Since no one wants to spend another New Year's Eve at home, contemplating kissing their sister at midnight, we decided to talk to a series of local bands about their final performance of 2009. We'll have more of these posts all week long.

The Band: Weinland
The Show: Mission Theater's New Year's Eve with Weinland Super Group.
The Reason You Need to Be There: Ironic covers, sincere covers, more musicians than you can dare count on a single stage, and beards.

MERCURY: First off, will you be playing "Auld Lang Syne" during your New Year's Eve performance?
ADAM SHEARER: Um, no, but we are playing "Eye of the Tiger." I suppose if you want to trade some sort of prominent billing in exchange for an indie-dance version of "Auld Lang Syne"—a Scottish poem by Robert Burns written in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song—we could talk about that.

Any special plans for the show? Covers? Streamers? Those tiny popper things shaped like miniature champagne bottles?
We're going to play a Weinland set—almost entirely of our upbeat rock and roll songs—but then we're coming back to close the night as The New Year's Super Group with a bunch of our friends from various Portland bands. It will be all covers; some fast-paced fist-pumping rock and roll from the '70s and '80s, and some straight-up pop dance music, à la Phil Collins and what not. Plus, we're going to have lady backup dancers, plus guest vocal performances (singing these dance classics) from some of Portland's finest vocalists. Basically an all-inclusive dance party for people who want to dance, but don't want to be pushed out of the way by someone trying to get to their vodka Red Bull.

What are the odds that—come midnight—someone in your band will be available for kissing?
40%. Two-fifths (which also happens to be about how much whiskey I may drink) of the band is single, which means make-out galore! Of course once you add the Super Group members in, then all the sudden its harder to do the math and I believe your odds go up! Someone better rush the stage and go for some hot-fan-on-Super-Group action or I'll personally be very disappointed. Just focus more towards the rhythm section...

What is your worst New Year's Eve memory?
Of course there have been many times for all of us when we carefully moved around the room all night trying to make sure we were in just the right spot when the ball dropped—3, 2, 1... and you look over to your hopes and dreams being crushed by another with better timing and more advanced kiss proximity positioning techniques.

In Portland though, one of my worst memories was the time when Rory [Brown], Rantz [Aaron Pomerantz], and I we're walking around downtown all night looking for a place to drink and be surrounded by Portland's many gorgeous party goers—Dante's, Berbati's, the Shanghai Tunnel, the Tube, and on and on—only to be pushed out of the way and looked over at the bar and on the dance floor, eventually getting accidentally separated. Then it started to snow. I missed the ball drop and found myself walking across the Morrison bridge at 3am drunk, alone, and freezing in the snow, separated from my compatriots and completely dissppointed in the pressure to make New Year's the perfect night.

Don't let that happen to you! We've got all the space and gorgeous Portland party goers you could ever need, without the crazy traffic and downtown insanity. Its the one stop, party till you drop, place to be for the sensible New Year's Eve party enthusiast. Got a lot to do? Come for the end of the night and catch the Super Group from 11pm-ish until 1am-ish, and then party on.

Since no one wants to spend another New Year's Eve at home, contemplating kissing their sister at midnight, we decided to talk to a series of local bands about their final performance of 2009. We'll have more of these posts all week long.

The Band: Pure Country Gold
The Show: Slabtown's New Year's Eve Blowout with Pure Country Gold, The Sons o'Bitches, and DJ Baby Lemonade.
The Reason You Need to Be There: You have never made out on top of—or under—a pinball machine, the beer is plentiful and cheap, and the show is totally free.

MERCURY: First off, will you be playing "Auld Lang Syne" during your New Year's Eve performance?
PATRICK FOSS: Uh... no. We're not that kind of New Year's band. The plan is for us to go on after midnight as we want no part in the actual ringing in the New Year portion of the evening.

Any special plans for the show? Covers? Streamers? Those tiny popper things shaped like miniature champagne bottles?
We're gonna debut a bunch of new songs which is fun for us—maybe some cover songs too. Jake [Welliver] and I have been doubling as a Bad Brains tribute band recently, so at least one of those songs is likely to get played. We've also been rehearsing our new juggling, knife-throwing, and acrobatics act—we're hoping to debut some of that stuff too, but I'm worried Slabtown's ceiling might be too low.

What are the odds that—come midnight—someone in your band will be available for kissing?
We'll both be available for kissing by 9pm, and available for much more come midnight. No herpes, please!

What is your worst New Year's Eve memory?
I was arrested once on New Year's for supposedly assaulting a cop who I thought was just a guy in a policeman costume (I was drunk). When they had me undress at jail it revealed that I was wearing women's underwear. That really seemed to cheer up the the jailers. Then I threw up in the cell twice and passed out. Maybe that's actually my best New Year's Eve memory...

Since no one wants to spend another New Year's Eve at home, contemplating kissing their sister at midnight, we decided to talk to a series of local bands about their final performance of 2009. We'll have more of these posts all week long.

