New Year's Eve revelry: Dark Side, dark wave & more

Share the story

Bands and revelers ushering in 2025 celebrated amid a wide swath of musical styles unfurling from Grand Rapids to Kalamazoo. The recaps, photos and a video at Local Spins.

Welcoming 2025: Kalamazoo’s music-driven New Year’s Fest ended with a bang. (Photo/Derek Ketchum)

SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTO GALLERIES, VIDEO

Support our coverage of
West Michigan's music scene

The final hours of 2024 took wildly different musical turns across West Michigan.

There was the enchantment of classic rock/prog’s Pink Floyd music at The intersection, with the Echoes of Pink Floyd tribute band getting an unusual bluegrass boost from Grand Haven’s Full Cord (which opened the night with its own picking and jamming tastiness) — a psychedelic and visually entrancing “Dark Side of the Ball” show rolling out in the venue’s main showroom.

‘Dark Side of the Ball’: Echoes of Pink Floyd at The Intersection. (Photo/Eric Stoike)

On the city’s West Side, Turnstiles rolled out its “Mirror Ball” New Year’s Eve party with a soulful rock and funk punch, thanks to Nathan Walton & The Remedy and Da’Veonce & DaFunk Gang.

The mood was decidedly upbeat and party-generating among fans who filled the intimate venue and danced the evening away — similar to the vibe at a packed SpeakEZ Lounge with Garbage Angel unleashing entertaining covers for New Year’s Eve.

Less than five miles away, at the uniquely festooned Four Star Theatre with uniquely festooned attendees, Crystal Trench hosted its dark-wave EP-release show via Dizzybird Records with a big boost from Marsfade, Strange Skin, and DJs Masa Like Nasa and Sean Stearns.

It all had an artsy “New York City underground” sort of vibe as concertgoers crowded close to the stage for Crystal Trench’s headlining set, dancing to Vanessa DeCouto’s mesmerizing, dark-wave, rhythmic and electronic songs.

Crystal Trench (Photo/Local Spins)

(Read writer Enrique Olmos’ post-show interview with DeCouto exclusively at Local Spins here, and scroll down for video highlights from all four Grand Rapids shows. Read more about Crystal Trench here.)

Meanwhile, Kalamazoo ushered in 2025 at its annual New Years Fest, with more than 20 performances at a variety of venues spread across the downtown area. “So much great music,” wrote Local Spins photographer Derek Ketchum.

That “great music” included the country strains of The Bootstrap Boys, the blues of Out of Favor Boys and enticing sets by The Rebel Eves, Sophia McIntosh, Zion Lion, Selkie, Work in Progress and more — not to mention a fireworks display to welcome 2025.

Michigan’s celebration of the New Year even extended as far away as New Orleans, with bluegrass guitarist Billy Strings, a native of Muir, Mich., getting festive in jam-band fashion as the clock approached midnight in the third night of a three-night run at the 10,000-capacity UNO Lakefront Arena.

(The city’s celebration sadly later took a very dark turn with a horrible mass tragedy on Bourbon Street as a pickup plowed into fans in the wee hours of the morning, killing at least 10 and injuring dozens more.)