Contact us
Back to All Posts

Dance (And Sing) To The Music, whatever that may be, and toast it. There are diverse options for NYE, and this is not their first rodeo, so to speak. You also can top it off with a birthday-holiday themed darts tourney, and the toppings of a pizza party, with a midnight start, of course.

Sometimes if you “do it” long enough you “do it” well. Like a rock band. KISS comes to mind, as well as lots of danceable stuff.
So for New Year’s Eve: Got there. Done that. Here’s the tried and true, for a decade or two, then some relative newcomers who could do worse then to emulate them:
— By sheer standards of people dancing, to unabashedly dance tunes, over years of consistency, you go to the Smilin’ Moose. They are adding a second ringing in of 2022, at 3 a.m. to keep it rolling forward, as they like so many Hudson area clubs are staying open until 4 a.m. This isn’t your Daddy’s New Year’s at the old Dibbo’s, where they would never shut down until … If? When? Brunch and far beyond.
— Dick’s might usher you out a bit earlier, using an often hastily called last call, but that is OK because their music is again, Starting Back At 4 p.m., led by the latest duo fronted by gentleman Josh. Later, the tunes take on a creative often-mixed-song DJ sound. A good dozen hours of tune based enjoyment.
— The Bungalow Inn in Lakeland digs even deeper into their vault of history with another show by Gary LaRue, enabling a waltz-size dance floor to be filled. A great list of wines is there, as always. Like Dick’s, there are food specials too, so you may still need to make reservations.
— The Gas Lite in Ellsworth has all such things, so it might be worth it to go south of my home-base border town to live it up. They’ve also had your back by keeping the latest hours possible all through the holidays and come the Eight O’Clock Hour on NYE, there’s the holiday rarity of a rock band, Coconut Tiger, and theirs with a touch of glam. It is also billed as Alicia’s birthday, so there are two things to wish her, so stop in. And while there, try out the special holiday dart tournament. Prizes for more than only Alicia.
— T-Buckets near Somerset has entered into the fray in a big way with what they play — as this newer club starts the eve early with karaoke (with DJ) — which though only a few years into existence has made its mark. And with the frequent girth of their prizes too, as a bonafide contest rides on into January/February. With price of champagne going up world-over due to short supplies, and that long NYE tradition being put on the back-burner by some venues, what is cooler as an option to ring in the New Year then with a pizza party, (of course at midnight, and I bet the chef is going to really be hopping to it come 11:40 p.m.)

But for the sheer length of such contests, at more than half a year, The Nutty Squirrel in River Falls is the One. One. Like the Metallica song, which you just might hear. Every Wednesday night there has been a series of prizes starting at $50 for first place, and then you go back at the end of every month for a shot at $300, and the grand finale is tonight and you won’t want to miss it because the anointed one will earn $1,200! You do have to have qualified on one of those earlier Wednesdays to go for the big money. So take a Shot In The Dark, via Ozzy, because here is an inside tip: In the past the sound system has been loud enough to overpower a mere mortal singer, but if you have the vocal chops as far as your own volume and can rise above it … Four figures can await.

Share the Post:

