Best 9: Top events for the week ahead in Santa Cruz County arts & entertainment, Jan. 2-9

Here they are, nine necessary know-abouts for the week ahead. It’s the hello-2025 B9:

➤ The year in live performance gets off to a bizarre start with Friday’s appearance of Puddles Pity Party at Felton Music Hall. If you’re a fan of “America’s Got Talent,” you probably don’t have to ask, “Who/what the heck is Puddles Pity Party?” Puddles is a nearly 7-foot tall, painted-white, Pagliacci-inspired clown, and the stage name of performance artist Michael Geier. He is, perhaps paradoxically, both a mime and a singer, mixing silent prop comedy with big brawny vocal performances of songs with a broad Nick Cave-like singing voice, all in the service of a melancholic sad-clown pathos that’s either high camp or stunning on-stage vulnerability. You be the judge. Either way, it’s quite likely not like anything you’ve seen before.

➤ A trio of Santa Cruz’s most idiosyncratic musicians — Rick Zeek, Rhan Wilson and Patti Maxine — come together as Jazz The Dog, all for your entertainment at The Crepe Place on Tuesday.

➤ Don’t know about you, but some live blues guitar at the historic Brookdale Lodge on a midwinter Saturday night sounds like a good time.

➤ Just because the Boardwalk’s “Winter Wonderland” is coming to an end — the six-week run ends Sunday — that doesn’t mean winter is over. Now comes the non-wonderland part. 

➤ Moe’s Alley promises to be a warm sanctuary on Saturday night for anyone with a fondness for African beats. The first “Afrobeats Nite” show of the year at Moe’s features DJ Monk Earl, as well as Lemolive and Clay Bandy. 

➤ It’s the final weekend for what’s become a local holiday tradition, the acrobats of the Flynn Creek Circus bring out the oohs and ahhs for its show “The Heavy Drift” this weekend for its (well-heated) big top tent at the Capitola Mall.

➤ You really can’t find a more locals vibe than the sound of the Santa Cruz-based band Trestles (even the name is a wink to locals), which blends beachy surf rock with punk-flavored power pop. They have the stage at Felton Music Hall on Saturday.

➤ It’s the first week of the month, which means First Friday, the free art tour of venues in and around Santa Cruz, from the Westside to downtown to the Tannery to Midtown. Lots to see this Friday, including …

➤ The intriguing Pajaro Photovoice Project at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History zeroes in on the beleaguered town of Pajaro, illuminating the experiences of locals as they ponder the question, “How is climate change impacting the town of Pajaro?” The exhibit opens Friday and runs through Feb. 2.