New Year’s Eve at the Dog!

***Miss Nancy displays the Beacon New Year’s Eve dropped ball!!***

New Year’s Eve is always a time of great revelry. In order for the revelry to really revel, it helps to have some boss sounds played at a volume that is intense enough to induce revelment. The management at The Dogwood understood this principal and duly asked DJ Pete Pop to provide said boss sounds for the club’s year end celebration. Pete Pop then asked Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus to help out. Plus, extra added attraction, our new pal Peter Aaron brought a box of records and a couple times during the evening, he pulled out some records and played them.

The Dogwood is a groovy club/bar/restaurant located on East Main Street in Beacon, NY. It’s got a couple rooms, and for this evening, one of them was cleared of tables and chairs in order for dancing to ensue—and it ensued in a big way!

***DJ Pete Pop swings on New Year’s Eve!***

DJ Pete Pop is the king of reet music on both sides of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge. He is currently holding down four regular DJ gigs—three monthlies at the Dogwood, Quinn’s and now the Jet Set; plus the Funky Brunch every Sunday at Mama Roux. In fact, New Year’s Eve weekend, DJ Pete Pop worked the Friday Night (Do The 45 at Quinns’), Saturday Night (New Year’s Eve noted here) and Sunday morning Funky Brunch! Does the man ever sleep?

***Peter Aaron swings on New Year’s Eve!!***

Peter Aaron is a fellow who was recently introduced to the Boogaloo Bag writers. He’s a Kingston cat who was once the leader of the nineties punk band Chrome Cranks. These days he’s written some books about music and culture and is the arts editor of Chronogram, Hudson Valley’s culture magazine. He’s also the host of Go-Go Kitty, a program on WKNY—Radio Kingston, on Thursday nights. So this guy knows his music and on New Year’s Eve, he played some great records that kept the dance floor alive.

Adding to the festivities in a big way were Miss Nancy’s peanut butter fudge and mint-infused vegan brownies.

At midnight, the club provided attendees with a glass of champagne. All were directed outside where there was a midnight Beacon Ball Drop!

As New Year’s Eve nights go, this one was certainly a gasser, but it was not without it’s disaster. Some time after midnight it was observed that condensation from the overhead air conditioner was dripping near the DJ booth. TOO near. Water was present on the top of Peter Aaron’s record box (luckily, closed) and The Boogaloo Omnibus’ fez box (luckily, closed). However, the bulk of the drippings fell into DJ Pete Pop’s main record case. Water was all over them. Most of the records were saved due to the fact that Mr. Pop keeps his 45s in plastic sleeves, but all of that had to be wiped down. Unfortunately, water did get into some of the sleeves—maybe about a dozen or so—and they had to be separated from the records. Peter Aaron was asked to extend his DJ set in order to give The Boog and Mr. Pop time to clean up the mess. Mr. Aaron did a grand job of it, so there were no worries in that department; the show went on!

…and what a show it was. All night long there were folks dancing and carrying on as if it were New Year’s Eve, because, of course, it was! Everyone had a grand time. At the end of the night, when things were getting packed up to leave, one of the owners of the Dogwood conversed with the Boogaloo Bag writers and let them know that he was very pleased with how the evening went down. Everybody was happy.

Here is a list of all the records played by Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus at the Dogwood for the New Year’s Eve Party: