On Tuesday night we went and did the standard Buenos Aires experience of going to a Tango show. It's a real nightmare deciding where to go, as obviously everywhere claims to have the best, most authentic show, but we ended up going to a low key and cheap place which both Time Out and Lonely Planet recommended called Los 36 Billares. The live musicians were actually brilliant, and the singer was very warbly and demonstrative which suited his dramatic love songs very well indeed. There were 4 dancers who danced in 2 pairs - one were the young, steamy, more passionate (and limber) duo, and the other were more elegant and, frankly, looked less like they were attracted to their partner and more like they were in love with Tango itself. The balance was really nice between them, I think - if there had only been one of the two pairs there I think it would have been a slightly more narrow view of the style of dance. Very enjoyable.
Yesterday we went to La Boca, which, to be honest, was the biggest waste of time ever. It's a huge tourist trap - the barrio itself is grim beyond grim, and then there are these 2 streets full of colourful houses and restaurants with waiters outside all ushering you inside, with (awful) Tango performances outside each one... I suppose some of the scenery makes good photo opportunities but that is literally it. We arrived in the cab at the football stadium there and had to navigate a bit to get to this road (Caminito), and it seemed like a back street of a possibly dodgy area (which supported the warnings we got from our taxi driver on the way there). And then once we were sick of the place (took about 3 minutes) we walked to the end of the road and were immediately out of picture perfect tourist land, and back to sketchy, grim, run down La Boca. Totally bizarre and weird. Not worth the $100 peoso there and back taxi fare in the slightest.
Luckily, Phil found a great restaurant for us to go to afterwards back in Palermo (which we are gradually discovering to be cooler every day), where we had some scrummy food before Isabelle had to head back to the hostel to get her suitcase and catch her flight back to Santiago. And then there were two...
Phil and I lazed about in the afternoon and then went to discover a bit more of Palermo, and then decided we needed to go out and do something in the evening. We checked out this website whatsupbuenosaires.com which this London girl we met told us about, and saw a gig was happening at a club Hannah TW raved about from when she was here a few years ago. I hadn't heard of Jamie Lidell before, a UK artist as well funnily enough, but we decided to go and check it out.
And it. was. amazing. Genuinely one of the best gigs I've ever been to. Perhaps not really having any expectations made it better, but he is just amazing. An incredible singer, and the music was fun and funky, and his loop-pedal skills were outstanding. I never knew it was possible to make a loop pedal sound so good. He could have done the entire gig like that it wouldn't have got old. I'll find a youtube vid to post up once I'm at a computer with speakers.
I think it's a pretty small world round this side of town though to be honest. Hannah TW told us about this club, Club Niceto, and the night that she loved there called Zizek. Then we met this London girl whose brother in law or something started this clothes shop called Boliva. Turns out they are friend with these people who run whatsupbuenosaires.com, and on the website there's an entire section for Zizek.
Anyhow, it's getting a bit ranty. We're about to go and grab some food and sit in the Botanical Gardens and maybe go to the zoo. We're leaving tomorrow, but we'll definitely be back.
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