(New Year’s Eve) Welcome a brand-new year in true Montreal style: the Montreal Buzz Guide to New Year’s Eve in Montreal offers an array of ideas, from five-course meals to pub crawls, family-friendly outings in the Old Port to champagne-fuelled comedy shows, jazz clubs to multi-room parties, and all kinds of late-night dancing. New Year’s Eve in Montreal is a party no matter what your idea of a party is.

(festive food) Montreal has become a destination for feasting on gourmet comfort food, especially for meat eaters, from pork belly to tourtière. The SAT Foodlab throws an end-of-the-world, prix-fixe dinner, Souper Apocalyptique, on December 21. And then there’s the Christmas Day tradition, mostly among people who don’t celebrate Christmas but also among people who just want to eat a lot of good food, of going for a huge Chinese lunch or dinner: lots of duck, hot soup, fried seafood, dumplings and house specialties. Follow it up with sweetness: chocolates, truffles, freshly baked bread, croissants and more, all made in Montreal.

(last-minute shopping) Get one-of-a-kind gifts at the biggest craft and artisinal fair in Canada, Salon des métiers d’art, where over 400 Quebec artists and artisans set up booths full of professionally handmade clothing, toys, home decor, food and much more – at Place Bonaventure only until December 22. Our Holiday Gift Guide is also full of Montreal-made ideas and suggestions for stores to shop for everyone on your list. Of course, picking up a little something for yourself couldn’t hurt, right? Peruse the guides for fashion-forward women and men before hitting the shops.

(super-entertainment on stage) Let Cirque du Soleil’s Saltimbanco blow your mind with gasp-worthy acrobatics, genuinely funny clowning, and feats of strength and stamina, all in one bright, colourful, musical show. What makes this run super special is that it’s the last time Santimbanco – see it until December 30 at the Bell Centre. Also in circus happenings, Cirque Alphonse’s Timber! turns Montreal circus centre Tohu into in a Christmas-y forest populated by lumberjack acrobats, clowns and laughs, on until December 31. And the traditional, balletic holiday fare Les Grands Ballets’ The Nutcracker continues to December 30 at Place des Arts.

(outdoor fun) Even in winter, Montrealers spend time outdoors, burning off steam (and calories) with winter sports or just walking through the city – there’s plenty to see, and this time of year much of it is illuminated. On Saturday night at 8 p.m. and on New Year’s Eve at midnight, the Telus Fire on Ice fireworks explode over the picturesque Old Port, also home to a huge outdoor skating rink. Families will also want to check out Noël sur l’avenue along Mont Royal Avenue east of Mont Royal Park, and the further-east Olympic Park Winter Village, where from December 22-24 and again December 27-31, kids and adults alike can go ice skating and sledding, hang out with Rudolph and the other reindeer, sing Christmas songs and more – there are even fireworks on December 31.

(music nights) In the holiday tradition: hear the Notre-Dame Basilica organ in action on December 23-24 and 28-31 at 2 p.m., join the Arte Musica choral concert Let’s Sing Christmas! at the Montreal Fine Arts Museum on December 28-29, 2 p.m., and listen to choirs at the Montreal Botanic Gardens greenhouse on the afternoons of December 22-23. Less traditional: Party with the locals at the Third Annual Passovah Holiday Special on December 21 at Casa del Popolo, with bands, DJs and good, good people. The Objet Inusité International Summit on Audio Art is on at Eastern Bloc on December 21, with installations during the day and performances at 8 p.m., culminating December 22 with a bang at Sala Rossa with arty, fun music from Valleys, UN, Agor, Orkestar Kriminal ad DJ Matteo Grondini. On December 22, Indie Montréal throws a fab fundraiser Christmas Party at Divan Orange with David Martel , Ainsley McNeaney and Motel Raphaël. And fans of Alexisonfire either already have a ticket to their sold out shows or will be outside at Metropolis December 22 and 23 trying their luck getting one. And long-time UK punk band Snuff make it to Foufounes on December 30.

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Maison Publique: Chef Derek Dammann announced on Twitter that he’d be taking reservations (he usually doesn’t) at his brand new Maison Publique for NYE only. But even when pressed, Dammann wouldn’t reveal the secrets of the special one-night-only menu. We can only hope it might contain something like the Dungeness Crab trifle (pictured above) that he’s been serving us at his place.

