With 12 gigs to choose from to rock in the new year on New Year’s Eve, it meant for some tough choices. I was driving a 
carload of friends around to a couple of interesting ones and opted for gigs featuring bands I had’t heard before or gigs with no cover charges, as while I usually get in for free being media, my friends don’t have much money.
The first one I hit was at Bully’s Entertainment Centre, where Calgary rock blues band Pete Fischer and the Hurricanes were holding court for a good sized crowd of people, most of whom were sitting, talking amongst themselves, had eyes glued to VLT and even a few dancing.
The band played an array of popular classic rock and country covers.
The band members took turns singing lead on a variety of songs and harmony vocal lines on others including classic rock like “Evil Ways,” “Cocaine” and Blondie’s “Tide Is High” or upbeat blues based foot stompers like “Flip, Flop and Fly” and a hot version of “Shake, Rattle and Roll.”
The highlight was Pete Fischer, who not only sang lead on several songs but also played sweet saxophone solos on others and upbeat piano on other songs.
The next stop was Scores, where 2 Cubic Feet was playing modern rock to a good sized, chattering crowd.
I only caught the end of a decent cover of Our Lady Peace’s “Starseed.”
I would have stayed around for another set, but didn’t want to miss the return of the Necessities at the Owl. Unfortunately for me, it looked like everybody else had the same idea as they were turning people away at the door.
Most of them crammed themselves shoulder to shoulder trying to dance and watching the Necessities, all wearing masks in line with the Masquerade theme of the night. They appeared to be playing a solid set. I caught one of my favourites “ the Goat Song, (Tin Can Soup).”
So I ended up at the Slice, which surprisingly was not sold out for the return of The Turncoats.
Frontman Andrew Scott was the life of the party up on stage while drummer Kyle Harmon was in a weird mood, singing in falsetto and cracking strange jokes.
They played a fun filled set of mostly original music blending jazz and country with a touch of ’60s pop and even disco music. They played a medley of Johnny Cash songs. Paul Holden held down the bottom end on bass while Arlen Wutch added tasteful guitar solos. 
They brought up special guest Andrew Morrow to add extra bass clarinet for a song, then they took a break just before midnight, returning to play a unique country/ jazz version of “Auld Lang Syne,” to ring in the new year.
