About halfway through summer, many of us, especially with temperatures steadily in the nineties for a few weeks now, are readily looking toward fall. And with that, this week, comes the announcement of the hottest Halloween party in Baltimore, when Believe in Music teams up with the Maryland Science Center for its annual October bash.

For one evening, the exhibits—kid-friendly learning experiences on the likes of dinosaurs, space, and physics—transform into a full-on music festival on the Inner Harbor, featuring more than a dozen bands, a wild costume contest, and overflowing craft beer, all to benefit the educational center and local arts nonprofit.

The event, now in its eighth year, has just announced its 2019 lineup, featuring familiar faces who have performed at past parties, as well as exciting new acts. On Saturday October 26, some two dozen Baltimore artists will perform across multiples stages, from the planetarium to the rooftop to beneath a gigantic Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The main stage will feature big-name headliners: head-banging rock band J. Roddy Walston and The Business, beloved rap star DDm, and Talking Heads tribute group, Psycho Killers. Meanwhile, the Friends of Friends [Records] Stage will highlight rising DIY acts—post-punk duo Ed Schrader’s Music Beat, alt-hip-hop collective Soul Cannon, indie-pop singer Eyas, and electro-femme pair HexGirlfriends—while the planetarium will host a handful of techno and house, and dance music artists. As in years past, the Charm City Bluegrass Stage will be dedicated to Americana musicians, such as bluegrass rebels The Dirty Grass Players and folk-pop septet Haint Blue. And both DJs Rob Macy of Save Your Soul and James Nasty will be back on the ones and twos into the wee hours of the nights.

Exhibits will be open throughout the evening, as will the IMAX theater, where Future Islands bassist William Cashion and psychedelic electronic artist DeltaNine will curate immersive experiences.
Tickets usually sell out and are now on sale for general admission ($42) and VIP ($80).

Every October, the Maryland Science Center transforms into what might be the biggest Halloween party to pop up in Baltimore City. By day, its dinosaur, space, and electricity-themed exhibits entice tots to learn about all things science, but by night, the institution turns into a full-on music festival in the Inner Harbor, featuring more than a dozen bands, a wild costume contest, and overflowing craft beer, all to benefit the center and youth education nonprofit Believe In Music.

While its only July, the event, now in its seventh year, has just announced its 2018 lineup, featuring familiar faces who have performed at past parties and exciting new acts. On Saturday October 27, some 22 Baltimore bands will perform across seven stages, from the planetarium to the rooftop to beneath a gigantic Tyrannosaurus Rex.

“In the same night, you can see a bluegrass band, an electronic band, and dance to James Nasty on the roof,” says Kenny Liner, founder and director of Believe In Music. “There will be so much to do and there will be so many talented, different people from Baltimore who deserve to be highlighted. I just wish we could include more.”

The main stage will feature big-name headliners: soulful sextet J Pope and the HearNow, funky jam band Electric Love Machine, and the main event, mad-scientist electronic artist Dan Deacon. “Dan is the perfect fit,” says Liner. “His shows are so fun and interactive. He makes the crowd feel special and allows them to have a really good time.”

Meanwhile, the Friends of Friends (Records) Stage will highlight rising DIY acts such as soulful R&B singer Joy Postell, experimental duo Wume, post-punk rockers Natural Velvet, and indie trio Outer Spaces, while the planetarium will host a handful of techno artists. As in years past, the Charm City Bluegrass Stage will be dedicated to Americana musicians, such as CCBG Battle of the Bands winner The Dirty Grass Players and folk bellwether Caleb Stine, and both DJs Rob Macy of Save Your Soul and James Nasty will be back on the ones and twos for an epic dance party into the wee hours of the nights.

Exhibits will be open throughout the evening, as will the IMAX theater, where electronic group Deltanine will perform a live score to an immersive film. Tickets usually sell out and are now on sale for general admission ($35) and VIP ($75).

“The best thing about this party is that we’re coming together to support Baltimore,” says Liner. “As much as the city needs to support organizations like Believe in Music, it needs to support institutions like the Science Center. Without it, there would be a huge void in Baltimore for kids to learn and experience cool science stuff. My daughter is only eight months old and she already absolutely loves it. In Baltimore, we’re all in it together.”

Five things to eat, drink, see, hear, and do with your Charm City weekend.

