Charm City Yodeller
Thursday, October 1, 2026
Baltimore’s Vibes, 7 Days a Week
Baltimore doesn’t do a quiet Thursday. Tonight the city’s own New/Next Film Festival throws open the doors at The Charles with a hometown documentary scored by Beach House, pop-punk lifers Set Your Goals turn 20 years of mutiny into a reunion blowout at Soundstage, and jazz piano royalty Benny Green sits down at Keystone Korner like it’s nothing. Throw in a puppet-theater doom-folk triple bill, a Hamilton karaoke sing-along, and a library conversation about a Florida murder case, and you’ve got 28 reasons not to go straight home after work. Let’s get into it.
🎵 Music & Nightlife
Set Your Goals: 20 Years of Mutiny! w/ The Warriors, Restraining Order, Stateside @ Baltimore Soundstage
Twenty years of pop-punk mutiny, one room, four bands. Set Your Goals headline their own anniversary tour with support from The Warriors, Restraining Order, and Stateside — doors at 6 PM, show at 7 PM. If you were doing this in 2006, you’re doing it again tonight.
👉 CTA: https://www.ticketmaster.com/set-your-goals-baltimore-maryland-10-01-2026/event/150064F5A2957B37
Local Orange w/ Thee Windows, Shark Shark & Silent TV @ Ottobar
Four local acts, one all-ages bill, doors at 6:30 PM for $12. This is the kind of lineup that reminds you Baltimore’s guitar-rock scene never actually left, it just moved to a Thursday.
The Bandit Queen of Sorrows, Summoning Circle & Makeshift Hammer @ Black Cherry Puppet Theater
Dark folk, Celtic dungeon folk, and gutter-folk under one roof — the kind of night only a puppet theater in a former rowhouse can host. Doors 6:30 PM, show at 7, sliding-scale $15–25.
Martin Sexton @ Creative Alliance
Martin Sexton is marking 25 years of his landmark live album with a set built on fan favorites, new material, and whatever cover strikes him in the moment — 8 PM, $40 members / $45 general.
An Evening with Benny Green @ Keystone Korner
One of the great living jazz pianists, in a room built for exactly this. 7 PM, tickets roughly $35–$45 depending on seating.
Pete Kanaras & The Hi-Fliers @ Cat’s Eye Pub
Blues from an ex-Nighthawks guitarist in Fell’s Point’s tiniest, best dive. 8 PM to midnight, no cover we could confirm — just show up.
Black Butterfly Farm Pop-Up Jazz Jam @ Farm Alliance Black Butterfly Teaching Farm
Free live jazz on a working urban farm, 5 to 7 PM. Bring a blanket, leave with dirt under your nails and a new favorite Thursday habit.
1st Thursdays: Grateful Groove w/ Better Weather & Friends @ Morsbergers
Every first Thursday, Morsbergers turns into a Dead-inspired jam room courtesy of local group Better Weather, who work the same vein as Dylan, Steely Dan, and the Beatles. Free, all ages, 6 to 10 PM.
HAMILTON Broadway Karaoke & Sing-Along @ Mobtown Ballroom
Grab the mic and rap your way through the Ten Duel Commandments with a room full of strangers who also know every word. 7 to 10 PM, $18.
Raheem DeVaughn w/ Special Guest Daley @ Pier Six Pavilion
R&B’s “Love King” plays the Inner Harbor’s best outdoor room with support from British soul singer Daley. 8 PM.
New/Next Opening Night Party w/ DJ Ami Dang @ Metro Gallery
The official after-party for tonight’s film festival kickoff — DJ Ami Dang spins until the festival crowd stops dancing. 10 PM, $29.
🎤 Comedy
Michael Longfellow @ The Port Comedy Club
Touring stand-up night at Fell’s Point’s dedicated comedy room. Doors 7:30 PM, show at 8; general admission runs about $33 and climbing (tickets are moving fast — buy ahead, it’s cheaper than the door).
The Open Mic @ The Port Comedy Club
Same room, zero cover, way later. Doors 9:30 PM, show at 10 — watch the next wave of Baltimore comics work out new material.