XO: XO in the Hotel St-James is one of Montreal’s top-rated restaurants. The refined atmosphere of their dining room is sure to rarify the occasion. This year’s menu features oysters, seared venison, a lobster and guinea fowl “surf and turf”, and a mushroom tart with chestnuts and white truffles from Alba, all washed down with a coupe of champagne, of course.

Aix Cuisine de Terroir: In one of Montreal’s most picturesque hotels, the Place d’Armes in Old Montreal, ACdT is trying something a little gimmicky and festive this year – a tasting menu themed on the roaring ‘20s and “prohibition” (which Montreal never had, which is why it was so much fun for us). A five-course tasting menu lets you choose from seared scallops and Jerusalem artichokes, duck breast with truffle-braised lentils, and several other decadent items.

Nora Gray: This new entry into the pantheon of Montreal’s best was just recognized by the country’s go-to list of new restaurants, in enRoute Magazine. What do Ryan Gray and Emma Cardarelli have up their sleeve for their first NYE menu? Only the lucky few who nab a table for the special night will know, the menu isn’t posted anywhere (it never is), though sometimes secrets leak through on Twitter.

Le Club Chasse et Pêche: This is one of the hardest-to-nab tables in the city on this special night, since the Chasse et PêcheNYE service has become legendary. The menu always “remains discreet”, in the words of the their front-of-house man, because it is based on hard-to-find ingredients that are subject to change at the last minute.

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Make your way to Chinatown and hit up Mon Nan on Rue de la Gauchetière. They do an awesome traditional three-course roasted Peking duck. Starting with a soup made with the duck bones, it’s aromatic and warm. With pillows of tofu and silky strands of noodles, this dish is preceded with a duck meat stir-fry with bean sprouts and scallions.

This ritualistic “dish” is concluded with a plate of teeth-shattering roasted duck skin, served with piping hot and freshly made Chinese pancakes, a side of pickled carrots and daikon, and shredded scallions and cucumber. This is wrapped up and eaten with like a taco with a schmear of hoisin… a “Chaco”. Open on Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Looking for a hot bowl of something to warm your bones and sooth the soul? Head up to Restaurant Phouc Ky in Villeray for their specialty Phouc Ky noodle. A mix of yellow wheat udon noodles and rice vermicelli noodles in a rich pork bone broth is armed and ready to curse the weather away. Topped with ground pork, slices of fish cake and fried shallots, the pièce de résistance is a fried shrimp chip. Open on Christmas and New Year’s Day.

La Maison Foo Lam on L’acadie is the place you want to go for fresh seafood. This spot features live tanks of sea creatures that you can name before you watch the chef catch them and throw them in a screaming hot wok.

Two must-orders are the ginger and scallion fried lobster and salt and spicy pepper fried shrimp. The smokey kiss of the wok is distinct in every piece of crustacean on either dish. The savory lobster that’s spiced with ginger and aromatic with green onion and the spicy shrimp is fried to a crusty perfection – the shell is edible for the adventurous. Either dish are ones that deserve to be washed down with an icy bottle of Tsingtao. Open Christmas and New Year’s Day.

If dumplings is what you’re after, Qing Hua Dumplings has you covered. Offering awesome little bundles of soup dumplings of a variety of fillings made fresh to order, Qing Hua has two locations to help you get your fix. The lamb and coriander dumplings are a personal favourite; fill your bowl partway with vinegar and place the dumpling in and let it cool. Resist the urge to bite into it right away, as the dumpling will challenge you by squirting its contents all over you. Nibble a little hole and suck the soup out, and let nature lead you the rest of the way. Open New Year’s Day at both locations.

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THE DETAILS

Restaurant Mon Nan, 43 Rue de la Gauchetière East, (514) 866-7123

Restaurant Phouc Ky, 7495 St-Denis, (514) 278-8288

Restaurant Maison Foo Lam, 9394 Boulevard de l’Acadie, (514) 383-7878

Qing Hua, 1676 Avenue Lincoln (438) 288-5366 &  1019 St-Laurent Boulevard & (514) 903-9887

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It goes without saying that all events take place Monday, December 31, 2012. Consider arriving before midnight so you don’t ring in 2013 sitting in a taxi or metro.

