Kicking Off a Rockin’ New Year’s Eve Was Thrill for Our Reporter

My New York City based band Kicked off 2023 with a New Year’s Eve gig to remember.

After two years of relatively muted New Year’s Eve celebrations, we rang in NYE 2023 as the opening act at Brooklyn Bowl with a revelry reminiscent of pre-pandemic years. I had the incredible opportunity to be part of this NYE extravaganza, taking the stage as lead guitarist of new band Puzzled Panther, which opened for NYC-based punk bands Murphy’s Law and Gogol Bordello. The main concept behind these NYE shows is to showcase both veterans and newbies of the NYC music scene. Gogol Bordello’s NYE festivities actually encompassed three days, from December 29th to the 31st. Each night featured a different set of opening artists, which encompassed a diverse range of musical styles. Murphy’s Law, a punk and hardcore band that has been an NYC standard for 39 years, was among the NYE openers and played a boisterous set on the 31st.The newer names included Crazy & The Brains, which previously opened for Gogol Bordello on tour and reprised their performance on the 30th here in NYC, as well as our aforementioned band Puzzled Panther. I was struck by the enthusiasm of the crowd and the strong sense of community. There was a euphoric sentiment in the air as New Yorkers reveled in the familiar and much-missed feeling of a rockin’ NYE. Headliner Gogol Bordello was the unifying factor among this eclectic lineup of artists. Among the most high-energy live musical acts out there today, the “gypsy-punk” outfit is known for its inimitable blend of punk rock, world music, traditional gypsy (Romani) music, and Eastern European polka.

Raucous and Dynamic

Gogol’s raucous and dynamic live show has inspired a devoted fanbase, which showed up in droves for the New Year’s Eve performance. While frontman Eugene Hütz originally hails from Ukraine, the band got its start right here in Manhattan and is strongly associated with the music scene of the Lower East Side. During the show, Hütz pulled up various musicians and performers to amplify the onstage shenanigans (including Victoria Espinoza and myself of Puzzled Panther.) Midnight struck with a celebration as lively as the music itself. Along with performers from the previous nights’ shows, we joined Gogol onstage for the countdown, shooting champagne into the crowd and shaking maracas. To me it was thrilling night in part because the 1,200 person audience was the biggest crowd I had ever performed before. But more importantly it sent the clear message: as we enter 2023: New York is back with a vengeance, and its music scene as vibrant as ever.