In all honesty, it’s tough to wholeheartedly recommend going out on New Year’s Eve at all. We love the spirit of the holiday, but paying around $100 a person for a regular night of dancing dressed up with champagne is enough to make anyone feel like a schmuck. It’s a safe bet most of us at DCist will be hitting various house parties to ring in the new year with friends at a more reasonable cost. But if for some reason you’re still looking for a fun place to tear it up on Sunday night, our picks of the less offensive events, with tickets still available, are below. Plus a few other tidbits for the rest of the long weekend — happy new year, everyone!
FRIDAY:
>> Our good friends at Bluestate have been spinning some of the best free dance nights around town for the last two years, but sadly have decided their collective venture has run its course. Say goodbye with them tonight at their farewell bash in Black Cat‘s back room, featuring songs from The Presets, Scissor Sisters, Shiny Toy Guns, Gwen Stefani, The Rapture, that band from Sweden that sounds like New Order, “SexyBack,” The Ramones, MSTRKRFT, Oasis, The Gossip, Billy Idol, Goldfrapp, and of course James Brown ( R.I.P.). Regular DJs Leafblower, Seeking Irony and DCSOB will be joined by special guest Ms. Gl*mrocker. Free as usual, kicking off at 9:30 p.m.
SATURDAY:
>> The Federal Reserve local music collective is throwing a little New Year’s Eve Eve bash at IOTA, featuring regular fixtures Let’s French, Vandaveer, These United States, Kitty Hawk and Mikal Evans, with all the requesit band-cest an evening of this nature implies. 9:30 p.m., $10.
SUNDAY:
>> And away we go. Thank goodness for Warehouse Theater and Arts Complex. Nearly any day of the week, the Ruppert family serves up some of the best, least expensive brain food (as well as literal food and drink) available in the city, be it new plays with political themes, fine gallery shows, oddball literary evenings or spelling bees. You could do a lot worse and not much better to spend your New Year’s Eve with them. Choose from Art Romp 19, a free show featuring 35 local artists exhibiting and performing in the parking lot from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.; the Lobster Boy variety and burlesque show with Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey inside from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. for only $20; or one of two performances of the long-running Son of a Bush, a comedy revue that digs its fingernails in to the current administration with aplomb (8 p.m. and 10 p.m., $30). Consider a combo of two or three of Warehouse’s offerings, and you’re sure to have a memorable, easy-on-the-wallet good time.
>> Not everyone can stomach an entire night of Irish music, but the local boys from Scythian have done an admirable job holding down their raucous Thursday night residency at Fadó for quite some time, so we imagine their special New Year’s Eve Masquerade Ball at the sadly fallow Carnegie Library will deliver the goods. Also featuring indie scenesters Monopoli, jazz outfit yamomamen, and southern country group Christopher Robin Band. It is, however, $119 to enter, which is tough to swallow even with three hours of open bar, four simultaneous stages of entertainment and a seperate dance room. But if you’re looking for big fun with an emphasis on “big”, this is probably your best bet.
>> It’s looking like a good night to head down to H Street NE, as the Englert-owned block is hard at work to celebrate their first New Year’s Eve since many of the new bars opened. We like the tiered ticket system they’ve come up with for the New Year’s Dance Party at the Rock and Roll Hotel. Pay only $30 and buy your own drinks, $50 for open rail drinks and beer until 1 a.m., or go for the full-on $80 VIP pass and have anything you like until 2:30 a.m. Featuring Ris Richards, James F’n Friedman, Tittsworth, People’s Champion, Cale, Ca$$idy, and Stereofaith, the party starts at 8 p.m. and goes all the way until 4.
>> Tickets are still available for George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic, and really, you’re pretty much guaranteed to have a good time with those fools. At DAR Constituion Hall, $76, 10 p.m.
MONDAY:
>> The smoking ban takes effect on Jan. 2, but Black Cat still hasn’t managed to pull off their long-rumored rooftop patio. So to commemorate the last time you’ll be at the Cat without a large pack of smokers standing on the sidewalk for some time to come, head over for their special Smoke Night, from 8 p.m. to midnight, at which time someone yell out: “You don’t have to stop smoking but you can’t keep smoking in here,” and actually believe that it’s funny.
Photo by Lauriebot.
