we're already talking about our year-end sh*t here in the office and i'm trying to develop some ideas about new year's eve concerts/performances. i think the whole concept of the "holiday" is overblown to begin with, and sometimes performances can reflect just that.

but then there's nye concerts that seemingly broke the mold and were magnificent and/or culturally significant in some way. im thinking about the rhcp/pearl jam/nirvana in '91, phish in 2000 (i know, sounds lame, but the millenium hoo-rah was a big deal to some organizers)...

and i'm talking anywhere at anytime.

what were some of the big ones in edinburgh? was there ever a time when the times square ball-drop wasn't lame?

Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve!!!

actually it was the phish '95 new years eve show that is widely considered "epic brah" amongst phish phans.

...not that i know any...or listen to that shit...yeah.

Didn't Prince pull some shit for 1999/2000?

there was a janet jackson new year's eve concert on mtv one year in the early 90s. i didn't see it, but they sure hyped the daylights of it.

They just released this year a live album of Levon Helm and the RKO All Stars New Years show in 77/78? Its pretty rocking.

I can't think of any concerts that were culturally significant for NYE. The only one that I can even recall where people were talking about making a trip for a particular NYE concert was the Phish show in Florida. I had a couple friends go to that one.

I will say that in the last 10 years my best New Years Eve experiences have all involved going to concerts with a big group of people.

I realize that the concept of the "holiday" is very lame and brings out the amatuer drinkers but there's still something about being at a show when the entire place begins counting down to midnight. It feels like a special moment even if it isn't at all and that adds to the experience.

Then when the band rips back into a song I always feel that the party is just getting started.

i went to keith richards / pearl jam at roseland, nyc bout ten-twelve some odd years back.

I had an amazing time at the Belvedere Hotel - Baltimore for NYE 2000 when Lake Trout played the ballroom and meal and drinks were all inclusive. I was puddled with LSD at 3:30am and had to be on a flight back to Atlanta at 10:00am.

I would've been at Phish NYE 1999 if I hadn't been working at a bank at the time. Wachovia wouldn't let any of their employees off because of the Y2K scare.

True. though I guess the signifigant thing about the 1999/2000 one they did in Florida was that they came out for midnight and basically played until dawn.

after digging a while, here's some i found:

elvis presley 1976 last new year's of his life. considered one of his best concerts, latter-day

barbra streisand's millenium concert in las vegas, which (if the stats hold up) was the highest grossing single concert in Las Vegas history to date.

in germany in 1939, the vienna philharmonic began playing its yearly show. very dark period in germany in world history. the event is dedicated to strauss family. "initially conceived for a local audience as a reminder of better times and a source of hope for the future" according to the website

dick clark's first new years' rockin' eve: more like Three Dog Night's New Years’ Rockin Eve. 1973.

Bruce Springsteen almost gets banged up by fire-cracker onstage at a New Year's Eve concert in Cleveland in 1979.

In 1976, the cars played their first show at Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, new Hampshire.

the grateful dead and the blues brothers rocked out in 1979 as San Francisco's Winterland Auditorium shut down

first day of 1960 Johnny Cash performed for the inmates at San Quentin Prison north of San Francisco. it went, you know, well.

In 1977, Joe Strummer and The Clash headlined the grand opening of the Roxy. Formerly a gay disco, it became the venue for punk in London.

prince gave an after-midnight New Year's Eve charity concert to benefit the homeless in Minnesota -- and was joined onstage by Miles Davis. in 1988 i was six. i wish i couldve been there.

jimi Hendrix, Buddy Miles, and billy cox are recorded live at the Fillmore East on nye 1969. The resulting album, Band of Gypsys, is the last Hendrix album to be released before his death. heckuva year.

i never knew that was a NYE show. cool.
sounds like you're finding some good stuff, and you're making me try and remember where i was for that new years that prince played, as i lived in driving distance from that. not that i could've ever convinced my parents to take me.