COVER STORY
First Night 2000: A sampler
From a talking mime to singing snakes to a flying comic - meet some of the stars of First Night
If you haven't made it to First Night in years past, you've got three chances - and hundreds of reasons - to check it out this year. The advent of a new millennium has spurred the biggest citywide party yet: a three-day party, to be exact, starting New Year's Eve and lasting all weekend (four days if you count opening ceremonies at 5 p.m. today in City Hall Plaza).
A $20 button gets you into two-dozen venues to see 1,200 artists present their work. With that kind of a roster, nobody will be disappointed.
If you're looking to be a New Year's noisemaker, take a drumming workshop and join the new Percussion Procession on Saturday (it leaves the Hynes Convention Center at 5 p.m.).
If you're after something more serene as the midnight hour approaches Friday, forget the parties and fireworks and stop by St. Paul's Cathedral for an interreligious service at 11:15 p.m., "Watch. Wait. Wonder."
There are activities for kids at the Hynes and the new US Courthouse during the day; there is sophisticated entertainment for the grown-ups at night.
We've chosen a handful of performers to profile, to give you a sampling of what you can see and do over the next few days.
Revolutionary Snake Ensemble
If you want the snap and sizzle of Mardi Gras a few weeks early to warm up the Boston winter, stop by the Parkman Bandstand on Friday or Saturday evening to welcome in the new year with the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble.
Odaiko New England
Drumming is elemental, ritualistic, and fun, the perfect punctuation to end a millennium.
Liber UnUsualis
Many acts at First Night take the new millennium as their theme.
Julie Kaufmann Dancin'
On First Night two years ago, at Julie Kaufmann's country-and-Western line-dancing extravaganza, the dance leader cued up a nice, romantic slow dance, and looked out over the 200 people who had been stomping and scuffing and kicking on the floor of the Hynes Convention Center.
Trent Arterberry
Trent Arterberry is a talking mime.
Tony V.
Tony V. has been playing Boston's comedy clubs since the early '80s, but he's never played the Wang Center before.
Janice Allen
When Janice Allen was a just a kid, she used to sit in the congregation at Boston's Blue Hill Protestant Center and listen, rapt, to the harmonies of Virgil Wood's Freedom Choir.
The Airborne Comedians
Dan Foley and Joel Harris started out as just a couple of kids yukking it up in high school in Spencerport, N.Y.
Opera UnMet
It's not the Metropolitan Opera, but Opera UnMet has its own charms.
William Tremblay and Rob Gonsalves
Techno-artists William Tremblay and Rob Gonsalves hit their conceptual mother lode when First Night production director Gina Mullen urged them to come up with a proposal for the millennial shindig.
Excelsior
When people hear local band Excelsior, they usually have no idea the music is decades old.
Artie Barsamian's big band
Artie Barsamian may have never followed his heart if his heart had stayed healthy.
Weepin' Willie
By the time he found his way in front of a band in 1959, Weepin' Willie Robinson had been a migrant farm worker, dishwasher, boxer, soldier, and MC.
Karen Aqua and Jane Gillooly
This day - this New Year's, this passage from one millennium to the next, if you view it that way - will never come again.
Harriet Casdin-Silver and Kevin Brown
Harriet Casdin-Silver has her fingers in a couple of First Night pies.
Through the Looking Glass Artists
Here's a chance for you and your kids to peer into the future.
Mitch Ryerson
Mild-mannered Mitch Ryerson makes furniture.
Babaloo
Their party-loving sound may best be described as a mix of the Sex Pistols and Tito Puente, but Babaloo trumpet player La'zik (a.k.a. Marc Chillemi) has a more elaborate theory.
Angry Salad
It's only a few days before New Year's Eve, and Angry Salad lead singer Bob Whelan is in a bit of a panic.
Leeny Del Seamonds and Gideon Freudmann
This Family Festival offering at the Hynes isn't a storyteller weaving yarns with the mellow undertones of a cello in the background.
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