ODYSSEY 2013 is definitely one of the main events in Montreal’s Gay Village. Taking place at the famed after-hours club Circus, the party will continue until many hours into 2013. An impressive lineup in both the Trance Room and House Room include Orjan Nilsen, Leon Bolier, Jay Lumen and Koen Groeneveld. Tickets are $60 in pre-sale available here, or $85 at the door.

Royal Ball @ Royal Phoenix: Royal Phoenix in the Mile End was just voted as the Sexiest Gay Bar on the planet by NewNowNext Traveler’s Choice Awards! In an astonishing coincidence (not) Royal Phoenix will be hosting the sexiest New Year’s Eve party in Montreal! The Royal Ball is $10 in advance, $15 at the door, and there’s an optional $50 open bar from 9 – 10 PM. Everyone will get free champagne at midnight, and a massive crowd of LGBT folk to smooch. The night will be hosted by MTL Clubkids Sally & Tyler along with Montreal Roller Derby’s SmackDaddy and Royal Phoenix owner Val Desjardins.

Unity 2013: Tickets are already on sale and going fast for Unity’s annual New Year’s Eve bash. They’re $15 in advance and include free rapid coat check! Richard B will be spinning on the main dance floor with Stally at the Bamboo Bar. The midnight countdown at Unity is always a spectacular show complete with gogo-dancers, drag queens, and lots of making out.

Carnavalesque: In the depths of Bain Mathieu, you’ll find the most tantalizing NYE Party in Montreal. Put on by the infamous Cirque du Boudoir, the 2013 theme is New Orleans / Mardi Gras! So dust of those old beads you know you have somewhere and get caught up in the decadent fun. General tickets are $60 before December 27 and $80 at the door. VIP tickets are $85 until December 27 and $120 at the door. Both are available online.

Velvet Speakeasy: L’Auberge Saint Gabriel and Velvet Speakeasy present “La Second Avant Minuit” which translates to “The Second Before Midnight.” Deep minimal techno in the Velvet Speakeasy, House and Old School music in the Lounge, and a live Jazz /Soul band in the restaurant.

Note: This article will be updated as more events are scheduled! Check back closer to NYE!

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We’ll begin with one of the epicenters of New Year’s Eve partying in Montreal: the Sir Winston Churchill Pub Complex, which is comprised of three popular spots on bar-and-nightclub-clustered Crescent Street. For their part, Winnies Bar will ring in the New Year with the help of singing DJ Sandy Duperval spinning house – advance tickets are available for only 20 bills and include champagne.

The adjoining Karina’s Club Lounge and piano bar steps things up a notch, offering a five-course meal accompanied by a live piano and a dance party hosted by DJ Tag. Their $79.95 ticket also comes with a glass of champagne at midnight. And in the Sir Winston Churchill Pub proper they’re promising the “ultimate” NYE courtesy of DJ Jeff Lauzon, who will be spinning Top 40 club hits, old school R&B and house. For a limited time only tickets are $20 and include, of course, champagne.

Are your end-of-year appetites hungering for lively jazz and blues and an equally exciting menu? If you decide on the perennially classy Upstairs Jazz Bar and Grill, you’ll be picking a winner that makes a regular habit of picking its own winners. To wit, Upstairs has again this year invited Dawn Tyler Watson, a six-time consecutive winner of the Quebec Lys Blues Award for Best Female Artist to provide the sultry soundtrack for your good time. And while Watson takes care of your cerebral needs, the Upstairs grill will gratify gastronomic imperatives with a three-course meal that is included in the $134.95 ticket price. It all gets cookin’ at 8 pm.

Not to be outdone, Montreal’s House of Jazz dinner club (formerly the storied Biddle’s, a mainstay for many top-shelf Montreal jazz players of yore) is offering a five-course spread, with dinner followed by dancing courtesy of the Carolyn Fe Blues Collective featuring special guests Graham Chambers and Daniel Prévost. This soulful soirée goes for $114.95.

