A new year is upon us so at this time I like to make this toast “may the best thing that happened to you last year, be the worst thing that happens to you in the next year.
” You can get 2016 off to a rocking start with one of several parties at unusual venues featuring live music and dinner for some of them with food. 
First off there is a free family New Year’s Eve part at Exhibition Park from 5-9 p.m.

It features Flying Bob, The One Man Ring Circus, face painting, astro jumps, an electronic music dance party and a neon balloon drop. The 26th annual event is for free.


If you want to eat, LA Chefs present their annual New Year’s Eve party featuring the music of Suite 33. Pianist Cal Toth will be playing music during dinner and after that  comedian Brian Stollery will get you laughing. The event begins at 6 p.m.. Tickets cost $75.
Cal Toth has a busy night as after that he will be doing his duelling pianos gig at Mojos with Anna Coleen McBryan at 9 p.m.

Also beginning at 6 p.n., The German Canadian Club features food and the music of Dory and the Weathermen. Tickets cost $30 for non-members. 
If you are in the mood for Italian, local rock band the Bamboo Guppies will be playing the Italian Canadian Club. There will be an Italian buffet including chicken parmesan, lasagna and much more. The event begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are $30.


There are also a couple of nice, laid back suppertime gigs. James Moore will be playing some jazz music at Miros Bistro beginning at 6:30 p.m. And the Mocha Cabana features local rock band Steel Cut later on in the evening at 9 p.m. Several different parties get started around then. Hippodrome is just the ticket at Casino Lethbridge. 
For a $70 ticket, you get a five course prime rib dinner followed by Hippodrome at 9 p.m. who will get you dancing off those extra calories.
 The Ten Ten Pub also has live music for New Year’s Eve with local classic rock band Band of Brothers who are onstage at 9 p.m.. Tickets are $30.


Across the street, Coyote Joes Rock and Country has country music with Shane Chisholm and rock with the Raw Dogs. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. with the excitement beginning at 9 p.m. Advance tickets cost $10 or $15 on show day.

If you thought 2015 rocked, you ain’t seen nothing yet. There are already some amazing shows scheduled for 2016. Casino Lethbridge has talent scheduled until April and both the Geomatic Attic and The Lethbridge Folk Club have scheduled some pretty amazing shows. Honker’s Pub features great local talent on Friday nights instead of the open mic they have been running for the past year. Their popular Saturday open mics will continue with local talent hosting  from 3-7 p.m.

 The next Lethbridge Folk Club show will be bluegrass band Go Ask Earl, who will be playing the Lethbridge College Cave on Jan. 16 with Cathy Hawley opening.
 The Geomatic Attic will be back on Jan. 20 with Grammy award winning Latin songwriter Alex Cuba on Jan. 20.
 The Geomatic Attic brings the Devin Cuddy band back to the Geomatic Attic on  Jan. 27.

And they are doing some unusual unplugged shows featuring some pretty big names at the Southminster United Church with 54 40 playing unplugged on Feb. 2 and the Trews unplugged, Feb. 24.
Later on, they will be featuring Hippodrome, March 5 for their community cabaret, Samantha Martin and Delta Sugar on March 8 and The Matt Patershuk band on March 20.
The Lethbridge Folk Club features roots of blues and roots music for Spring with popular roots/ old school country band Ol’ Boots and the Hoots on Feb. 6 and Jim McLennan playing Feb. 19 and John Rutherford and the Blues Trio playing the Cave March 5.

Later on former Lethbridge musician Andrew Scott returns to play the Folk Club on March 18. Folk trio the Fates return to Lethbridge to play the Lethbridge Folk Cub at the Lethbridge College Cave on April 23.

The Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra also has a collaboration of Hansel and Gretel with the U of L Opera workshop at the Southminster United Church, Jan. 29 and 30.

There are also some excellent comedy shows including regular open mics at the Owl Acoustic Lounge as well as at Casino Lethbridge, Jan. 29. Also on Jan. 29, the Snowed In comedy tour returns to the Yates Theatre with Dan Quinn, Pete Zedlacher, Craig Campbell and Paul Myrehaug. 
Average Joes has their first big country show of the year as George Canyon brings his Jekyll and Nothing To Hide to town, Feb. 22.


 They also get into the unplugged spirit by presenting Ed Kowalczyk of ’90s rockers Live, who is  bringing the Throwing Copper 20th Anniversary tour to Average Joes, March 7.
The Enmax Centre has some pretty big shows scheduled as well.
 They feature So You Think You Can Dance, Jan. 13 to begin with. 
They go country on Feb. 13 with Johnny Reid, fiddle virtuoso Natalie McMaster plus Aaron Goovin and JJ Shiplett.