Free Show: Unofficial! Improvised Musical @ Baltimore Improv Group
Long-form improv that builds a full musical out of nothing but audience suggestions, and it costs you nothing but showing up. 7 PM.
Short Form, Huge Fun: A Community Improv Jam @ Highwire Improv
Community improv jam, games-based and beginner-friendly — come watch or get pulled up. 7 PM.
👉 CTA: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/short-form-huge-fun-a-community-improv-jam-tickets-2002103184520
🎨 Arts & Culture
Ashley Minner Jones: The Place Today Known as Baltimore @ Baltimore Museum of Art
A Lumbee artist’s ongoing installation exploring Indigenous Baltimore, on view 10 AM to 5 PM. Free, registration encouraged.
Mikita Brottman: “A Double Life” @ Enoch Pratt Free Library — Central
A psychoanalyst-turned-true-crime author digs into the murder of Teresa Sievers and the family secrets it exposed, in conversation with Jane Lewty. 7 to 8 PM.
Tejasvi Nagaraja Presents “Troop Movements,” in Conversation with Stuart Schrader @ Red Emma’s
A history of how WWII mobilization reshaped race, labor, and global politics — free talk at Baltimore’s worker-owned bookstore-café, 7 PM.
THE INVISIBLE YEARS Book Launch: A Conversation with Translator Lily Meyer @ Bird in Hand Coffee & Books
A literary translator talks through bringing a new novel into English, at Baltimore’s favorite indie bookstore-café. 5 PM.
Aquí Seguimos Artist Talk ft. Edgar Reyes & Ismail Khalidi @ Making Space Bmore
Two artists talk process and politics as part of an ongoing exhibition. 6 PM.
👉 CTA: https://events.baltimoremagazine.com/event/aqui-seguimos-artist-talk-ft-edgar-reyes-ismail-khalidi
🎬 Screen Time
Digger (opens) @ The Charles Theatre
The most powerful man in the world races to prove he can save humanity from a disaster he unleashed. Opens today — check the Charles site for today’s exact showtimes.
“If I Go Will They Miss Me” @ The Senator Theatre
Matinee screening, 1 PM.
🦀 Community, Food & Family
CAnE Seasonal Sips — Monthly Product Drop @ Stem & Vine
A collective of local cocktail pros debuts their newest non-alcoholic and alcoholic mixers. 5 PM.
Trivia Night @ Max’s Taphouse
Fell’s Point’s whiskey cathedral hosts its weekly trivia night. 8 PM.
Urban Astronomy @ Maryland Science Center
A guided look at the night sky from the Inner Harbor, telescopes included. 7:30 to 8:30 PM.
NEC Drop-in: Observant Owls @ Cylburn Arboretum
A drop-in nature program on the arboretum grounds focused on the owls that call Cylburn home. 12:30 to 2:30 PM.
👉 CTA: https://cylburn.org/event/
Freaky Tiki Haunted Tiki Hut – An Immersive Halloween Experience @ So Pro
October kicks off with an immersive tiki-bar-meets-haunted-house experience, because of course Baltimore does Halloween like this. Starts 4 PM.
⭐ Our Bonus Pick
New/Next Film Festival — Opening Night: ETERNITY ONE @ The Charles Theatre
7 PM tonight, The Charles Theatre, 1711 N. Charles St. · Festival and individual tickets via the link below
Baltimore’s own New/Next Film Festival kicks off its fourth year tonight, and it’s opening with ETERNITY ONE, a documentary by Marnie Ellen Hertzler about a disappearing Chesapeake Bay island community — scored, top to bottom, by hometown dream-pop heroes Beach House. It’s the film’s Maryland premiere, and Hertzler will be there with cast members for a post-screening conversation. Four days, five screens, more than 160 films, and it opens with a story about Baltimore, scored by Baltimore. Stick around after and the party rolls to Metro Gallery at 10 PM with DJ Ami Dang.
That’s a Wrap!
That’s 28 things to do tonight, and we didn’t even have to pad it. Tomorrow we’ve got Friday energy waiting — bigger bills, later nights, and (we’re told) an actual answer on what’s happening at Nevermore Hall this weekend. Until then: yodel it from the rooftops. 🗣️⛰️