If you fancy a pub crawl, popular Crescent Street brew pub Brutopia will be celebrating the passing of 2012 with Montreal five-piece Kebeko who, in the band’s own words, “well-illustrate the cultural diversity of Montreal with a mix of rock, world music, Quebecois folk and a lot of groove.” The $10 admission includes party favours and a burst of the bubbly at midnight. MTL’s self-proclaimed oldest Irish pub, The Old Dublin is no stranger to a party, and on Dec. 31 will play host to old-school rock’n’roll outfit Flashback. It’s all covers, but without the cover charge. And the Irish Embassy Pub and Grill is, oddly but engagingly, offering a Mardi-Gras themed New Year’s party with live music courtesy of The Jack.

Speaking of Mardi Gras, as well as odd and engaging, Cirque de Boudoir – who specialize in unique thematic events that cater to the senses, mixing and matching elements of circus, burlesque, electronic dance music and fetishism – bring a New Orleans theme to their Carnavalesque 2013 New Year’s brain burner, which takes place at Bain Mathieu, an old public pool converted into a multipurpose arts and party place. Tickets are $60 (free drinks until midnight) and $85 (for open bar all night). Things get wonderfully weird beginning at 9 pm.

Montreal’s two principle comedy clubs – Comedyworks and The Comedy Nest – have got the funny for your money on New Year’s Eve. The Comedy Nest features The Late Show veteran Jeff Caldwell in their special New Year’s show (“which always sells out”), which boasts special comedic guests, party favours, a champagne toast at midnight, a light buffet and goes for $49.50 and gets underway at 10 pm. For their part, Comedyworks has two shows featuring much-loved Montreal comic Mike Paterson (who captains weekly stand-up nights on every Tuesday) at the helm of a cast of some of Montreal’s best hilarity-makers. Each show is a $20 ticket, and following the second show the party will move downstairs to Jimbo’s pub where there will be DJs and dancing and carefree carousing.

If serious is more to your taste, as in serious partying, then many of Montreal’s premiere dance clubs are stepping to the fore once again. As would be expected, Circus Afterhours is going big with an international lineup of top-tier DJs, including Orjan Nilsen, Leon Bolier, Jay Lumen, Koen Groeneveld and Uppercut. Tickets are $60 in advance and $85 at the door, which opens at 10 pm. Arena Rendez-Vous NYE 2013 (located in the former Montreal Forum) plans to let the genies out of the bottles a bit earlier, with open bar from 8-11 pm, followed by a “huge” balloon drop, party favours and a live countdown from Times Square on the big screens, all for only $30. And finally, rising U.K. dirty house and soulful techno DJ Nicole Moudaber returns to Stereo to anchor their NYE dance floor.

While the term “high” certainly has relative applications as it relates to clubland, when it comes to Altitude Club 737, atop Montreal’s distinctive 47-storey Place Ville Marie building, high is simply about location, location, location. And sadly for fans of the sky-based bar, this NYE party begins the countdown to the end of the club which, after 18 years, officially closes on Jan. 1 following the expiration of their lease. Starting at $55 a ticket, all attendees can avail themselves of VIP treatment from 8-11 pm, and arguably the best view in town all night, for one last night.

Sister venues Casa del Popolo and Sala Rossa – located directly opposite one another on Saint-Laurent – provide affordable New Year’s support of first resort for the city’s indie scenesters again this year. At Casa, DJs Mark Slutsky and Raf K bring their no-pressure cooker back to both rooms for their annual spectacular. Across the street, perpetual-motion hip-hop/funk/soul/jazz collective The Goods – conceived a decade ago by DJs Scott C and Andy Williams – will put dance in the pants of all comers commencing at 10 pm.

And for those who like to put their hair up, two legendary punk bands from both near and afar will be moshing in the New Year in Montreal. Indefatigable L.A. skate punksNOFX, who celebrated their 30^th (!) anniversary in 2013, will play a “New Year’s Heave” show at the Olympia Theater with similarly awesomely elderly Brit punks Snuff, The Creepshow and The BCASA. Local punk scene legends Ripcordz continue with a tradition of their own making in the form of the Ripcordz Annual Punk New Years Eve featuring special guests Ab Irato, Sale Gauloise, Talk Sick and Bastard 86 at Café Chaos. Get in the holiday spirit of things by wearing your best and brightest Christmas tree studs. Tix are only 10 bones, and the show blows off the doors starting at 9 pm sharp.

