• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

The crowd at Sonar.   (Photo: Robert Macy)

Hobnob with Baltimore's indie buzz bands like Beach House and Spank Rock at Ottobar, a wood-paneled dive where $3 mixed drinks fuel intimate, kinetic live shows. On Fridays, dance to electro and new wave at the Automatic! party.

Check out buzzy electro and hip-hop acts like Black Kids and Cut Copy at the clubby Sonar. The TaxLo party hosts a mix of indie acts and guest D.J.'s, like Bonde do Role and Pat Mahoney, a few times a month.

Let loose with the art students at Are We Not Men?, a twice-monthly live music and dance night at the Depot. Join the sweaty, gyrating masses on a dimly lit floor, where electro-rock darlings like Dan Deacon and the mash-up all-star Girl Talk play. Stick around afterward; a D.J. spins everything from esoteric no-wave to TLC.

Save some energy for Soul Night, an enormous, all-ages dance party held the first Friday of the month at a by-day cultural center, Lithuanian Hall. Locals loosen up with $1 Lithuanian honey liqueur shots or $3 Utenos beers before going wild to a D.J. mixing Motown, mod, and indie.

Published on May 14, 2008 as a web exclusive.