Best dance club/night
If dance clubs in Boston are islands, Avalon is Ibiza, the Hub's party capital, attracting cosmopolitan club-goers, rowdy revelers, students, professionals, and Euro-trash (and treasure) - and all are looking to dance, among other forms of debauchery. Thursdays are "Hot & Heavy" with hip-hop; on Fridays, "Avaland" pulls in the biggest DJs from around the globe; on Saturdays, "Tease" titillates (and girls get in for free before midnight); and Avalon Sunday is the longest-running gay night in the city. Year after year, Phoenix readers rank Avalon as the place for all of tomorrow's parties. And tonight's. And next month's. And so on.

If dance clubs in Boston are regions in Eastern Europe, ManRay is Transylvania, the dark and sinister Cambridge counterpart to bouncing, bubbly Avalon. ManRay, with its midnight-blue exterior and big black doors, is steeped in myth and mystery, luring club-goers of gothic persuasion - and an assortment of other underground scenes - inside. Wednesday is "Crypt," a goth-industrial night; Thursday is the infamous "Campus" (see "Best Gay Night," below); if you're not sure what to wear on "Fetish Fridays," stick with black. Otherwise try leather, vinyl, or PVC; "Transmission" on Saturdays is techno-pop, electro-clash, disco-trash, plus punk and new wave in the cage. And there's a variety of special events here and there, such as "Flesh," featuring rope bondage with Mistress Katana Le and the Deviant Dolls.

Avalon, 15 Lansdowne Street, Boston,(617) 262-2424, www.avalonboston.com; ManRay, 21 Brookline Street, Cambridge, (617) 864-0400, www.manrayclub.com.