They call themselves Montreal’s “best open bar party,” and for the past 14 years they’ve certainly been a contender for that title. Featuring 10 bars arrayed around Club Soda in the Quartier des Spectacles, the annual Fluid party offers a “leave your wallet at home” policy, meaning that in addition to all drinks, even tips are covered with your entry fee, which ranges according to how much attention you need: tickets start at $84.99 (entry, coat check and tips covered) and go up to a whopping $1,999.99 (a 10-person package that includes full bottle service, champagne all night, and a promise of absolution from whatever higher power you observe). Dance music will be provided by DJ Yo-C, David A and more. Lift-off at 9 pm.

Also competing for best open bar party is New Year’s XS Celebration. And if size matters, New Year’s XS may have the edge at an anticipated 6,000 partygoers filling what remains of the old Montreal Forum. Billing themselves as the “biggest all-inclusive party in Montreal history,” New Year’s XS features 12 international DJs spinning R&B, house, hip-hop, Top 40 and more in five themed rooms, 50 bartenders, midnight champagne, circus performers, body painters, a laser show and a “super-secret countdown surprise.” A one-way ticket to crazytown is $79, or $159 for a ticket and hotel.
And last but definitely not least, the Grand Bal in Montreal’s historic Old Port is one of the most-anticipated highlights of the holiday season. The Bal’s now expanded form includes numerous activities, but the main event (which is free to attend) on New Year’s Eve itself has youthful pop-rock-reggae outfit Raffy warming up the crowd in the central Place Jacques-Cartier from 10 pm until 11:59 pm, at which time the annual countdown will take place. At midnight the Telus “Fire on Ice” musical fireworks display will boom in the New Year, kicking of an outdoor dance party that will go until 2 a.m. If your outdoor winter activities don’t include the shaking of the booty, the Quays Skating Rink, with its own DJ, will stay open until 1 am on this special evening.

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All of the aforementioned New Year’s parties merely scratch the surface of everything that happens in a city that takes its celebrations seriously. So please, if you know of an event that didn’t get a mention here, please post all the pertinent details below in the comments section.

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Royal Phoenix: Montreal’s hottest new queer bar Royal Phoenix is going all out for their first New Years Eve! Dubbed “End of the World 2012” this one is destined to be one for the history books. It will be co-hosted by Amene ta Blonde, the monthly lesbian event. Tickets are $25 and there will be an open bar from 9 to 10PM and a free glass of champagne at midnight. Find out more and where to get your tickets here.

Apollon: The newest edition to Montreal’s Gay Village is Apollon. Like Royal Pheonix, they will be ringing in their first New Year’s party with famed Montreal DJ Stephane Grondin. Tickets are $25 on sale only at the door on December 31. Beats will be pumping and balls will be dropping deep into the early hours of 2012!

MENAGE A TROIS: Three of the biggest and best outside the village gay parties will be teaming up to launch 2012. POMPe, GAYBASH and Mec Plus Ultra are organizing a massive blow out at the Belmont! The theme is “Sweepstake Superstar”, so come dressed as your best Vanna White or Bob Barker and test your luck with a few gay games and giveaways! Tickets are available in advance for $15 and $25 dollars at the door. Check out more information and where to buy tickets here.

OPERATION NEZ ROUGE: It can be easy to get carried away on New Year’s Eve, especially at all these amazing parties. New Year’s is unfortunately one of the deadliest nights on the roads, so if you plan on partying, make sure you have a safe ride home, and NEVER get behind the wheel if you’ve been drinking. In Montreal, as well as across Canada, there is an organization called Nez Rouge. This is a volunteer service providing safe rides to people throughout the holidays. If at any time you need a ride home, call (514) 256-2510 or dial *08 if you are with Rogers Wireless. It’s customary to tip the driver and 100% of those proceeds go to supporting local charities. Last year, 55,000 volunteers gave 80,000 rides and raised over 1.3 million dollars.