The DJ: DJ Anjali
The Show: The Woods' New Year's Eve Revel with DJ Anjali and The Incredible Kid.
The Reason You Need to Be There: Pure dance party madness—Bollywood by way of Sellwood.

MERCURY: First off, will you be playing "Auld Lang Syne" during your New Year's Eve performance?
DJ ANJALI: Only if I can find a Bhangra version.

Any special plans for the show? Covers? Streamers? Those tiny popper things shaped like miniature champagne bottles?
A Bollywood disco lazer light show.

What are the odds that—come midnight—someone in your band will be available for kissing?
Hopefully we'll be kissing each other.

What is your worst New Year's Eve memory?
Either I'm blissfully unaware, or I just have a bad memory, but all of my New Year's Eve have been sublime.

Since no one wants to spend another New Year's Eve at home, contemplating kissing their sister at midnight, we decided to talk to a series of local bands about their final performance of 2009. We'll have more of these posts all week long.

The Band: Two Beers Veirs
The Show: Laurelhurst New Year's Eve with Two Beers Viers, Colin Meloy, Darrin Craig, Lewi Longmire, and Maggie Lind.
The Reason You Need to Be There: A star-studded lineup of covers and beer. You can drink more than two, it's cool.

MERCURY: First off, will you be playing "Auld Lang Syne" during your New Year's Eve performance?
CHRIS FUNK: That's a good question. I think last year we did the outro to "Hey Jude" instead, I don't remember as I had been on stage for four hours at that point.

Any special plans for the show? Covers? Streamers? Those tiny popper things shaped like miniature champagne bottles?
Pretty much all cover songs. I think we will have a confetti canyon, as it's "so banjo." But I guess I shouldn't tell you that.

What are the odds that—come midnight—someone in your band will be available for kissing?
I think everyone is taken. I'm pretty sure someone in the band is pregnant, so the stage may have a little sober feeling to it. For the record I am not pregnant, will be very "pissed," and am excepting drinks all night.

What is your worst New Year's Eve memory?
Taking acid with a bunch of rich frat boys who were literally smoking coke, which I guess is crack, in Aspen, CO on a "cat walk" on the mountain under the fireworks. I don't care for acid, I should have tried the latter.

Since no one wants to spend another New Year's Eve at home, contemplating kissing their sister at midnight, we decided to talk to a series of local bands about their final performance of 2009. We'll have more of these posts all week long.

The Band: Coco Cobra and the Killers
The Show: Kelly's Olympian Party with Coco Cobra and the Killers, The Rainy States, Yeltsin, and Secrets In The Salt.
The Reason You Need to Be There: You'll get a great lineup of local acts, a sexed-up version of a New Year's classic, and at 12:01am, you can ride any of the motorcycles on display at Kelly's*. Go nuts, McQueen.

MERCURY: First off, will you be playing "Auld Lang Syne" during your New Year's Eve performance?
VIVA LAS VEGAS: We do a version of it called "I Need Sex."

Any special plans for the show? Covers? Streamers? Those tiny popper things shaped like miniature champagne bottles?
We're going to invite the 15 most annoying people from the Greek Cusina over to Kelly's Olympian and present them with free records and T-shirts.

What are the odds that—come midnight—someone in your band will be available for kissing?
Kissing and a whole lot more!

What is your worst New Year's Eve memory?
We played New Year's Eve 2000 at the Satyricon. True to form, Portland totally overreacted and blocked off all of downtown to traffic and had riot cops manning the perimeters (Y2K and all). We played with Texas Terry and the Texecutioners, and there was no one at the 'Con, save a couple bums. Really, there was no one even downtown save a couple bums. Later that night, Adam "Baby" Cox (who would soon found the Exploding Hearts) got kicked out of Union Jacks for being underage and beat up some chick's red Mazda Miata and fucked up his hands.

* total lie

Since no one wants to spend another New Year's Eve at home, contemplating kissing their sister at midnight, we decided to talk to a series of local bands about their final performance of 2009. We'll have more of these posts all week long.

The Band: Reporter
The Show: Holocene's 102,010 Party with DJ Beyonda, Linger & Quiet, Reporter, Guidance Counselor, DJ New Moon Poncho
The Reason You Need to Be There: It's a space-themed party with plenty of bands and DJs, this is exactly what the future will be like. But with more jetpacks.

MERCURY: First off, will you be playing "Auld Lang Syne" during your New Year's Eve performance?
ALBERTA POON: I had to Wikipedia this. Unfortunately no, unless Mike [McKinnon, drummer], with his Scottish heritage, wants to a capella it.

Any special plans for the show? Covers? Streamers? Those tiny popper things shaped like miniature champagne bottles?
We always have special plans for shows, but they'll probably all fall through. Holocene's theme is outerspace, so we'll probably all dress up like Alf.

What are the odds that—come midnight—someone in your band will be available for kissing?
We'll all be passed-out drunk by midnight, so if someone doesn't have reservations with taking advantage of us, we'll all be "available".

What is your worst New Year's Eve memory?
Drunkenly hurling a wheelchair off a porch. It was great! Oh, you said "worst."