We're in the process of figuring out what to do for New Year's Eve this year.

I love NYE - it's by far my favorite day of the year, but it's been hard in the years since Phish (in the years since Big Cypress, actually, because Phish has only played 3 out of the last 6 New Years) to figure out how to get the music/party ratio just right. The trick is to ensure you have both quality music - nitty gritty down and dirty "this is what we came for" kind of stuff - and a great party. New Year's can't go off with a whimper, it's got to be a flying-hot-dog-dancing-bunnies-or-gorillas-Stanton-descending -in-a-cage-of-fire-shiny-silver-suit kind of thing.

TLG did a nice job last year, definitely. And Claypool and friends in ape suits in 2004 was also um, interesting. Galactic actually came the closest, though, with the above-linked Fire/Water shows in 2001. But there's nothing, of course, that will ever match Miami for sheer intensity.

I wrote in the entry about Miami that "12/30 was about the music. 12/31 was about the party" and to this day I think that's the ideal. Get all your demons out the night before. Be musically inspired. Expect something great. Then let it all go for New Year's. Pop a few balloons. Boogie. Kiss your husband and your friends. Wear sequins. Play more cowbell. Give free hugs.

So that's why we're thinking this year we'll see My Morning Jacket on the 30th and brave the Sea of Dreams on the 31st. We're not expecting great things from String Cheese, ALO, and Lotus, but we are from MMJ the night before. And that's as it should be, 'cause I just want to dance.