On this night, the shift seems inevitable. When the smaller first-floor room of Lotus Soundbar is thumping to the boom-bap beat of a popular hip-hop track, and the large upstairs room is vibrating with live, raw rock 'n' roll, the club paradigm seems to be turned on its head.

Shouldn't it be the other way around? The hip-hop DJ and his followers in the big room and the fringe indie rockers crammed into a small, sweaty space where the fist pumping and moshing are dangerous by virtue of the size of the room?

The norm is not the case on Thursday nights when Sound/Clash, a weekly event at Lotus that serves as a showcase for local rock bands, takes over the Waikiki club's big room. It attracts, for at least one night each week, a crowd that's more comfortable in piercings and tattoos than in Sean John jeans and baby-doll Ts.

Here, the night belongs to Black Square groupies and Hell Caminos fans. Here, the music is real (sometimes real bad, but that's part of the charm of live entertainment) and the bands are almost always local and unsigned.

Attendance at the Thursday night events fluctuates from week to week. But if Michelle Lee, a 23-year-old Makiki resident and self-labeled "indie rocker girl" who's been on the city indie scene since her freshman year of college, can speak for other scenesters, then the reason for the sometimes low attendance is actually a pretty good one.

"We have so many options now — I mean, more than we had before," she said over the often off-key wailings of Awry by Design frontman Howard (as in the Duck). "Before we would get one indie night a month, if we were lucky. We used to all rush to the one event, but now we can spread ourselves out."

Has the shift — the one that sees DJ-based club events move to the sidelines, while live music takes center stage — begun here in earnest? The Honolulu club buzz suggests that perhaps audiences are ready to trade in their all-expectations-fulfilled party mentalities (even a bad DJ can play good Kanye West) for the gamble of seeing a garage rock band from Palolo that may or may not be worth a second chance. Club events that feature live music, though still not as popular, nor as ubiquitous, as DJ events, are cropping up all over the city, which suggests that the demand is there for something other than a seamless mix of top 40 hits.

With Kaleidoscope Tuesdays at NextDoor, Sound/Clash Thursdays at Lotus, Fridays and Saturdays at Chinatown's new indie rock venue The Loft and intermittent one-time shows at venues such as Anna Bannana's, Kemo'o Farms, Kainoa's and Pipeline Cafe, there are indeed more options than there were two years ago.

"I've definitely noticed an upswing in the live indie scene here," said Matty Boy Hazelgrove, a local club and concert promoter. "The overall interest in live music, and the fact that we're starting to bring in a lot more bands, go hand in hand."

Hazelgrove's production company BAMP Project, which he co-owns with Flash Hansen, has been responsible for bringing in a string of big-name bands, the audience for which is largely indie-music fans. So far this year, the promoting duo has on its agenda concerts by Incubus (with the Silversun Pickups), Motion City Soundtrack, Minus the Bear and Ween.

But not everyone is ready to see this city's nightlife turned over completely to lovers of the live rock show.

"The question of whether the demand for DJs is declining is an interesting one," said event promoter Greg Dehnert, also known by his DJ moniker G-Spot, who's been spinning and hosting events in Honolulu for about 15 years.

"There's new blood out there as far promoters go. There are all kinds of people putting on live shows now, and that's great. It's great to see that part of the scene being revived. But most of the clubs out there are DJ-based, and that's not going to change."

That's not because of resistance to change, he said, but because there's a certain level of practicality that promoters consider when booking talent for their events. DJs are easier to accommodate. The cost of bringing one performer versus a band of performers is an issue, Dehnert said. Why risk a fistful of cash bringing a band that might not sell seats when it's easier — and cheaper — to book a one-man show that's sure to draw club-goers with his or her mash-up of pop song hits?

That, then, is the burning question: Why take the road less traveled when DJs do the trick?

"We know we're not going to win on all of them," Hazelgrove said of his scheduled band lineup. "But the more live music we book, the more we turn it into a legitimate option."

Indie rocker girl — and everyone like her — has her fingers crossed that the current live music surge has staying power.

"I just hope this isn't a trend that's going to fade out by the summer," said Lee, while nodding her approval at the Chemical Brothers track that played over the sound system while the next band got ready to join the Sound/Clash.

"That'll totally blow. But it doesn't seem like it. People dig watching live bands. No DJ can even come close."