New Year’s Eve in Orange County : If Father Time Wants to Party, He Faces Plenty of Choices

After taking some time off to break in a new guitarist, write some new songs and record a demo tape, T.S.O.L. is set to return to its old stomping grounds in Huntington Beach to usher in the New Year.

The band will play Night Moves on Saturday, one of a number of local entertainment choices available to county residents searching for a way to celebrate the passing of 1988.

New Year’s Eve in Orange County has special meaning for bassist Mike Roche, the band’s only remaining original member. In 1981, T.S.O.L. (which stands for True Sounds of Liberty) was set to headline a New Year’s Eve show at the Broadway Theater in downtown Santa Ana, but the band never got a chance to play.

“That one was slated to be a really big show,” Roche recalled. “There were lots of people outside, lots of people on the street.”

Before the band even got on stage, Santa Ana police arrived and started making arrests in the audience (“for (urinating) here, drinking a beer there,” Roche said), declared the concert a public nuisance and closed it down.

“That was back in the beginning, and police didn’t understand it at all,” Roche said. “Back then, black pants and paramilitary boots and spiked hair really frightened people.”

The band members don’t expect anything like that to happen at Night Moves on Saturday because so much has changed since the days when T.S.O.L. was one of the Southland’s leading hard-core punk bands.

“It’s so hard to shock people anymore,” Roche said. But the band’s past still haunts the members--when police ran a check on their van last week after a parking violation, the band members heard the dispatcher report that the van was registered to T.S.O.L., “a hard-core punk rock band.”

“Any time we get pulled over, that’s what police hear,” Roche said, with a chuckle.

Lead guitarist Scott Phillips, who joined the group earlier this year to replace departed founding member Ron Emory, said T.S.O.L. has recently returned to the stage, playing some Los Angeles dates while finishing up the demo. The new work, Phillips said, continues in the hard-rocking vein the band mined in the group’s last studio album, 1987’s “Hit and Run.”

“Every album changed gradually,” Phillips said, noting the 8-year-old band’s history of stylistic shifts. “This one is pretty much in line with their last album. . . . It’s just rock. It’s all rock.”

Rounding out the band’s lineup with Roche and Phillips are drummer Mitch Dean and singer-guitarist Joe Wood, who joined the band about 5 years ago. Along with the personnel changes, T.S.O.L. has evolved musically toward a more mainstream, melodic hard-rock sound.

“The stuff’s real powerful these days,” Roche said. “It’s kind of like we found our niche.”

In January, the band leaves for its first tour in more than a year, with a week of shows in San Francisco and another week-plus stint in Oregon, Washington and Canada. The group then comes home again for a brief respite before hitting the road for another short tour.

Another project is striking a deal with a record label. The band parted with independent Enigma Records earlier this year, and members have said that they would like to land a major-label deal in hopes of scoring the same kind of success that Guns N’ Roses has achieved with a similar sound.

“We just got done with the tape,” Phillips said. “Things are in the works. We don’t have anything on paper yet.” But Roche said he expects the band to sign a deal by the end of January.

T.S.O.L. will perform at Night Moves in Huntington Beach at 9 p.m. Tickets are $15. Information: (714) 840-6118.

At the other end of the musical spectrum, the Pacific Symphony will celebrate New Year’s Eve with a concert at the Performing Arts Center and a post-performance bash at the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel for the second year.

Zdenek Macal will conduct a program that includes works by Johann and Richard Strauss, Gershwin and Offenbach. Pianist Jeffrey Siegel will be the featured soloist.

The concert will begin at 8:30 p.m., and the black-tie-optional party will follow immediately after. Tickets for the concert only are $29; tickets for the concert and party are $69 to $150. Information: (714) 973-1300.

-- It will be a bluesy New Year’s Eve at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim as B.B. King, Bobby Bland and Millie Jackson perform at 7 and 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $40. Information: (714) 999-9536.

-- Favorite son James Harman will skip his favorite rib joint for a black-tie night at the mall: His band of Dangerous Gentlemens will entertain at a New Year’s Eve party sponsored by Center 500, an Orange County Performing Arts Center support group. The entertainment at South Coast Plaza’s Crystal Court will also include magicians, and hors d’oeuvres will be served. Tickets are $85 and are available by calling (714) 740-2000.

-- Knott’s Berry Farm will once again bring in the New Year with a night of contemporary Christian music. This year’s lineup will include the Allies and Bryan Duncan, the Choir, Whitecross, Jon Gibson, Shout, Ojo Taylor, 4.4.1., Holidays, Adam Again and Level Heads. The hours will be 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. Special tickets are required and cost $16 in advance and $18 on Saturday. Information: (714) 827-1776.

-- At Disneyland, the entertainment lineup will include Lou Rawls, the Jets and Johnny Kemp. The hours will be 8:30 p.m. to 3 a.m. Special tickets are required and cost $32. Information: (714) 999-4565.

-- Rounding out the pop scene, the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano will feature Al Stewart, the Scottish singer-songwriter whose 1970s hits included “Year of the Cat” and “Time Passages.” Stewart will perform at 9 p.m. Tickets are $25. Information: (714) 496-8930.

Elsewhere:

-- Voice Farm and Red Flag will headline a show at Club Postnuclear in Laguna Beach from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. Admission is $25. Information: (714) 497-3881.

-- The Nick Pyzow Band will provide the entertainment at the Blue Beet Cafe, 107 21st St., Newport Beach. The price for the celebration, which includes dinner and champagne, is $25 to $30. Information: (714) 675-2338.

-- The Rock Around the Clock Band will ring in the New Year at the Hop, 23822 Mercury Road, El Toro. The doors will open at 5 p.m., followed by dinner at 6 p.m. and dancing from 8 p.m. to midnight. Admission is $50. Information: (714) 768-6178.

-- On the comedy front, Ritch Shydner and Jerry Miner will perform at 7:30 and 10 p.m. at the Irvine Improv. Tickets for the dinner shows are $45 and $50. Information: (714) 854-5455. On stage at the Laff Stop in Newport Beach will be Larry Wilmore and Robert Jenkins, in shows at 7:30 and 10 p.m. Tickets are $20 for the first show, $37.50 for the second. Information: (714) 852-8762.