 Sometimes I judge how good a band is by how many beers I drink during their set. That could have easily got out of control when seeing Australian rockers the Lazys opening for One Bad Son at Average Joes, Dec. 17, so it’s  good thing I know my limits. The Lazys, who are hell bent on becoming the second coming of AC DC and may well succeed, definitely succeeded in being a tough act for Saskatoon born, Vancouver based  One Bad Son to follow.

 The Lazys are everything you want in a good rock band — good time courtesy of big, loud, basic, bare bones blues influenced guitar riffs, sizzling solos, shout along choruses and a whole lot of energy.

By the second song, drummer Andy Neilsen broke one of his drums (which was quickly repaired mid song by a roadie), by the third song, “Punk Come and Get Me,” they had a mini mosh pit started, which was quickly stopped.

 Much of the audience were singing along with “All Fired Up.”
 By the middle of the show, lead guitarist Mat Morris was on top of the bar, showing off his best rock star moves  while soloing as  the Flames vs  Dallas hockey  game played on the TV above his head.

 Frontman Leon Harrison, who was  jumping all over the stage all night long was able to take a little bit of a breather while attention was focused on Morris’ solo. The rhythm section of  bassist Liam Shearer and Neilsen thundered away and pretty much  drowned out rhythm guitarist Glenn Williams.

They all shouted gang background vocals throughout the set.
They left with a rousing rendition of their biggest hit “Shake it Like You Mean it,” which had the crowd doing just that while singing along.
One Bad Son were not to outdone though. Most of the people were there to see them, having remembered them from opening for Def Leppard- one of four Lethbridge shows they played this year.

They may as well be honourary Lethbians. The band played their usual solid set though guitarist Adam Hicks, bassist Adam Grant and drummer Kurt Dahl pretty much drowned out frontman Shane Volk, who leaped round the stage like a frog with his feet on fire.

His powerful piercing voice,which sounds like a mix of Axl Rose and Jon Bon Jovi,  is pretty unforgettable. They have been playing together for 10 years and coming to Lethbridge for pretty much all of that time and their experience shows.

They’ve learned to craft, catchy, upbeat rockers as well as slower songs which had the crowd singing along on popular songs “Scarecrow” and “ White Buffalo.”

 They even tried out a new song I think they called “Raising Hell, which was a lot slower than I would have expected than a song called “Raising Hell,” but it was still a solid mid-tempo rocker. It drew a lot of applause for the audience.

 They wound  their set down with “Retribution Blues,” but returned for an encore of their latest single and tour namesake “Psycho Killer,” which was  a lot heavier than the Talking Heads’ original.
The show ended just after 10:30 p.m. It’s nice when shows start early and end early on a week night.

It has been a good week for punk music. A small, but enthusiastic audience was at Inferno,  Dec. 16  for some psychobilly and punk.

 While I missed opening acts Gender Bender and Chief Mountain, I arrived in time to catch a long awaited return from Edmonton psychobilly band The Raygun Cowboys, whose crack horn section made them stand out from the crowd.

The last time I saw them they had a bumble bee theme happening, though not this time.

 They began with “Heads Are Gong to Roll,” the title track off their latest Cd and took off from there.

The lead singer bellowed out the lyrics plucked out hit rockabilly licks and punk tinged power chords.

The upright bassist straddled his black and white cow coloured instrument and thumped away, grinning all the time. Their hipster horn section of a trumpeter, a trombonist and saxophonist danced in place, stepping up for solos or to shout out background vocals.

The horn section wandered through the audience playing as the saxophonist jumped on the bar to solo for a song then returned to the stage. The horns took a break during the more straight ahead melodic punk of “Joey Ramone Street” but returned for the rest of the set including for some classic rockabilly of “Daddy Ya” which had a handful of rockabilly girls dancing. 

 They played  much of the new CD bust also delved back into their back catalogue for crowd favourites like an emotional rendition of  “Break These Chains.” The frontman howled like Bran Setzer's bastard child. Things got a little meaner with “Sideburns and Switchblades,” but  the band brought a lot of good vibes, addictive horn licks and  hot guitar picking backed by that bone shuddering upright bass and a relentless rhythm from the drummer.

They had the audience properly pumped up for Montreal trio  The Gutter Demons.
 The Gutter Demons started with a  few slow moments but quickly picked up the pace.

 They sounded like Motorhead if they played rockabilly music.

 So there was  unstoppable intensity, guttural vocals, big rhythm, more bone shaking upright bass and foot stomping beats. Frontman Johnny Töxic leaned up to sing into his microphone while shedding on his Gretsch.
 There wasn’t a lot of talk in between songs like show highlights “I Am The Wild One,” “Revenge” and “After the Dark.”