East vs. west; massive vs. intimate; venue vs. crowd. These are all topics of debate within the electro dance music (EDM) community. But this New Year’s Eve, as record numbers of fans turn out for EDM shows around the world, one scenario in particular is bound to get the message boards buzzing. In Manhattan's Webster Hall, UK dub-electro powerhouse Nero will play to an after-hours crowd of east coast electro-heads looking to escape the bar scene, while at the same time, nearly 3,000 miles away, west coast fans will ring in 2012 at their own Nero show in Seattle's WaMu Theater. 

2011 rushes into history taking some notable strangers, a few friends, and some cherished concepts with it. I can't complain about the way it treated me because it seemed to have treated a whole world of people worse. The world seems harder and more dangerous and less forgiving than in years past. Every minor conflict that we were worried about seems to have been worth the worry. The news is rarely good news and we seem to be accepting mediocrity as a nation. A recent trip to Virginia took me past town after town of similar malls and cookie cutter architecture. My New Year's resolution is simply to still give a damn.

In nightlife, one of the hardest jobs to fill is general manager. Everyone and anyone can be an owner. People who never did more than promote a prom end up calling themselves owners at joints around town. Great GMs are a rarity. Gerard McNamee is the GM at NYC's longest running nightclub, Webster Hall. Being a GM at a lounge or midsize club is not the same as running a joint that holds 1500 and up. Webster Hall is ginormous. It holds concerts, special events, corporate events, and fund raisers, and is open as a club with  thousands of people from all over the world passing through.

Rocking a party at a white-hot nightclub is just the tip of the iceberg for Lindsay Frio, who DJs under the name Lindsay Luv. Her job might keep her up until the wee hours, but it takes plenty of hustle during the day to make it all come together. "I'm up early answering emails, managing my accounting, chasing down bills, updating my websites, downloading new music, planning photo shoots, social networking, and the list goes on," she explains. 

Two months ago, British rockers The Kooks returned to the music scene with their third full length, Junk of the Heart. Since then, they’ve toured extensively in support of love-soaked record, their first in over three years. Tonight and tomorrow, fans can catch the Kooks at two sold out shows at Webster Hall, where hearts will no doubt be worn on sleeves. We recently caught up with frontman Luke Pritchard, who was bussing around Europe at the time, and couldn’t wait for his New York gigs. “I’m just getting drunkenly ready for it right now,” he said, while sipping a hot toddy.  What a coincidence—so are we!

Scratch Acid played Webster Hall on Monday. It was fucking amazing. The phenomenally named Austin noise punk band, who got together in '82 and disbanded that same decade, rarely tour. I was excited when they added the New York date to their month-long jaunt up the coasts, knowing it'd probably be the only time I'd ever see them play live. Though that thought is kind of sad; if you're going to see a band you love only once, it should always be like this.

For the first time in memory, I will not be in New York to celebrate my favorite holiday, Halloween. I will be whisked to Atlantic City for the Duran Duran concert and I couldn't be more excited about it. As usual my hosts, The Borgata, have gone all out to make things great. The post-concert package includes super-duper uber DJ and former Blackbook cover Mark Ronson in their club MIXX, and sister Samantha Ronson in mur mur. That's Saturday night. On Sunday, MIXX will be a blast with music by Rev Run and DJ Ruckus. On Monday, I will head to DC for the day to visit friends and family.

So many things to do, so little time. Work is killing me. Everybody seems to want to open the same day, and I haven't been able to clone myself since I lived in Chelsea. I'm finishing that Stay space (which will have another name), the very secretive space for Matthew Isaacs (which has a name that I can't reveal), and that hush-hush, I-can't-utter-a-word-about-the-name Noel Ashman joint. What's so important about keeping the names secret? Shouldn't places about to open be screaming them from mountaintops? That's the way I rolled, but hey, I'm not complaining. Real men don't complain; they suck it up and finish right. That sounded dirty.

Josh Wood is New York city's biggest and best gay promoter. (If you don't believe me, ask The New York Times.) I discuss the meaning of that statement, and lots more, in today's very long interview.

Black is back in a big way. Black is the new black. Stuart Black of the famous Mr. Black party, which was amazing here and has been amazing in its L.A.incarnation, will move his traveling circus of debauchery to the spacious confines of Webster Hall. In this interview, I was surprised to learn about the audience he plans to cater to. Stuart is determined to carve out a great club within the great club.