Friday Dec. 31
EVE
The grand finale of downtown Salt Lake City’s three-day EVE festival offers a lot of musical bang for your buck, all in a tight six-hour window. How often can you sample 12 of the scene’s best bands for a mere $10? On the outdoor Bandemonium Stage located on West Temple between 100 South and 200 South, you can catch Feel Good Patrol (6 p.m.), The Trappers (7 p.m.), Toy Bombs (8 p.m.), Eyes Lips Eyes (9 p.m.), Muscle Hawk (10 p.m.) and Caleb Chapmen & The Voodoo Orchestra (11 p.m.). And indoors on the Chill Zone Music Stage, it’s Nate Robinson and DJ Grey (6 p.m.), Brian Thurber (7 p.m.), Colin Robison (pictured left, 8 p.m.), Libbie Linton (9 p.m.), The Devil Whale (10 p.m.) and Cub Country (11 p.m.). And naturally, as long as you’re down there, check out the fireworks show at midnight. Salt Palace Convention Center, 100 S. West Temple, 6 p.m., $10
Here’s a party that’s a little nontraditional, which we love around here, and it’s BYOB, which we REALLY love around here. Blues-rock stalwarts Marinade are hosting the bash, which also includes the likes of rootsy rockers the Samuel Smith Band, the reggae-tinged funk of Erin Barra and jammy funk of The Pour, all playing through the night. Gerry Swanson will be creating visual art on the fly, and you can imagine some worthwhile surprises are in store. Salt Lake Recording Studio, 721 S. 400 West, 8 p.m. to 3 a.m., $5
Word from the good people at the Park City Performing Arts Foundation is that an unusually high number of men have been buying up tickets to Jewel’s New Year’s Eve show. Some of them might be buying tix knowing that their wives and girlfriends love Jewel, but I’m guessing some of those men must remember her thankfully brief dalliance with techno-pop (complete with Maxim layouts and bikini-wardrobe videos) more than her earnest early folk-pop hits or more recent dive into straight-up country croonin’, which seems a more natural evolution, given Jewel’s marriage to award-winning cowboy Ty Murray. Eccles Center for the Performing Arts, 1750 Kearns Blvd., Park City, 8 p.m., $25-$150
James McMurtry
Texas singer, songwriter and consummate storyteller James McMurtry’s always had an unusually strong connection with Utah; he even once recorded a live album at the Zephyr Club. So it makes some sense that he would bail the Lone Star State to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Zion. Besides a memorable roots-rock show, your ticket gets you a raffle ticket, a cocktail, a Champagne toast at midnight and assorted other surprises, along with the oh-so-valuable overnight parking in The State Room’s south and west lots, a true bonus given how most New Year’s Eve shenanigans go. Ghostowne opens the show. The State Room, 638 S. State, 9 p.m., $50
Monday Jan. 3
Spell Talk
It seems like only yesterday Ogden natives Spell Talk were winning the City Weekly Music Awards prize as Utah’s favorite band, but it’s been almost a year. That year has seen them change names, record a stellar album in Ghost Rider, and play shows in seemingly every venue the state has to offer, from festival gigs to club shows. And all those shows have honed their chops and made their psych-stoner rock some of the most insistent music on the local scene. Smile for Diamonds is also on the bill for this all-ages show. Kilby Court, 741 S. 330 West, 7 p.m., $6
Coming Up
Cash’d Out (A Bar Named Sue, Jan. 6), Far East Movement (The Complex, Jan. 7), Cowboy Mouth, Dash Rip Rock (The Urban Lounge, Jan. 8), Dashboard Confessional (In The Venue, Jan. 11), Mobile Deathcamp (Bar Deluxe, Jan. 11), Peter Wolf Crier, Retribution Gospel Choir (The Urban Lounge, Jan. 11), We Came As Romans (The Complex, Jan. 11), Guster (In the Venue, Jan. 15), Preservation Hall Jazz Band (Sheraton City Centre, Jan. 17), The Civil Wars, Parlor Hawk (The State Room, Jan. 20)