Gatemouth Brown, the Fabulous Thunderbirds 9 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 31 House of Blues, 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE Gatemouth Brown (pictured) opens for the Fabulous Thunderbirds for House of Blues' New Year's Eve party on Tuesday. He has a booth named after him in the restaurant and is one of the club's regular performers, so it's only natural that Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown rings in the new year at House of Blues, since it's a second home of sorts for the Slidell legend. Now approaching 80, Brown's still a guitarist's guitarist, his nimble fingers fingerpicking smoking instrumentals like "Okie Dokie Stomp" -- which he recorded half a century ago. He doesn't fool around on the fiddle either, bringing country and bluegrass into his huge repertoire encompassing big band, rhythm and blues, jazz, and whatever else Gate feels like playing from his gigantic repertoire. The Fabulous Thunderbird's Kim Wilson is a spring chicken compared to Brown, but the veteran harmonica player is an elder statesman in his own right, having led retro blues-rockers the T-Birds for almost 30 years and staked his claim as one of contemporary blues' finest harp players. Tickets $60. -- Scott Jordan

Anders Osborne & Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and the Golden Eagles Mardi Gras Indians 9 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 31 Funky Butt, 714 N. Rampart St., 558-0872 Anders Osborne & Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and the Golden Eagles Mardi Gras Indians shake the Funky Butt for a New Year's Eve throw-down on Tuesday. In most cities, New Year's Eve means the beginning of a new calendar year, but in New Orleans, it means that Mardi Gras is right around the corner. This double bill is a good way to get in the spirit. Bluesy roots-rocker Anders Osborne will trade sets with Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and the Golden Eagles Mardi Gras Indians, culminating in a jammed-out set with both bands stretching well past midnight. Along with selections from their own original songbooks, the duo is sure to pull out party favorites from the Indian tradition like "Meet de Boys on de Battlefront" and "Smoke It Right." The performance will be a live extension of the duo's recently released album Bury the Hatchet, a collection of originals and standards celebrating the folk and street beat traditions. Drummer Jason Marsalis and his band will play two sets in the Funky Butt's downstairs room at 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Admission $25. -- Cristina Diettinger

Bianca and Becky's Outrageous Bachanale 10 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 31 Le Chat Noir, 715 St. Charles Ave., 581-5812 Roommates Becky Allen and Roy Haylock (aka Bianca Del Rio) don't have closets; they have whole rooms dedicated to their respective theatrical careers. Performing together onstage for the first time ever, Becky and Bianca will ring in the new year cabaret-style in song and dance, leaving the crowd literally in stitches (or is that stitching?). It was a big year for the queens of lower Decatur Street; Allen shined in her quasi-dramatic turn in Dirty Blonde, while Bianca/Haylock performed all over the place (including Atlanta) and debuted a funny one-woman show earlier this fall at Le Chat. After their individual and combined numbers, the pair will return to the stage at midnight to ring in the new year. Dress nice; they'll be watching. Tickets are $50 front and second row, $25 others. -- David Lee Simmons

Electrical Spectacle, Glorybee 10 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 31 Mermaid Lounge, 1100 Constance St., 524-4747 Nothing enhances the feeling of progressing to the future like an electronic music show in a small, dark club. The Mermaid Lounge's "Countdown to Meltdown" celebrates the local electronic contingent, our own extension of the international electronic music explosion. 2002 saw the emergence of "electroclash," a genre that uses 1970s and '80s New Wave to create new electronic textures. Like this contagious club concoction, Electrical Spectacle looks to the past for innovation. A study in the vintage keyboard sounds of the '60s and '70s, the Spectacle's retro-futuristic sound is the perfect antithesis to most of what goes on in the organic, roots-obsessed local music scene. The group's massive Moog synthesizer collection sets the tone for electro-effects and the whirring of the theremin. Fellow local electronic outfit Glorybee will warm up the crowd with its own brand of roots rebellion. Indie rock band Mexico 1910 is also on the bill. Admission $10. -- Diettinger

Sonny Landreth 10 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 31 Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville Cafe, 1104 Decatur St., 592-2565 Slide guitarist extraordinaire Sonny Landreth recently was one of the special guests at Little Feat's star-studded Washington, D.C., reprise of their classic Waiting for Columbus album, then came home to Breaux Bridge to finish The Road We¹re On, his new album slated for release in late January. Before he kicks off a busy year in support of his new CD, Landreth is making one of his all-too-infrequent trips on I-10 East for a New Orleans gig. Expect a healthy dose of new songs from The Road We¹re On (including a couple of barnburning Landreth slide showcases), as well as Landreth classics like "Congo Square" and "South of I-10." In the complete speculation department, considering that Jimmy Buffett covered Landreth's "U.S.S. Zydecoldsmobile" and invited him up for a jam at Jazz Fest this year, maybe he'll be in attendance tonight. Tickets $65, includes open bar and hors d'oeuvres. -- Jordan

Morning 40 Federation 10 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 31 The Howlin' Wolf, 828 S. Peters St., 522-WOLF This has been a big year for Morning 40 Federation. These musical chroniclers of Ninth Ward drinking culture scored their first gig at Jazz Fest, put out their second album, Trick Nasty, and filmed their successful summer tour for an upcoming documentary. One of the most prolific bands in town, the 40s have plenty of new songs for their madcap New Year's Eve show, complete with 40-ounce beers and circus freaks. They'll hit the stage around midnight. Ninth Ward-based carnival-country-rock band Bingo! precedes the 40s. The centerpiece of the popular Thursday night bingo games at Fiorella's Restaurant on Decatur Street, the small combo makes novelty-folk music that enhances Tom Waits-style blues with pump organ and sound effects from toy ray guns. Also from the far side of the Press Street tracks, Strek'n Hobo will open the show with circus antics featuring downtown characters Stix the Clown, Ratty Scurvics, and 40s trombonist Space Rickshaw. Admission $12. Admission and all you can drink $40. -- Diettinger

