Such a “combination of political party and party party” is known as a “time” within the political community, said Daniel A. Schlozman ’03, chair of the Cambridge Ward Eight Democratic Committee.

Some of the guests relished the catered buffet and thumping music as much as the chance to hobnob with political doyens.

George Thomas, an elderly guest dressed in a light suit and carrying a metal cane, smiled impishly under a pale cap and bounced his hips back and forth to a disco beat as he traced circles around the room.

Another man wearing a stars-and-stripes top hat with a matching tie, handkerchief and ribbon wandered through the crowd clutching a drink.

Though all of the guests were strong supporters of the Democratic contenders, some did not agree with the candidates’ approach to campaigning.

Mark D. Trachtenberg, a librarian who is running as a Ninth District candidate for the Boston City Council, criticized O’Brien’s campaign strategy.

“It’s all too easy for the strength of her record to get overlooked with all the mudslinging between the candidates,” he said.

In her brief speech, O’Brien mentioned problems that have arisen under Massachusetts’ past three Republican governors, but Mary Louise Daly, formerly a librarian at MIT, said the O’Brien campaign should have raised this point sooner.

“Someone dropped the ball,” she said.

Yet signs of guests’ enthusiasm for the Democratic candidates echoed from every corner of the room.

The Bunker Hill Pipe Band paraded into the room between speeches to the rhythmic clapping of the enthusiastic crowd.

A large man in a white sweater put furry white mallets to a large drum as the bagpipers droned “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy” in kilts.

A woman twirled her scarf and danced to “American Pie” as the party drew to a close.

Richard Girolamo, a Somerville resident, who first knew the party’s host politically when Capuano was the mayor of Somerville, became nostalgic in the wake of the evening’s political fervor, impressed by Capuano’s own political accomplishments.

“One night I couldn’t sleep and I turned on C-SPAN and I saw Mike Capuano speaking and I said, ‘Jesus, that’s great,’” he said. “You get a little pang in your heart.”