E-Mail This Article to a Friend What are you doing New Year’s Eve? With '80s parties, billiards and ice-cold swims, there's something for everyone

Just because the annual First Night festivities envelop downtown Boston on New Year’s Eve, just because hundreds of thousands of button-wearing revelers descend on Boston’s streets and showgrounds, and just because this year’s First Night celebrations involve more than 1000 artists performing at 250 events doesn’t mean that that’s all there is to do on the last night of 2003. Indeed, what follows are the First Night alternatives, the concerts and events that a button won’t get you into. (We’ll be covering those in next week’s Arts News section.)

December 31 marks one of the biggest nights of the year in clubland. Local starlets the Dresden Dolls bring their vaudevillean punk and Weimar-era eroticism to Axis, 13 Lansdowne Street in Boston. Cover is $25; call (617) 262-2437. Upstairs at the Middle East, 472 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square, underground Boston-based hip-hopsters Red Pill perform; call for ticket prices. Downstairs, the bill includes Waltham, Kicked in the Head, Random Acts of Violence, and the Morgan Knockers. Cover is $12; call (617) 846-EAST. The legendary Lyres, led by Jeff "Monoman" Conolly, play a few doors down at hip Zuzu. Cover is $10; call (617) 864-3278. Around the corner at 10 Brookline Street, T.T. the Bear’s presents hillbilly band Lenny & His Piss Poor Boys with the Konks, Charms, and Valhalla Kittens. Cover is $10; call (617) 492-BEAR.

In Somerville’s Davis Square, Babaloo, a self-described punk-mambo/hardcore juju outfit, roil Johnny D’s, at 17 Holland Street. Cover is $30; call (617) 776-2004. Power-popsters Fooled by April are climbing the reptilian ladder: last New Year’s Eve, they played the dark and diminutive Toad, but this year, they move to the larger Lizard Lounge, at 1667 Massachusetts Avenue, between Porter and Harvard Squares, where they’ll share the bill with Flynn. Cover is $20; call (617) 547-0759. Upstairs from the Lizard Lounge, Cambridge Common presents a New Year’s Eve Beer Dinner, which offers six beers from East Coast breweries — including Brooklyn Brewery, Sam Adams, Victory Brewing Company, Cambridge Brewing Company, and Magic Hat — paired with a five-course meal, highlights being pumpkin risotto and a chocolate raspberry torte. Tickets are $50; call (617) 547-1228. And back at Toad, 1912 Massachusetts Avenue, where there’s never a cover charge, Sticky nail pure rock; call (617) 497-4950. Superhoney return to Harpers Ferry, 158 Brighton Avenue in Allston, for a funk/rock/soul-saturated night. Cover is $30; call (617) 254-9743. Wellesley natives Addison Groove Project fuse all sorts of rock and funk influences at the Paradise, 969 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, and they’ll be joined by Burlington-based RAQ. Cover is $25; call (617) 562-8800.

The big-name clubs aren’t the only ones with worthwhile shows — area holes-in-the-wall host their fair share of laudable New Year’s gigs. The Abbey Lounge, the back-flip double twist of delectable dives, features Beefy DC led by Ray "Beefy" Neades, the gritty rockers Downbeat 5, and the Other Girls. That’s at 3 Beacon Street in Somerville. Cover is $5 to $7; call (617) 441-9631. There’s a Shitehawk reunion rumored at the Choppin’ Block, 724 Huntington Avenue in Mission Hill; call (617) 734-4177 for booking confirmation and cover charge. Way off in Worcester, the Lucky Dog Music Hall, 89 Green Street, continues its tradition of thrashing in the new year with metal. This year you’ll find Pentalymb, Shekta, Chagrin, 12 Step Program, Motokops 2000, Five Nine, Trophyboy, and Sacreligion; call (508) 363-1888. The Linwood Grill, 69 Kilmarnock Street in the Fenway, hosts Bud-loving Gang Green, Granite Ave, the Marvels, Nobody’s Heroes, and Country Doctors. Cover is $12; call (617) 267-8644.

You can abandon present-day rock and roll and slam back to the mid ’80s at the Milky Way, 405 Centre Street in Jamaica Plain, with its "Dynasty Dance Party: Countdown to 1984" featuring Tunnel of Love, kaleidoscopic rave types Memories Forever, and DJ Joseph. Cover is $18; call (617) 524-3740. But dancing to DJs at the Milky Way is one thing; dancing to DJs at Avalon, the behemoth of the Boston club scene at 15 Lansdowne Street, is quite another. Dutchman DJ Ferry Corsten hails from Rotterdam, and he’ll hold court all night. Cover is $60; call (617) 262-2424. At the Roxy, 279 Tremont Street in the Theater District, giant puppets (what else?) will complement DJ Adilson’s turntable stylings. The evening even includes a continental breakfast. Cover is $65; call (617) 338-ROXY. At Ecko Lounge’s lesbian Club Hollywood, 41 Essex Street downtown, there’s a 1920s vaudeville theme and women are encouraged to dress as gangsters and flappers; call (617) 338-8283.