Robert Randolph, John Mooney & Bluesiana 10 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 31 Tipitina's, 501 Napoleon Ave., 895-TIPS Robert Randolph (pictured) and John Mooney & Bluesiana trade guitar licks at Tipitina's New Year's Eve bash on Tuesday. One plays pedal steel and the other favors a Stratocaster, but Robert Randolph and John Mooney share similar musical educations. Mooney learned from Son House, the legendary bluesman whose devotion to the church kept spiritual songs in his heart and repertoire. Randolph learned from elder players like Calvin Cooke in the Church of God, who use their craft in service of a higher power. Both Mooney and Randolph have used those experiences to forge their own signature styles; Mooney favors a hard syncopated slide sound that traffics heavily in second-line rhythms, while Randolph's pedal steel allows for an electric quiver with long sustain. The unspoken draw of this show is the hope of a jam between the veteran Mooney and relative newcomer Randolph: both men have deep trick bags and serious stage presence, making for the possibility of a slide duel for the ages. Tickets $45. -- Jordan

Hidden Wars of the Storm 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, Jan. 1-3; 7:30 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, Jan. 5-9 Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center, 1724 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., 525-2767 Few local cultural entities have been more responsive to the need for post-9/11 international awareness than the Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center -- mainly through the medium of film. That education continues with two more films. Hidden Wars of the Storm, a documentary from Gerard Ungerman and Audrey Brohey, explores and questions the United States' relations with and actions against Iraq before, during and after Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The film features interviews with Desert Storm commander Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and is narrated by actor John Hurt. (For more info, visit www.arabfilm.com/index.html.) The screening will be followed by Patricio Guzman's The Pinochet Case, which explores the machinations that led to the arrest and trial in the late 1990s of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. (For more info, visit http://www.frif.com/new2002/pino.html.) Tickets $6 general admission, $5 students and seniors, $4 Zeitgeist members. -- Simmons

Nokia Sugar Bowl 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 1 Louisiana Superdome Greg Jones leads the 16th-ranked Florida State Seminoles against the fifth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs in the Nokia Sugar Bowl on Wednesday. Despite Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden's legendary status as an offensive "riverboat gambler," for years Seminole fans privately grumbled that it was longtime offensive coordinate Mark Richt who was the brains behind FSU's weaponry. And, in a perfect world, this Nokia Sugar Bowl matchup between FSU and Georgia (with Richt in his second year as head coach) might answer the question as to who's the greater offensive mind. But alas, the SEC-champ Bulldogs are ranked fifth in the nation and came within one interception of the national-championship game, while FSU stumbles into New Orleans (for the fifth time in nine years) ranked 16th with a 9-4 record. Worse, FSU is without its top two quarterbacks, and the whole program is reeling from allegations of gambling among players and other FSU students both inside and outside the program (see A&E Feature). The game is sold out, but will be televised by WGNO (ABC26). -- Simmons

The 'World Famous' Lipizzaner Stallions World Tour 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4; 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 5 Pontchartrain Center, 4545 Williams Blvd., Kenner, 465-9985 The 'World Famous' Lipizzaner Stallions World Tour cantors into the Pontchartrain Center on Saturday and Sunday. The Lipizzaner Stallion is quite literally a breed apart. Its lineage can be traced 2,000 years back to the good old days of Carthage, threading through the Moorish domination of Spain as well as Austria, Italy and Denmark. The breed was so prized that Gen. George S. Patton helped rescue the horses during World War II in an adventure immortalized in the Disney flick, The Miracle of the White Stallions. Today, the World Tour showcases the grace, beauty and strength of the horse in a series of maneuvers that has drawn rave reviews from coast to coast (including New Orleans). This weekend's event will feature many of the classic movements, including the Quadrille, in which the stallions and their riders execute several exercises in a ballet-like fashion. Tickets are $19.50 for adults, $17.50 children 12-under and seniors 60-over; a limited number of Gold Circle Seats are available for $24.50. All tickets are available through the Pontchartrain Center box office or through Ticketmaster (522-5555). -- Simmons

Whistler Impressions From the Fogg Art Museum Through Feb. 23 Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, 314-2406 Whistler Impressions From the Fogg Art Museum is up at Tulane's Newcomb Art Gallery through Feb. 23. James Abbot McNeill Whistler may have become famous for his portrait of his mother, but in his own time it was his etchings that secured his reputation among his peers and critics. Known as a champion of the Art for Art's Sake movement, Whistler was not averse to making art for money's sake, and if his paintings were sometimes called "pictile nightmares" and "meaningless canvases," his etchings were popular from their first appearance in the Salon of 1859. Whistler worked tirelessly to promote etching and lithography, and his innovations helped to stimulate interest in both techniques. In his own time, Whistler was called the greatest etcher since Rembrandt, and these prints from the Fogg Art Museum were selected to convey a sense of the tremendous scope and facility of his graphic production, which were the keys to understanding why he was so widely admired. -- D. Eric Bookhardt