L.A. Beat

I brought in the New Year by hitting a handful of the countless New Year’s Eve parties happening downtown.
First I stopped by the masquerade party at the Mix Lounge at  Ric’s Grill. The Ben Brown Trio were late getting started  due to technical difficulties. But they knocked off a set of modern rock including Collective Soul’s ‘Gell’ and ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ by Van Morrison which had a a nattily dressed and masque clad crowd dancing. They brought their friend  up on stage to sing a couple numbers including the Cranberries’ ‘Zombie.’
At the Slice, Paul Kype and Texas Flood had  ‘the  house a rocking’ Stevie Ray Vaughan style. They were hosting a big New Year’s Eve jam which had 50-60 people rocking in the new year to a variety of upbeat classic rock and blues rock including a smoking version of the Allman Brothers’ ‘One Way Out.”
Henotic was packed with dancers on both levels with a  variety of DJs rang in the new year with ear bleeding dance music.
 Local country singer Trevor Panczac beamed ear to ear  as his resonant voice boomed through Average Joes while his band  Rough Stock kept the two steppers dancing all over the floor. Their post New Year’s set which included country classics like “I Love a Rainy Night” and  “Rhinestone Cowboy,” plus some newer material including a Willie Nelson  song  which bordered on outlaw country called “Ain’t Going Down on Brokeback Mountain,”  which was hilarious.
 It  is actually  a  Willie Nelson album cut  which was part of Nelson’s Moment of Forever sessions and written by Wynn Varble, Ben Hayslip and Brandon Kinney aka the Saddle Sores.
Happy 2010, may the best thing that happened to you last year be the worst thing that happens to you in the next.