No matter plans you make for New Year’s, I hope you all have a blast and play safe. It’s been so much fun talking about Montreal and gay life in this city, and I can’t wait to keep on blogging about it in 2012. My resolution for 2012 is to hit even single one of Montreal’s 106 festivals. What about yours?

Happy Holidaze and have a Smashing New Years!

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Stereo Nightclub has been both listening and dancing gold – in large part due to its internationally renowned sound system with in-floor components – for Montreal clubgoers since its 1999 inception, and it’s embracing that idea as it heralds the coming of the New Year with its “In Gold We Trust” event, featuring D-Formation and ESP. Gold (jewellery, clothing, accessories, etc) is the theme of a night that promises “lots of surprises” and performances. There will be free champagne upon entry, and the first 100 tickets are only $50 when purchased online at the club’s website.

Live venue turned dance club (for New Year’s anyway) Sala Rossa has the goods, or rather The Goods, this December 31. The expansive, long-serving hip-hop/funk/soul/jazz/kitchen sink collective – founded in 2002 by DJs Scott C and Andy Williams – have, between the bunch of them, most of the accumulated Montreal party wisdom of the ages, and will put that experience to good sweaty-boogie use at Sala starting at 10pm. Elevating the vibe will be Moonstarr, The One Tash and DJ Kobal.

Perennially popular, low-key-cool St-Laurent hangout Blizzarts keeps it characteristically chill on the 31st with a party hosted by the omnipresent DL Jones and featuring DJs Jonnie Jungle and Hatchmatik. It’s only a tenner to get in, and they promise “champagne at midnight, no frills, good music and good times”. Easy like that.

Billed as “high school with a happy ending, and it’s queer, senior and couple-friendly too,” Mainline Theatre’s annual New Year’s Eve Slow Dance Party has become a fixture along Saint-Laurent in recent years. For a mere 10 wallflowers, participants can sway to all the slow-dance classics of their youth (whatever era of youth that might be). Individual dances with that person you may have had your eye on can even be reserved on the actual dance cards given out upon entry (and fast songs are played during intermissions so you can shake it off afterward). Dressing up is encouraged but not required, and the stairway to heaven is open as of 9pm.

Massive dance club Circus brings their usual “more is more” approach to their ambitious Odyssey 2012 New Year’s Eve event. Within the Circus complex, trance music will be featured in the Playroom House with DJs Leon Bolier, Jaytech, Heatbeat, Wezz Devall, Omar El Gamal and Hollow Earth. In Xroom it’s American progressive house DJ Tom Stephan, a.k.a. Superchumbo, Étienne Ozborne and Stéfane Lippé. DJ Highestpoint will be spinning techno in the Gallery space, and DJs Geo Bukk, Marc Remillard and Subtone will be warming up the Chill Room with dubstep selections. Pre-sale tix are $60 apiece, or $85 at the door.

It’s, according to them anyway, Montreal’s #1 DJ, Sandy Duperval, at the Sir Winston Churchill Pub – or simply Winnie’s, as the long-running Crescent Street mainstay is affectionately known to its habitués. DJ Duperval will be spinning house and her own mixes, and the $75 ticket (which can be purchased online or at the door) includes open bar from 9pm until 3am, and access to two floors (Winnie’s as well as Karina`s Club Lounge, featuring DJ Danny Boy). The kitchen will be open until 11pm.

Montreal’s foremost martini and live R&B/soul music bar, the Jello Martini Lounge, rings in the New Year with their Glitz and Glamour party, which asks (but doesn’t insist) that partygoers dress-up 1950s Hollywood-style. Prizes will be awarded to the glitziest gal and most glamorous guy. As well, there will be a champagne toast at midnight, treats and snacks throughout, “Jello” shots and much more. Live dance music will be supplied courtesy of Dessy Di Lauro and her orchestra starting at 11pm. Advance tickets are $30, or $45 at the door.

Want to have an affair? Why not make it a Black Tie Affair when Belvedere Vodka presents The Great Gatsby New Year’s Eve Celebration 2012 at the endlessly classy, always timeless Time Supperclub. Admission during both supper and nightclub hours is $50 (which doesn’t cover the cost of the meal during dinner hours, which start at 7:30pm). Dinner reservations for must be confirmed by phone in advance at 514-392-9292.

