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New Year’s Eve is a special time when strangers become friends and friends become litigants in lawsuits filed against you the next business day.
Then again, you can choose to spend the holiday in a more easygoing manner.
Some of the possibilities are represented below in our annual New Year’s Eve event roundup.
Piere’s Entertainment Center, 5629 St. Joe Road
There are just some New Year’s Eve celebrants who want to be with throngs of people where they can see the thongs of people.
Piere’s Entertainment Center is just such a place.
For years, it has offered the biggest New Year’s Eve party for miles around.
Venues have tried to top Piere’s and they have always failed. I won’t name any names, not because I am trying to protect anybody, but because those venues have since closed and I have forgotten their names.
Entertainment this year will be provided by 4th Day Echo. Tickets are $27.
The Lucky Moose, 622 E. Dupont Road
Turtle has given way to two-toed ungulate in the new name of this eatery, but its New Year’s Eve offering remains the same.
It’s the New Year’s Eve for Wimps featuring a seafood buffet (although some prime rib might crash the party to no one’s consternation).
The champagne toast happens at 10 p.m. instead of midnight, and you’ll be home in time to be able to brag about having slept through the ball drop to people who will think you dropped the ball.
Club Soda, 235 E. Superior St.
There’s no party per se going on at Club Soda, but the classy nightspot will have the George Ogg Jump Blues Band. What is the George Ogg Jump Blues Band? I am not sure. But I am intrigued by the possibilities.
Ogg is a talented jazz guitarist who has apparently decided to start performing the least-depressing blues genre since Jingle Blues.
To paraphrase “Rate-a-Record” on “American Bandstand,” jump blues has got a beat and you can’t stop yourself from dancing to it.
Duty’s Uptown Bar and Grill, 415 E. Dupont Road
Good Night Gracie knows how much I love it.
I think that love is reciprocated.
Still, I wouldn’t blame the band for filing a restraining order against me for paying them one more compliment in print. So I’ll just say the band is great.
Now I’ve gone and done it.
Good Night Gracie is the featured entertainment at Duty’s New Year’s Eve bash. Cover is $10.
Woodland Lounge, 918 Woodland Plaza Run
Normally, New Year’s Eve is a holiday where money worries take a back seat to fun. But this year, money is more of a back-seat driver.
A back-seat driver that also happens to be your mother-in-law.
If this is an accurate description of your relationship to money these days, then go to the Woodland Lounge, where there is no cover charge, a live DJ and all the amenities you’d expect if you’d been expected to fork over a cover charge.
Dash-In, 814 S. Calhoun St.
New Year’s Eve is a time for celebrating new beginnings.
If you don’t have any of those on hand, however, it’s perfectly acceptable to celebrate old endings.
Dash-In is laid-back enough to accommodate anybody.
The downtown coffeehouse and restaurant is celebrating some new beginnings of its own. It is under new management, and it is offering nightly entertainment for the first time in years.
The Todd Harrold Trio, the most soulful band north of Hoosier National Forest, will perform there on New Year’s, and there will be no cover charge.
Columbia Street West, 135 W. Columbia St.
In some big cities, it costs $200 for you to get into certain New Year’s Eve parties. In other big cities, it costs $200 to get out of certain New Year’s Eve parties (especially if a bookie is involved).
It’s only $10 to get into Columbia Street West’s party, and the ska band Unlikely Alibi is about the likeliest alibi you’d ever need.
4D’s Bar and Grill, 1820 W. Dupont Road
Pink Droyd, Fort Wayne’s premier Pink Floyd tribute band, will perform, and there will be a buffet filled with roast pork, salmon, chicken and roast beef.
One can also order off the regular menu. Admission is $20.
If you are a woman who doesn’t want to be accosted by aging Pink Floyd fans, just order a bunch of appetizers and keep referring to them as “little nibbles.” They hate that.
Hall’s Guesthouse, 1313 W. Washington Center Road
When it comes to celebrating New Year’s, there’s nothing wrong or embarrassing about sitting on the couch, as long as you’ve had the forethought and self-esteem to drag that couch into the hottest dance club.
Of course, there is a middle ground.
And Hall’s has it: a massive buffet and the sophisticated musical stylings of Chris & Paul (with Ray Harris).
One package includes a hotel room stay and a subsequent breakfast buffet ($149). Another is just admission to the party ($20).
Mad Anthony Brewing Co., 2002 S. Broadway
Mad Anthony’s Mad, Mad New Year’s Eve is a private party in a public space.
Get your $30 tickets in advance because walk-ins are discouraged.
After the doors of Mad Anthony close early the evening of Dec. 31, the restaurant becomes a vault so hermetically sealed that not even Geraldo Rivera can harangue it open.
Buckets Sports Pub and Grub, 6282 W. Jefferson Blvd.
Blues rock band G. Money and Fabulous Rhythm Kids are the headliners for this no-cover party.
The word “money” in G. Money’s name does not refer to the full wallet you are expected to bring.
It means, according to the Urban Dictionary, “of unusually high quality; very good; excellent … majestic; imposing … rich; luxurious …”
Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana Masquerade Ball
This annual event begins at 9 p.m. New Year’s Eve. Black ties are optional but masks are required. Prizes will be awarded for the best mask.
It all happens at the Suite Level Lounge at Parkview Field, 1301 Ewing St. Tickets in advance are $35 to the public, $30 to YLNI members and $40 the day of the event.
•Science Central’s annual Countdown to Noon starts at 10 a.m. on New Year’s Eve at 1950 N. Clinton St.
