As far as entertainment factor times go, having Christmas on a Wednesday works very well to get the holiday behind us before the weekend appears, and this year that’s the case. The only problem comes with covering New Year’s Eve in the same issue as that night of all nights pops up next Tuesday. Let’s get to going and see how far we get to go.
The final Friday of 2024 looks a lot like all the rest of them and that’s good news. The weekly Friday Night Jazz & Blues at Boone’s delivers Chris Camp & His Blues Ambassadors while Dan Grover picks it up at Hy-Vee Wahlburgers and John Drake drags a line at Buzz Bomb, just as Joel Honey sweetens the pot at Harvest Market and Dave Littrell flies into The Bird Tavern. Bands go gangbusters with Menace to Sobriety hitting it hard at the Curve Inn, Deja Voodoo doing what they do at Motorheads, me and the band rounding up the gang at George Rank’s, Off the Wall flooring it at Weebles, Blair House painting the town at VFW Post 755 and Embers’ Reverie firing up DFV.
In the special mention category, The Gin Mill hosts a lineup of heavy hitters with SlaughterDog, Doom Buggy and Leach off Society on Friday, plus a blast from the past with Park, The Timmys and NiL8 on Saturday in a wild and wooly weekend happening right there on the corner of Fifth and Monroe streets.
Saturday and Sunday keep the ball rolling along with a whole bunch of cool stuff happening all over the place. Take my word for it (or don’t) and check our listings as we need to move along to New Year’s Eve while there’s still space and time available.
Before we tackle the NYE events, take note that James Armstrong, our resident world-renowned and world-traveled bluesman, brings it home to The Alamo for the Illinois Central Blues Club’s Blue Monday show starting at 7 p.m. James has been hanging round home for parts of ’24, but in ’25 he’s back on the road with his crack band on a trip to Mexico in January, then sailing into blues land and beyond for the remainder of the foreseeable future.
Now exclusively for your 2024 New Year’s Eve entertainment pleasure, take a gander at these spectacles before us. First we have our very own Springfield Area Arts Council-sponsored First Night Springfield celebrating its 38th year with a full schedule of doings (get details when you buy tickets) from noon to 8 p.m. spread out among the Hoogland Center for the Arts, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Dana-Thomas House and Union Square Park.
Look out for action galore with these ticketed events of Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters with Dallas Whitaker at Motorheads, Lick Creek at Boondocks, Hunter Sharp and Miles Station at Rustic Venues in Girard and All American Throwbacks at DFV near New Berlin.
Oddly enough, our bar parties are mostly in nearby small towns with Midwest Revival at Locals in Pawnee, Hippies of the Heartland at Whiskey Ridge in Breckenridge, Branded at the Funky Monkey in Taylorville, Geezer at American Legion Post 279 in Jacksonville, Kruisin’ Marrs at Trails End in Curran, Avery Kern at Buckhart Tavern and Taylor June at Patriots Pub in Waverly, plus Petersburg hosts Positively 5th Street at Hand of Fate while Devin Clemons and Jeff Eskew are at Lucky’s on the Square. The Curve Inn blasts out X-Krush and Weebles brings in the Brandy Kristin Band for in-town NYE fun.
So long to 2024. See you in 2025.
This article appears in Remembering 2024.
