Local clubs are beginning to make known their New Year's Eve lineups, and they're looking like winners across the board. The Showbox offers you a chance to spend New Year's Eve with a few of the Northwest's hottest club acts. R&B stalwart Maktub is the headliner, and the band's killer sound will no doubt get the crowd moving and keep them moving as the hour draws near. Brad front man Shawn Smith has a singer-songwriter's gift that transcends genre. And both Daylight Basement (featuring former Kuma vocalist Bre Laughlin) and pop-rockers Abbotfinney are soon to make their mark.

Across town at the Tractor, winter is in full force. The Long Winters play a brand of pop-saturated Americana that has earned the band favorable comparisons to Wilco and REM, and the supporting act, the up-and-coming The Village Green, has a real root-rock fire burning under it. I haven't heard opening band Bill Patton & The Credentials, but judging from the company Patton and friends have on this bill, the group's likely to rock the joint.

And at the Crocodile Café, inch into 2006 with everyone's favorite fictional transsexual rock star. "Hedwig's New Year's Eve Glam Rock Circus" stars Nick Garrison, whom many critics say plays the best Hedwig aside from John Cameron Mitchell himself. Garrison will be joined by his band Sissyfist, and you'd better believe they're going to rock the joint into oblivion. Guest appearances by star local actress Sarah Rudinoff and The Buttrock Suites Dancers are just a couple of the additional surprises planned to ensure that no reveler remains seated.

All told, no matter where you go, it's gonna be a night of maximum-strength mirth and mayhem. Get your tickets for these shows now, before it's too late.

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