 EAT

Oct. 28: Dovecote Café’s Two-Year Communiversary & Afrofuturistic Halloween Party

Dovecote Café, 2501 Madison Ave. 4-9 p.m. Free. 443-961-8677.

Nestled in the historically African-American neighborhood of Reservoir Hill, Dovecote Café has become known both locally and nationally (hello, recent Food & Wine feature!) for its mouthwatering baked goods, heavenly cups of coffee, and dedication to supporting the local community—especially Baltimore’s younger generation. This Saturday, the café is celebrating its second anniversary with an Afrofuturistic-themed Halloween party featuring Dovecote’s homemade eats, candy crafted by Glasshouse Goods, and live entertainment by local DJs Trillnatured and Butch Siggers. Don your best space-age apparel and be one of the first 100 attendants to receive a special thank you gift.

 DRINK

Oct. 27-29: Greek Food, Wine, & Culture Festival

Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation, 24 W. Preston St. Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Sun. 12-6 p.m. Free-$10. 410-727-1831.

Forty-six years ago, the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation launched a festival to celebrate their community’s Grecian heritage and the greater city of Baltimore. Since then, the party has evolved into an annual go-to event, headlining all things Greek—from traditional food and drink to live music and dances—and this year, the historical church is mixing things up with new attractions. Sip your way through the “Wines of Greece,” a vino-tasting program for those who want to experience the Greek isle’s more than 6,000 years of winemaking history. For $10, sample five Greek wines along with an assortment of Greek cheeses, olives, and other snacks that will have you yelling Opa! in no time.

 SEE

Oct. 28: The Great Halloween Lantern Parade

Patterson Park, Eastern & Linwood Aves. Festival: 3:30 p.m.; Parade: 7 p.m.; After party: 9:30 p.m. Free. 410-276-1651.

Every Halloween weekend, the hills of Patterson Park transform into a chilling spectacle as it becomes illuminated by a procession of spooky lights. But fear not: the glowing objects aren’t ghosts or ghouls but rather the little homemade lanterns of the Great Halloween Lantern Parade. For the 16th year, join or ogle the eclectic caravan as local puppeteers, marching bands, and costumed families and friends weave their way through Highlandtown carrying artist-made floats and glowing lanterns in celebration of All Hallow’s Eve. Before the dark creeps in, swing by the park for a pre-parade festival where you can imbibe in a beer garden and feast on food truck favorites as your kids compete in a costume contest and hitch a hayride. After you’ve passed the finish line, hop over to the Creative Alliance for a festive Glow Ball dance party to keep the supernatural festivities going.

 HEAR

Oct. 28: Believe in Music & Maryland Science Center’s Halloween

Maryland Science Center, 601 Light St. 8 p.m.-1 a.m. $35-70. 410-685-2370.

Leave trick-or-treating to the kiddos—this all-night music and dance party is for adults only. Now in its sixth year, the Maryland Science Center’s Halloween bash boasts lots of live, local music across several stages with a costume contest and access to all of the center’s exhibitions. Whether you’re dressed as a witch, wizard, or mummy, “Thriller” the night away to an impressive lineup. On the main stage, boogie down to the James Brown Dance Party, plus the funky Litz and the feel-good Electric Love Machine. On the rooftop, bump hips with Baltimore’s best DJs, featuring James Nasty on the ones and twos, and Rob Macy of Save Your Soul, and at the Charm City Bluegrass tribute stage, get down to the tunes of the Allman Brothers and Rolling Stones. We’re personally most excited about the Friends Records stage, where you can celebrate the local indie label with its top talents, like the bombastic Bond St. District, the sultry Blacksage, the fearless Hexgirlfriends, and the highly-anticipated Celebration-Aborteum collab, Rolled Gold. If monster mashing isn’t your thing, watch the IMAX 3D movie Wild Ocean with a live soundtrack of spooky synths and eerie bass lines by Deltanine and Pristine. Best of all, proceeds benefit Believe in Music’s non-profit education programs. 

 DO

Oct. 28: Star Wars Cosmic Cantina Party

Showroom, The Motor House, 120 W. North Ave. 6 p.m.-1 a.m. 410-637-8300.

