There’s always a lot going on during the last night of the year in the Bay Area.
A good portion of that activity happens in our many local music venues, which tend to be really humming once Dec. 31 rolls around.
We’ve combed through the listing and come up with the most tantalizingly tuneful ways to say goodbye to 2024 and hello to 2025.
Here are our top 5 picks for NYE concerts happening in the Bay Area:
Gryffin
The San Jose native, whose real name is Dan Griffith, had a grand homecoming earlier this year when he headlined the mammoth Twin Peaks Stage at the Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco.
Now, the DJ/producer/musician — who stands among the top names in all of EDM today — is set to ring in 2025 with another big Bay Area show.
So, come on out and groove along to the sounds of Gryffin on New Year’s Eve at Festival Pavilion at Fort Mason in San Francisco.
He’s supporting the new album “Pulse,” which features contributions from such talents as John Newman, Rita Ora, MAX, Elderbrook, Calle Lehmann and the legendary DJ-producer Armin Van Buuren.
Details: 9 p.m. Dec. 31. Tickets start at $287 (subject to change), axs.com
Primus
If it’s Dec. 31 then, most likely, Les Claypool is playing somewhere in the Bay Area.
The Richmond-born, El Sobrante-raised vocalist-bassist always seems to have something fun going on the last night of the year, performing at various venues with a number of different projects.
Having closed out 2023 at the Great American Music Hall with Les Claypool’s Bastard Jazz, the band leader plans to end this year by performing two shows with his most famous outfit — the mighty Primus — at the Fox Theater in Oakland.
Limbomaniacs open the first night, while Beanpole sets the table on the second.
Details: 8 p.m. Dec. 30, 9 p.m. Dec. 31. Tickets start at $78.15, apeconcerts.com
Luna
Those early Luna albums are so good. We’re talking about “Lunapark,” “Bewitched” and, especially, “Penthouse” — all of which came out during the first half of the ‘90s.
Come to think of it, the later efforts — like 2002’s “Romantica” — are pretty swell as well.
You could make a pretty great NYE play list from Luna’s catalog. Or you could just let the NYC indie-pop act do it for you — live — when it performs on NYE at Fillmore.
It’s your chance to catch the act that Rolling Stone magazine once reportedly called “the best band you’ve never heard of.”
Details: 8 p.m. Dec. 31. Tickets are $86, livenation.com
Dirty Dozen Brass Band
You can count on SFJAZZ Center having something fun on the books for NYE. And this Dec. 31 is certainly no exception to the rule as this New Orleans brass band institution — which formed in 1977 and is currently led by founding tenor saxophonist Kevin Harris — is ready to liven things up in San Francisco.
“The Dirty Dozen (is) one of the most contagious performances you’ll ever witness,” says Terence Blanchard, SFJAZZ’s executive artistic director. “I dare anyone to go to this show and not wind up tapping their feet during the performance. Truly a festive sound and experience.”
Details: 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Dec. 31. Tickets start at $45, sfjazz.org (note: These are dance-floor shows and the 10:30 p.m. set is a SFJAZZ members-only concert)
Paula West
It should be a really special night as this wonderful Bay Area-based cabaret/jazz artist settles into the ritzy Feinstein’s at the Nikko in San Francisco for two shows in one night.
The talented vocalist — whose debut album, “Temptation,” was released in 1997 — will likely glide through a mix of styles and themes, from jazz and swing to romance and humor, during these shows.
West will be accompanied on the stage by pianist Adam Shulman, drummer David Rokeach, bassist Aaron Germain, and special guest guitarist Jacque Lesure.
Details: 7 and 10:30 p.m. Dec. 31. Tickets start at $80.57, feinsteinssf.com
Other NYE shows:
Boney James brings his smooth saxophone sounds to Yoshi’s in Oakland Dec. 29-31, yoshis.com.
Local jazzman Jeff Bordes and his talented friends will have the Bankhead Theater in Livermore swinging on Dec. 31, livermorearts.org.
Mustache Harbor will turn up the yacht rock hits at Cornerstone in Berkeley on Dec. 31, cornerstoneberkeley.com.
Legendary San Jose bluesman Tommy Castro and the Painkillers, alongside Deanna Bogart and DJ Harry Duncan, perform at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on Dec. 31, thefreight.org.
Oakland’s Beat Antique brings its world fusion/EDM grooves to the Catalyst in Santa Cruz on Dec. 31, catalystclub.com.
The California Honeydrops, another intriguing Oakland musical outfit, performs its retro-soul songs on Dec. 31 at The Guild in Menlo Park, guildtheatre.com.