They started partying like it was 1999 in, well, 1999, and since then Club Soda’s annual Fluid New Year’s party has only gotten bigger and badder. Your ticket – which ranges from $69 for a basic great time to $174.99 for the Platinum VIP Lounge with bottle service treatment – gets you 20-plus bartenders at nine different bars serving you drinks from 9 pm until 3 am. And best of all, your tips are included with the ticket price. Or maybe bestest of all, guest DJs from New York, Toronto and Montreal will be supplying the hip-hop, reggae and old-school anthems soundtrack to your unforgettable (depending on how hard you hit the open bar) New Year’s Eve.

The always-popular Brutopia brew pub downtown gets even more populist with a live music tribute to the tunes of Tom Petty, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen courtesy of the rarely-playing tribute group Tommy Youngsteen & The Million Dollar Band, a tongue-in-cheek ensemble comprised by members and former members of some of Canada’s foremost indie-rock bands, including The Sam Roberts Band, The Stills, The Stars and The Arkells. It’s only ten bills at the door, and that gets you champagne at midnight and what we are assured are “some really awesome party favours.”

Since they weren’t going home on New Year’s Eve, the owners of the beautifully reconditioned Rialto Theatre decided to go big instead, enlisting the services of hometown rock hero Michel Pagliaro (famous for hits like Lovin’ You Ain’t Easy and Rainshowers) as well Beatles tribute band REPLAY The Beatles. “Growing up as a teenager I loved listening to Michel Pagliaro’s music because it reminded me of my favourite band, The Beatles,” says John Oriettas, who performs as Paul McCartney in REPLAY. “So now getting to perform on the same stage and share the bill with Pag is a huge thrill and honour for me and the boys.” DJ Harold will be supplying danceable music throughout a night that’s been dubbed “vintage sounds at a vintage venue”. Your $100 ticket also gets you canapés and champagne all night, and the first 300 tickets will be awarded reserved table seating.

One of the most inviting and iconic rooms in town for either food or music, or preferably both in combination, the Upstairs Jazz Bar and Grill downtown will be putting some heat at the feet of New Year’s Eve with a performance by consecutive six-time winner of the Quebec Lys Blues Award for Best Female Artist, Dawn Tyler Watson. Expect lively sets of jazz and blues, along with a three-course meal from the club’s highly-touted kitchen, for your $134.95 ticket.

“The only way to spend New Year’s Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears.” – W.H. Auden. Nothing like invoking a little poetry in the pursuit of happiness, and DJs Slutsky and Raf K do exactly that in the open invite to their New Year’s Eve party, “which has been an annual wing-ding at the Casa del Popolo for… five, six years now, I can’t remember,” says Slutsky. “Anyway, it’s $10 before midnight and $15 after, with a free glass of champagne-style beverage – from a real oversized bottle! – at midnight. Lots of fun, low-presh, good times.” And you can leave the Kleenex at home.

Brace yourself for the “Train Wreck” New Year’s Eve smash-up at Il Motore. Anticipate out of control indie-rock and indie-tronica all night with DJs Jay Watts, Noah Bick and Compton Chic. Tickets are $8 in advance and $12 at the door, and drink specials will help keep your good times from getting derailed. And, for some reason, a free glow stick.

And we’ve saved the biggest for last: the annual Resolution New Year’s dance party at the Bell Centre, this edition of which, please note, takes place on the evening of January 1 and not December 31 (presumably because the two-week run of Cirque du Soleil’s Dralion only has its last performance on the 30, which wouldn’t allow enough time for changeover between events). Resolution 12 boasts four headlining DJs – Axwell (of Swedish House Mafia), Avicii, Gareth Emery and Dash Berlin – all of whom are in the top 15 of DJ Mag’s 2011 Top 100 DJ list. Local support includes DJs Cesar “Bass” Romero, Franco Fabi and Steve Agostino. Remaining tickets are $110.00 and start time is 9 pm.

Guest blogger Jamie O’Meara is a Montreal editor and journalist who covers arts, culture and music. Formerly the editor in chief of Hour Magazine, he is now an editor at Roverarts.com.

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