If you missed the Game of Thrones pop-up bar in D.C. this summer, don’t fret. This Halloweekend, a Star Wars-themed party is coming to a galaxy near you at the brand-new Showroom café and bar at the Motor House in Station North. Grab your lightsabers and show up in your finest Darth Vader or Princess Leia. Channel the force as you dance to electro-grooves and funky beats by DJs Isabejja and Alexander Jorman, plus a special performance by local R&B queen Cas Mackenzie. Don’t miss out on the spacey drinks either—for one night only, Showroom’s bartender is making Luke’s Lightsaber (spicy margarita with Epsolon Tequila, orange liqueur, lime, agave, and habanero shrub), The Dark Side (vodka, grapefruit, fennel, activated charcoal, and soda water), and Ewok Party (whiskey, allspice, lemon, and bitters). 

It’s been 10 years since indie dream-pop duo Beach House started its journey towards becoming one of Baltimore’s biggest bands. French-born singer/organist Victoria LeGrand and Baltimore native guitarist Alex Scally burst into indie stardom with their last two albums, Teen Dream (2010) and Bloom (2012), and now they’re about to drop the much-anticipated Depression Cherry, out August 28 via Sub Pop Records. We talk to Scally about still loving Baltimore and their upcoming show at Pier Six Pavilion.

You guys just got back from a press tour in Europe. Is coming back to Baltimore still rejuvenating after being on the road?
Yeah, I’m born and raised in Baltimore City and I love Baltimore. I keep expecting the love to go away but it really doesn’t. There’s just something about the way the seasons are here, the people are here.

You’re about to start a pretty extensive tour for Depression Cherry.
We have a lot scheduled because we’ve always loved it. It’s always been fun and we learn a lot from it. I’m expecting to still love it, but it might be a little harder, because of the weird entity of getting old.

You’re playing some pretty amazing venues, too: Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, the Fillmore in San Francisco.
We’ve played a lot of small venues and big venues and middle venues in our 10 years of doing this. We’ve tried to avoid big ones—they don’t lead to very good shows for us. I don’t think we’ve ever done Ryman before and that might be our biggest venue on the tour. We’ve played Fillmore probably five times, but it’s a pretty small place for such a big city.

And then you’ll be at Pier Six for Windjammer on August 29. We’ll be there.
You know, Baltimore is notoriously lacking in mid-sized venues. For one reason or another, whether its location or the way it’s designed, there just isn’t a place in Baltimore that’s 800, 1,100, 1,200 seats that is a place where everybody loves to go and is beautiful and sounds good. Imagine something like the 9:30 Club. Even when we had Sonar, it was one of the worst sounding places in the world, you know? We have The Lyric, but that’s very formal and kind of uptight.

It’s going to be pretty epic—triple headlining with Dan Deacon, Future Islands, and then all the other Baltimore bands. How did the idea come about?
I forget how it started but I think Dan and I were both saying, well, if we all joined forces, maybe we could play somewhere really fun, rather than have to do shows of our own in places we’re not psyched on. Future Islands hasn’t really done a Baltimore show since everything happened with them. I’ve gone to a couple summer shows at Pier Six and it just feels so fun being in the breezy harbor. We were like, shoot, let’s try to do a summer show there. Then we all invited a band and a DJ and the bill was set.

At first, I thought, interesting. Pier Six. I don’t know. It feels like such a big Baltimore venue for you guys but . . .
It’s actually not that big! When I was a kid and I would go there, it always felt so huge, but when I went to see Hall & Oates [last September] or whatever, it didn’t feel that huge. And it’s so cool having water on either side of you. And the way the hill rises up and the wind just blows across. It seems like a killer place to just lie around in the sun and drink beer all day.

And it’s going to be a benefit concert for Believe in Music, the Living Classrooms music education program.
Somewhere along the line, money started being discussed. Not in a negative way, just like, how we should set the ticket price? We saw all these different amounts that could make it sell out and it just started feeling weirder and weirder. Around the same time was when everything was happening surrounding the death of Freddie Gray and we decided this should definitely just be a charity show. So after expenses paid, it’s all for charity. I think our idea was: It should be small enough that the money would go directly into action, as opposed to an established, giant charity, where it would kind of just be another bit on the heap.

What band and DJ did you and Victoria pick for the lineup?
We picked Romantic States. Jim [Triplett] was in a band called Videohippos and this is his new band. We really like his songwriting. It’s just really unpretentious and simple. Their music is really beautifully simple, with just guitar and drums. In an era where everything feels overthought, it’s under-thought, in a good way. And we picked a DJ friend of ours, Big Party, who plays great music. We’ve played with Dan a bunch of times, and we were all on the Round Robin Tour [in 2008]. I would consider all of those guys good friends at this point.

