The only thing better than a wide-open night downtown without the constraints of work the next day is going downtown with someone who’s never been. And that’s just what Meghan and I did last night. With her friend April in town for the first time, we had an excuse to visit some places that we otherwise never find our way to.

I’ve been to Smalls a few times before. I’m not a big fan of live music, and I couldn’t tell you who was on stage if you paid me. But Smalls has more atmosphere than the rest of Second Street combined. Even if you’re not into the scene, and even if the music isn’t your thing, Smalls warrants a stop on any downtown tour.

After hearing enough of the band at Smalls, we walked one block east and a few blocks north. That’s right; we didn’t go to Suba. Meghan persuaded me to go to Stallions. Though it’s not exactly my crowd, I was walking in there with a girl on each arm; no problem. Being the lighting nerd that I am, the first thing I noticed was that they had a half dozen High End Trackspots above their dancefloor. If you don’t know, High End lights are often regarded as the best club fixtures in the industry, and the Trackspots — while not top-of-the-line — are true workhorses of the club scene. The three of us ventured over to the DJ booth, where I discovered that they were running the show with an old NSI controller. This is roughly the equivalent of buying a Ferarri and using it as a grocery-getter. I talked with the DJ a bit, and found out that they’re on the eve of a lighting overhaul which includes, among other things, an upgrade to Martin LightJockey — the same controller running the top two floors at Dragonfly, the top floor at Eclipse, and thousands of other lighting rigs around the world. Nice - downtown is about to get another decent lightshow.

Although we were in the neighborhood, we skipped Suba — for now — and headed back downtown towards Noma Cabana Closed Noma Remixed Prive Privado. After witnessing a bit of an obnoxious entrance on the blogHarrisburg forums, we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to witness the latest incarnation of what was once the greatest martini lounge upscale place beach club martini lounge ??? in downtown Harrisburg. We arrived to decent dance music, but were disappointed when the next track gave way into mainstream Top 40 hip hop. Really - has anyone really expressed a concern that hip hop is under-represented on Second Street? Did someone seriously sit down and think “you know what would be totally AWESOME? Someone should open up a place downtown that plays hip hop!”? Fortunately, we found the quasi-vault room downstairs (by accident, mind you) which featured a different DJ spinning an entirely different soundtrack. If the little building that could Privado could spend less time copying Fisaga and more time sticking to their roots of electronic music, they might not have to change their name every 12 months.

Our final nightlife stop of the evening was Epic. Despite living around the corner for five years, I never made my first visit to the place until last night. Surprisingly, the crowd was fairly thin when we arrived around 1. But with Ray Rossi doing his trademarked “play late 80s / early 90s tracks and look perpetually pissed off” routine, we managed to enjoy ourselves. After all, you don’t exactly hear Paul’s Boutique just anywhere these days. Prices were reasonable and service was quick, with the server happily obliging our virgin cranberry shots. I’ve heard more than a few people refer to Epic as “an upscale Pep Grill”, and I’d have to agree. If nothing else, the place’s simplicity is its appeal.

After Epic, we decided to grab something to eat. Since we wanted something more substantial than pizza or skewers, we decided to take our chances and give Tom Sawyer Diner a shot. More on that unfortunate incident tomorrow. For now, though, suffice to say that there are better ways to end a night downtown.