Close out 2024 with three NYE live music picks from Hear in Portland • Kye Alive and Nonbinary Girlfriend co-host 2025 Alive! • Plus, Black Belt Eagle Scout's January show feels like a perfect kickoff to 2025 by Jenni Moore The hectic holiday season is in full swing! If you want to see a show on New Year's Eve, make a plan! Here are three NYE event suggestions for a lovely night out on the town and one post-New Year show on top!  MUST SEE:  Upcoming local event(s) featuring local artist(s).  Jenny Don’t and the Spurs: New Year's Eve Cowboy Prom This Cowboy Prom NYE party sounds like a guaranteed memorable time. It’s only appropriate that country outlaw band Jenny Don’t and the Spurs headline the show, offering a great opportunity to see the band before they embark on their UK tour in February. The band has overcome plenty in their decade as a group—including lead vocalist Jenny’s vocal surgery in 2019 and the loss of band’s drummer Sam Henry to cancer in 2022—but they continue to build a following for their boisterous live performances. Expect to hear them play cuts from their most recent project, Broken Hearted Blue, which was released in June via Fluff and Gravy records. Support acts include singer/songwriter Jacob Weldon and solo act-turned-four-piece White Lightning Co. (Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi, Tues Dec 31, 9 pm, $30, tickets here, 21+) Related: Say Goodbye to 2024 at These New Year's Eve Events in Portland 2025 Alive! A Nonbinary Girlfriend New Year's Eve Experience This magical merging of friends and allies is hosted by Kye Alive and Nonbinary Girlfriend AKA Anais Genevieve, and will feature epic, year-ending performances from a trio of Portland bands that represent the trans and gender nonconforming community— including the titular headliners Nonbinary Girlfriend, as well as musician/producer/visual artist Bijoux Cone, and alternative rock group Wet Thud. We’re known to sing the praises of NBG’s enchanting and addictive sound as heard on their debut full-length Big and Kind, and we recommend attending this show just to hear jams like the title track, “Body” and “Okay” live. Showgoers will be provided with ceremonial ribbons and balloons will drop from the sky at midnight. Bonding encouraged. (Show Bar, 1300 SE Stark, Tues Dec 31, 9 pm, $20, tickets here, 21+)           View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by NBGF (@nonbinarygirlfriend) Spoon Benders NYE with R.I.P. + Nick Normal Looking to add some dark, entrancing, and frenetic rock music to this year’s NYE festivities? Edgy garage-, prog- and psych-rock band Spoon Benders will slay this New Years Eve show at Lollipop Shoppe. Fronted by lead vocalist Katy Black, the band formed in 2018 and maintains an active touring schedule that’s lends itself to their impressive and seasoned stage act. Sounds will likely revolve around the four piece absolutely shredding through their 2023 project How Things Repeat, hopefully including opening track “Dichotomatic,” “Strychnine,” and “Rm. 157.” Pop-punk, rock act Nick Normal and R.I.P. round out the bill. (Lollipop Shoppe, 736 SE Grand, Tues Dec 31, 8:30 pm, $18-$20, tickets here, 21+) ADDED TO THE QUEUE:  Some upcoming music buzz to add to your radar. Black Belt Eagle Scout We haven’t seen Katherine Paul, AKA singer-songwriter Black Belt Eagle Scout’s moniker gracing any local lineups lately—in more than seven months!—so this appearance at the Reser in Beaverton feels right on time, like a perfect kickoff to 2025. Part of the PRAx and the College of Liberal Arts’ American Strings series, this event will feature intimate performances by BBES, along with an onstage conversation hosted by ethnomusicologist and public historian Kelly Bosworth. The focus will no doubt be on Paul’s 2023 album The Land, The Water, The Sky, a gorgeous and cohesive project that feels like coming back to the land, your people, and yourself. Here’s hoping the artist also gives us a taste of what BBES has been working on land looking forward to. (Patricia Reser Center for the Arts, 12625 SW Crescent, Beaverton; Wed Jan 8, 7 pm, $28, tickets here, all ages)