A latex avalanche to begin the new year... Oh, SF Symphony, you really shouldn't have!

It’s enough to make you rue all those New Year’s Eves past spent in sweaty bars and crowded living rooms. And I would imagine after ringing in a new decade while watching a troupe of masquerade dancers twirl to a Viennese waltz, watching the ball drop in Times Square loses some of that "center of the universe" feel.

But you can do just that tomorrow night. Tickets are still available for the San Francisco Symphony’s New Year’s Eve Masquerade Ball- an gala evening that you won’t wake up regretting the next morning.

Onstage will be a mix of pieces from divergent time eras. Aforementioned baroqueness will ensue with a performance of some Johann “The Waltz King” Strauss, Jr.’s Vienesse pieces, with solos by tenor Alfie Boe, soprano Layla Claire, and 15-year old violin prodigy Chad Hoopes.

Does solo violinist Chad Hoopes get to stay up til midnight?

As the program waxes on, the ditties turn more modern, including some by that dapper Noel Coward, including “I Went to a Marvelous Party,” a song of “frantic addle headed search for amusement” written by the British composer in the 1930’s after attending a highfaulutin’ soirée in the French Riviera.

And don’t think they kick you out on the stroke of midnight either- after the symphony performance, attendees will get down in the lobbies and hallways of the Davies Symphony Hall with complimentary bubbly, “savories” and music by 80s cover band Tainted Love. Plus a balloon drop when ’10 hits? Just the ticket for your yearly dose of 'Auld Lang Syne.'

SF Symphony New Year's Eve Masquerade Ball
Thurs/31 9 p.m., $80-195
Davies Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness, SF
(415) 864-6000 www.sfsymphony.org