It’s been a decade since you started Beach House. With all the work and travel and acclaim, do you still feel connected to the Baltimore music scene?
I feel really connected. We still have a lot of friends here. I don’t spend as much time out every night, and I might not know as many people every time I go out, but that also might be, like, getting older. Ten years ago, we were out every night of the week. It’s just a different culture being really young. But I still really love Baltimore and feel like a part of it. I think Baltimore is changing. It was changing back then, too. Like everything in reality, it’s always shifting and changing.

What sparked this album? Was it just the right time?
Touring is such a big part of our life because we learn so much. It’s so much of the way we interact with the universe. And then, when touring ends and you get home and you start to write, there’s a natural pace. This time, it took a little bit longer to decompress and take stock of things and feel natural again, and when we did, we began writing. Nothing is pre-imagined. Nothing is conscious.

You recorded and produced in Louisiana, but did you write it here?
We’ve written every song we’ve ever made in Baltimore. We always write at home.

Do you write in your practice space in Fells Point?
Every song comes about differently. Little things start—maybe at sound check, maybe at home on a guitar—and they evolve into something else and grow. We do a lot of jamming. It’s very collaborative. But we take our time with it. Sometimes it happens fast and other times it’s months before a song goes where it’s supposed to. These songs were probably starting around the same time Bloom came out. We didn’t have any time to work on them [before] then. We had burnt the candle on both ends and needed to recover.

Should it be listened to as a whole, as you’ve said in the past?
That’s something we were saying last album that we then realized is so stupid to tell people. I think people should listen to things however they want.

That being said, are there any songs that stand out for you?
Was there one that stands out to you?

I really love how bare bones “10:37” is. It feels like you, but it feels like something completely new, too.
Yeah, I personally think we’re breaking a lot of ground on this record, but we move at such a slow pace, it probably won’t even be noticed. I think every song is special to us for some reason. It’s awesome that you chose that song; someone else might say another. I often feel like a fool when I’m trying to convince someone to like a song I love—just playing it really loud and staring at them like, ‘Do you hear this?!’ And they’re like, ‘I don’t know . . . I don’t know if I’m hearing what you’re hearing . . .’

“Do you feel what I feel?!”
It’s so funny. It’s the ultimate human condition: wanting to know how someone else is feeling and if it’s similar to you.

Read our review of Depression Cherry in the August issue of Baltimore magazine, on newsstands now.

Late this spring, Kenny Liner had an idea. Baltimore was still reeling from the uproar after the death of Freddie Gray, and he knew students at his after-school music program near the Perkins Homes neighborhood were struggling to process the violence they’d witnessed. He also knew the city’s creative community was searching for ways to give back.

So Liner told one of his classes—which he teaches as part of his program, Believe in Music, a part of the Living Classrooms Foundation—to write lyrics about the unrest. Out came words brimming with hope and resiliency.

“At first, I didn’t know what to write,” says 11-year-old Caprice, also known as “Preecie.” “But then, when I was concentrating real hard and thought about what had happened, I just started writing what was on my mind.” The refrain of the resulting song, “Believe in Baltimore,” begins, “This city is where we live, this city is where we come from. We won’t let it crumble into mass destruction.”

“I wanted it to change how people saw the city,” says 13-year-old Taniyah, a vocalist on the track. “And they would get a kid’s perspective.”

Lyrics penned, Liner contacted Baltimore-based band Future Islands, which had just performed on the Late Show with David Letterman. He then reached out to WTMD’s Baltimore music coordinator Sam Sessa, who enlisted singer Cara Satalino to combine the students’ lyrics. Future Islands’ bassist William Cashion and drummer Mike Lowry arranged the music. Jana Hunter of the band Lower Dens coached the singers.

It culminated with a May recording session at WTMD, at which the students were backed by music-scene elites, all of which you can watch in the video below.

Hearing the recording brought back mixed memories for the students. For Taniyah, the anxiety she felt during the rioting flooded back. Others felt the process was healing.

“It was white people singing with us, and it felt like unification,” says 15-year-old vocalist Yamaudi. “I felt like I was doing something good. We all felt like we were helping.”