You won’t find turntables or scratching or DJ booths at Boston’s three most esteemed jazz clubs, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be dancing. At the Regattabar, in the Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett Street in Harvard Square, the evening begins at 8 p.m. with a champagne-and-dessert reception. Then from 9:30 p.m. to 2 a.m., top-notch Boston rock-and-pop vocalist Didi Stewart hosts a dance party, singing Motown hits, present-day pop, and R&B classics. Tickets are $95 (for $140, they’ll throw in a three-course pre-show dinner at Henrietta’s Table); call (617) 876-7777. Ryles, which is tucked in Inman Square at 212 Hampshire Street, hosts the Nicole Nelson Band, with Nelson belting and crooning R&B; cover is $40. Upstairs at Ryles, you’ll find the rollicking and riotous Temporada Latina New Year’s Extravaganza, with DJ Latino spinning five hours of salsa, merengue, and bachata. Cover for that one is $25, and the number for Ryles information is (617) 876-9330.

Over at Scullers in the DoubleTree Guest Suites hotel, 400 Soldiers Field Road along the Charles River, Spyro Gyra (who take their name from algae spirogira, which is commonly referred to as pond scum) perform two sets. The Early Party Package ($289 per couple) includes a five-course dinner at the Boathouse Grille and the 8 p.m. show. The Late Party Package ($359 per couple) includes the dinner, the 11 p.m. show, and the obligatory noisemakers, party hats, and a champagne toast. And why ruin a perfectly good New Year’s by flipping your car over the guard rail driving home along the Mass Pike? For an extra $100 you can forget the drive home, spend the night at the hotel, and enjoy a New Year’s Day breakfast and a complimentary bag of treats. Call (617) 562-4111.

Zeitgeist Gallery, 1353 Cambridge Street in Inman Square, exists in a category all its own. For visual art, performance art, and music, the Zeitgeist is home for all that’s experimental and avant-garde, improvisational and just plain out there. On December 31, the gallery will host the likes of Supergoo, Pear, and the HeBeats. Things often change over there, so you’d be well advised to call (617) 876-6060 to verify the performers, the times, and the suggested donation.

The extensive menu of rock, pop, punk, jazz, and improv doesn’t mean there are no classical offerings. Boston Baroque gives its annual New Year’s Eve and Day concerts; this year’s program comprises Bach’s Orchestral Suites Nos. 2 and 3 and his "Coffee" Cantata (No. 211), with soprano Amanda Forsythe and baritone David Kravitz. That’s at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street in Harvard Square, at 8 p.m. on December 31 and 3 p.m. on January 1. Tickets are $26 to $62; call (617) 484-9200. And Keith Lockhart leads the Boston Pops in its celebratory program at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. for entertainment in the hall proper; the evening ends with post-concert dancing. Tickets are $75 to $158; call (617) 266-1200.

Your New Year’s gallivanting can involve more than music. Forget about the ball in Times Square and keep your eye on the eight ball at the expansive Boston Billiards at 126 Brookline Avenue in Boston. Besides pool, they’ll also have a buffet and dancing. A table for four from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. costs $125; call (617) 536-POOL. And downtown at 24 Clinton Street, the Rack — "where the players meet the players" — likewise hosts pool, a dinner buffet, and a DJ dance party. Cover is $50; call (617) 725-1051.

For something a bit more glamorous, check out the Resolution Ball in the Grand Ballroom of the Boston Marriott Copley Place, 110 Huntington Avenue in Boston. You’ll get music by the Swinging Johnsons, an open bar from 8:30 to 10 p.m., a silent auction to benefit the Ellie Fund breast-cancer foundation, and more than 2000 young professionals dancing in black tie. Tickets are $95 until December 24 and $125 after; call (617) 236-5800.

And on January 1, nothing ameliorates an aching head and a blurry brain better than the courtyard of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which is open for free on New Year’s Day. It’s at 280 the Fenway; call (617) 566-1401. Or to start the year off on a truly fresh foot, join the L Street Brownies at 11 a.m. for their annual swim off Carson Beach. The icy shock of the water will surely make you forget about your hangover. That, as always, is free(zing).

— Nina MacLaughlin