Related Posts

  • Full metal jacket? Hey, I wasn’t exactly to the point of going Rob Halford. But tastes aside, there must be some reason why after 26 years I was shunned, like going Bob Daisley by Ozzy at his reunion? OK, I know, my style may not have fit with the packed crowd. And the last couple of times for this, I tried to do too much with ad-libbing. So yeah, I get that this time around, I was the somewhat unusual choice to be the one left off the set list, with singers clamoring to get up there. But seriously, just being analytical of strengths and weaknesses as a singer here, no hard feelings. I’m not Dio. (Or Traveling Wilburys, a when jumping inside, inside joke.)
It was clear to me at the most recent Jeff Loven music show in Hudson, for Memorial Day weekend, that there has been a changing of the guard. The sword has been passed. New blood, like Yungblud, has been brought in. And, I must say, loyalty — amongst the devotees who travel frequently and all across the two-state area to virtually all of Jeff’s shows — has been rewarded. They are the royalty, in what just makes good business sense that I can appreciate. In a significant but not unprecedented altering of course, I was not one of those asked...
Read More
  • Songs by Napalm Death? A fire swept down my very street today, where the babies were burned. (But alas, a new A/C unit is on its way up the freeway.) The Stones did not leave these themes unturned, either, or should I say unrolled. Oh wait, this all was my cooker of an apartment, and we are not talking the kitchen. But all these matters will become more pressing, a pressure point, as the new normal especially in southern climes is temp well into the triple digits. It is these people, the third world, and their heat stroke not mine, that most concern me. (Another example of hellfire temps just added. Sin after Sin.)
Trial by fire. My broiling heart in my efficiency flat still beats a bit, in concern over those boiling over in worse apartments in a Chicago tenancy, or on an ocean island instantly-burn-your-feet beach or dessert, or forced to endure ice baths just to keep cool — or simply be offered no way to maintain an ice-dripping body other than also read a non-cookbook at the library, or select not a big steak you can’t afford but a 73/27 burger from a freezer and slap it on your forehead. Just not too hard. All these things are ones where you especially today either burn or...
Read More
  • I had a dream … And out of it (re)sprouted an ancient spring fertility rite to save the world, or at least my apartment building, or at least my second story window, from a giant lizard peering in, out at T-Rex days of yore. This ritual requires copious amounts of consumption and goes from there to hobbits and lords who are not yet a-leaping, for reasons to be retold in this fanciful, twisted tale (of fiction?) Just watch the use of Why! The letter, that is. And try to catch on to the inside jokes. (Psst. Another tale inside. Or two.)
This is a truly awfuI, twisted tale of villains and heroes, powerful ale if used carefully, giant beasties and smaller hobbyts, but also renewal and redemption. I will ascrybe to an ancient rytual, back to when the tyme gyant lyzyrds peered into second story wyndows of apartment byldings and no amount of walls could keep them out of such urban non-placated places, save this practice that annually, about this tyme of three-day holiday, would save humanity for another year.  So in this spryng fertility ryte, go consume copious quantities of hunhy grhym cr’krz and jinjer biyr, deprived of its alcohol as worshippers need to be sober-headed...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– A full list of the trios of triumph. The power of threes. A full dozen of these triads, oh make that 13 as we linger, that you will see listed as shopping promptings in three long blocks of store windows of downtown Hudson. Three’s company? Get it? Third time’s the charm. And this is a truism, the words, some of them three letters, chosen to depict their offerings show the diversity of, dare I say it, a Super WalMart.
Here goes the ultimate list of lingo, even if it languishes, in no particular long order, as we go at length into the different kinds of businesses you will find in this locale, starting the list and at its last, two of the many art galleries in our downtown: — Feminist power, love and generosity, and to double your fun, framing, art tchotchkes and earrings, all at the biggest little art and collectables gallery you will see mid-block. — Community, commerce and tourism, touted at the Hudson Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau, in a blatant suck up to...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– To skate or not to skate? Not on most Hudson streets and sidewalks, you don’t. Even though most users I’ve encountered have been courteous and safe — saying ‘on right’ as they go by on a fairly busy sidewalk, and not just barely edging past you — the city council in essance banned the usage last fall. I think this goes too far in what amounts to dare I say it, big brother-type stringency. I prefer a more ‘urban’ style ambiance, with a Twin Cities type of bustle. (For what of that is to be found, come Friday, ‘jump’ inside. That post now updated, for more weekend options.) I now start with a joke.
As far as, for starters, the old announcement, “passing on the right,” this was said to me just now by a beautifully tanked woman in a bikini, owning the downtown sidewalk. She was slightly gasping and moaning as she almost carressed my side going by. I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to read anything into that … Spring has past sprung, we’ve finally had some really hotter weather, and a young man’s heart turns to thoughts of … e-cycling and skateboarders going past. In the last couple of weeks, you can see them again all around our sidewalks and byways, busy and not...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– Shoes and shirt are welcome, to be purchased along with other keepsakes at a new shop or worn in. At least soon while dining at new downtown Hudson eating opps. You don’t need an app, read on, as doors are flipped open … There are still other options and opportunities, after the Wild opted out as flipping goalies, with Filip, only worked for so long. (Not so big shoes to fill. Just flip-flops. See below and under The Headliner for posts on such sports bar shenanigans.) So for now, in a new post, we Rally In The Valley, with eight bands.
A door on the side of a downtown conglomerate of stores, the front not back door, has a sign telling delivery drivers to deposit items in back — but the sign is flipped upside down since the tape slipped. A blipped language I don’t speak. But that’s not the only thing that’s flipped in the downtown. Lots of stores are either open as we speak, or will be soon. We’re talking still in May, maybe, and mostly earlier than later. While we wait with baited breath for the full opening of Max’s Social House. And a pub or another hub...
Read More
Scroll to Top