The countdown of top 5 Las Vegas New Year’s Eve celebrations

We’re in countdown mode again in VegasVille. I’ve spent every New Year’s Eve since 1996 in town. But I’ve never counted down my personal favorites.

Now is the time. As we lumber into another calendar flip in VegasVille, here are my top 5 New Year’s Eves in Las Vegas:

1. Lady Gaga Parks it at NoMad: Master musician and bravura bandleader Brian Newman kicked into a rowdy version of “Auld Lang Syne” at the count of midnight, on New Year’s Eve 2019 at NoMad Library. But I trained my phone on his friend in bedazzled frippery, singing on stage-left.

.@ladygaga and @BrianNewmanNY ring in 2020 at NoMad at Park MGM #VegasNYE #NewYearsEve2020 pic.twitter.com/pjkEhPNctK

— Kevin M. Cannon (@kmcannonphoto) January 1, 2020

A gentleman arrived at her side. A random interloper? Not hardly. This was her soon-to-be announced boyfriend, tech entrepreneur Michael Polansky. The NYE party marked their first pubic kiss.

Count it. @BrianNewmanNY @ladygaga #VegasNYE and no ID yet on Gaga’s partner here ... pic.twitter.com/rdCq4AY1cy

— John Katsilometes (@johnnykats) January 1, 2020

Gaga had already crushed it during “Jazz + Piano” at Park Theater (Dolby Live today) and hung for the ensuing revelry. We had two countdowns that night, the formal in-time celebration at midnight, just as Newman and his band hit the stage. We counted again, at 2:22 a.m., the party still percolating. Gaga had just unleashed “Fly Me To The Moon.” This New Year’s crowd was already there.

2. Wayne Newton’s Wild Ride: I’m often asked of my favorite interview subjects, favorite events or favorite stories over the years. The answer vacillates. Too many to consider to give the same answer each time.

But my single favorite line, ever, in a story or column is easy: “Wayne Newton, it should be noted, is a bad driver.”

We still laugh over this contention, which is as true today as it was on New Year’s Eve 1999. This was the infamous “Y2K” crisis that never happened. But we were almost Y2KO’d by our legendary chauffeur.

Mr. Las Vegas led what seemed a chase scene from “Vega$” through the Stardust parking lot (he was headlining his eponymous theater at the time), against one-way traffic on Industrial Road, making a right on the Strip at Spring Mountain and cutting off a limo in front of Bellagio Fountains.

I once had a micro-cassette of that interview, where Wayne alternately talked of his contemporaries Siegfried & Roy and Danny Gans while calling out to the limo driver, “Can you let me in!? I have an interview!” And Wayne’s wife, Kathleen, calling from the back, “Wayne! Wayne! Watch out!”

All of this to make a live interview with Connie Chung at Lake Bellagio, where Wayne parked the Rolls on the curb and hustled up a scaffold staircase to make his hit time.

As we returned to Stardust, we nearly slammed a giant potted plant at the stage door. But Wayne was totally composed. As he said, “This is a party,” and it was.

3. The Mayor Goodman Rock Festival: That’s what it felt like on NYE 2008, as then Mayor Oscar Goodman wasn’t just the Happiest Mayor in the Universe, he was the most-in demand. Oscar and now-Mayor Carolyn Goodman cut through an estimated 30,000 partiers on Fremont Street. The Goodmans navigated the throng behind a quartet of city of Las Vegas marshals, and alongside a pair of ever-present showgirls. The entirely appropriate Queen anthem “We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions” played on the sound system.

Nonplussed Vegas broadcast icon Kevin Janison, then with News 3, managed a live interview onstage. The Goodmans joined Janison’s weather forecast, which was “cold, with a 100-percent chance of lout.”

At midnight, the mayoral couple managed a beso amid the bedlam. Outstanding.

4. Killers shake up Cosmopolitan: A bouncy celebration last year for the Las Vegas rockers at The Chelsea, with its spring-activated GA floor. The countdown was played to an an instrumental cover of of “Auld Lang Syne,” accompanied by a cannon burst of confetti. The band then tore through “Mr. Brightside.”

Last song of ‘22, and we hear you … … @thekillers @Cosmopolitan_LV @reviewjournal #RJNow #NYE2022 pic.twitter.com/vFbidiTvr4

— John Katsilometes (@johnnykats) January 1, 2023

Before the spectacle, Brandon Flowers recalled a gig long before the Killers. He performed at Josef’s Restaurant, the French brassiere operated by celebrity chef Joseph Keller, inside Aladdin’s Desert Passage (today’s Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood). Flowers was a food runner and host at the restaurant. As the band proved that night, and in every performance, we’re a long way from Desert Passage.

How we kick off ‘23 … What a time, guys and dolls … @thekillers @Cosmopolitan_LV #NYE2022 #RJNow @reviewjournal pic.twitter.com/Mwu8VuZpTJ

— John Katsilometes (@johnnykats) January 1, 2023

5. Takin’ care o’ Fremont: This celebration in 1998 is somewhat of a blur. It was a rare NYE I wasn’t actually assigned to cover (it was also during the pre-FizzyWater days). But Bachman Tuner Overdrive and Starship headlined Fremont Street, setting off another cold crush of humanity. A $10 ticket price, and comparatively scaled-back security, in those days.

A friend visiting cut into the Las Vegas Club — or was it Golden Gate? — to play slots for the first time. Megabucks, actually. After dumping a few 20s into the machine and coming up empty, he said, “I was expecting a little more instant gratification.” Good luck. We grooved to BTO’s “Taking Care of Business,” and a midnight flourish of Prince’s “1999” across the FSE canopy. The technology has been upgraded, but the memories are held in time.

Cool Hang Alert

Danny “Count” Koker hosts “Count’s 77” NYE party Sunday at Count’s Vamp’d Rock Bar & Grill. (Doors at 8 p.m., party to rage until past midnight). It’s a rock show, 1970s-style, with righteous rock practitioners Koker, Stoney Curtis, John Zito, Barry Barnes, Jeff Tortora and Tommy Paris. Cover is $10 (a mere pittance); there is no truth to the rumor Koker is auctioning off his flip phone.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.