Ballroom made us a logical choice.”

Roxbury’s large capacity obviously was a selling point. Also adding to the site’s appeal, the dining room is being remodeled and will serve food again beginning in March. Disco 2000 recently drew almost 700 people, apparently laying to rest any doubt that patrons would mistakenly attend the Thunderbird Lounge’s new Thursday night attraction--called Disco 2001. Coincidence?

*

Looking to check out the bands playing live before you spend the money to hear them? Try the Lava Room’s new on-line site. To access the free LIVE AT THE LAVA ROOM pages on America Online, enter keyword: SurfLink, then click onto the Lava Room listing in the corner.

Fridays at 9 p.m., you can get a sample of the music and chat live with band members performing that night. You can also talk with prominent skiers, snowboarders and skateboarders. In addition, users can access AVI graphic files featuring all of the above, and plans are in the works let you upload your own images into the site.

Lava Room owner Bryce Osborne says he is excited about the possibilities the new technology affords, especially given the overwhelming response to the site thus far.

“Since the Lava Room clientele is already so into these topics,” he says, “we knew that [SurfLink] was a perfect fit.”

America Online has expanded the site’s memory-space allotment to deal with the demand. On band nights when the pages are on “Center Stage,” they can be accessed by 5,000 users at a time. For those who want to check out the pages at other times, the service, sans talk, is available 24 hours.

*

* LIVE AT THE LAVA ROOM is on America Online at SurfLink@aol.com.

* DISCO 2000 at ROXBURY SOUTH

* 2 Hutton Center Drive, Santa Ana.

* Disco 2000 infoline: (714) 571-5168. Roxbury South: (714) 662-0880.

* Thursdays 9 p.m.-2 a.m.

* $5 cover. $3 valet parking. Visa, American Express, MasterCard accepted.