New Year’s Eve Roundup: Celebrate with these local shows from Radkey, Split Lip Rayfield, the Phantastics and more

On the off chance you haven’t secured your plans for New Year’s Eve just yet, we have rounded up a few noteworthy shows going down in Kansas City and Lawrence. Because if we know one thing for certain, it’s that music always makes the party. Fill your ears with something you’re sure to love on Wednesday night. 

Radkey, Bummer, Drop a Grand, Mace Batons, Scruffy and the Janitors
RecordBar, 7:30 p.m., $15

RecordBar’s New Year’s Eve lineup foreshadows bad decisions and a fuzzy January 1. Punk-rock trio Radkey rings in the new year at the venue as it did last December. If memory serves, you’ll definitely want tickets to this party. Another young, suburban-born trio, Bummer, delivers its brass-knuckle rock. (These guys recently signed to local label High Dive Records, so keep an ear out for their 2015 full-length.) Drop a Grand, Mace Batons, and Scruffy and the Janitors also are on deck, each prepared to knock you loose and get you liquored up in time for the ball drop.

Split Lip Rayfield
The Bottleneck, 7 p.m., $28

Leave it to Wichita bluegrass badasses Split Lip Rayfield to offer a low-key and raucous New Year’s Eve option. Expect the lauded trio to fill the Bottleneck with enough fast-paced picking to be worthy of a true hoedown. Few things compare with the sight of Jeff Eaton playing his homemade bass as banjo player Eric Mardis and mandolin player Wayne Gottstine conjure a hurricane of wailing strings and stomping rhythms. Forget the swanky suit and the elegant dress. You’ll want boots and denim for the dancing that this band will coax out of you. Note: This show is currently sold out, but maybe you know a guy. 

The Phantastics
Jazzhaus, 10:30 p.m., $10

If you’re trying to decide between a fancy black-tie New Year’s Eve and a less formal, more dance-friendly Wednesday night, look no further than the Jazzhaus in Lawrence. The Phantastics, an eight-piece hip-hop and funk ensemble led by rapper thePhantom* and singer Leigh Gibbs, makes that venue its own. ThePhantom* — also known as “the Dapper Rapper” — is likely to be rocking a bow tie, so pick out your best neckwear, coordinate your socks and prepare to get down.

Hammerlord, Psychic Heat 
Replay Lounge, 10 p.m., $10

If you’re looking to get loud on NYE, Hammerlord will be right there with you. The KC-Lawrence metal band will give 2014 the most boisterous kiss-off you can imagine, and Lawrence rockers Psychic Heat will get you warmed and ready to stomp last year into its grave. 

Vince Neil, Shooting Star
Ameristar Casino, 9 p.m., $60

Speaking of loud, Ameristar Casino welcomes Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil on December 31. Tickets are priced steep – $60 a pop – but you’ll only get one chance to wave farewell to 2014, so you might as well do it with “Girls, Girls, Girls” blasting overhead. Shooting Star opens. 

Samantha Fish, The Rainmakers
Knuckleheads, 7 p.m., $100

Knuckleheads’ annual NYE bash – featuring blues babe and Pitch Music Awards winner Samantha Fish with the Rainmakers – has long been sold out. Kind of. There are some standing room-only tickets available, and you should probably nab them now, while you still can. 

Are we missing some action? Let us know where you’re saying goodbye to 2014 in the comments.