Tango

My friend Isabelle from Montreal is in town for a conference. She's staying with an Argentine friend, and when she asked him the other night to take her out to take in some typical Buenos Aires tango, he knew exactly the place.

So we all went out to Lo de Roberto, or Roberto's Place, in the Almagro district. It's this tiny café/bar decorated up old-school; high ceilings, the walls lined with shelves of bottles and vials right up to the top behind the bar, crumbling brick walls and bookshelves filled with yellowing volumes. Wooden tables arranged hapahazardly. And tango is their speciality. Not the dancing kind, the singing kind. Isabelle's friend Ariel told us that in Buenos Aires until recently tango was considered music for old folks, and only in the last 5 years have young people really started reviving it, learning the songs and going to shows. And Lo de Roberto is one of the places young people go to hear tango.

A casually dressed young pair were performing when I arrived, him on guitar and her on vocals. Unmiked, of course, as the place was so small amplification would have been overkill. Every so often someone random from the crowd would get up and join them - a harmonica player, a guest vocalist, whoever was in the crowd.

But at about 1am the veterans came out. A pair of old guy took the stage, each with a guitar, a set of vocals chords, and a head full of the tango melodies they must have grown up playing. Each had their own distinct vocal style, but they were both really good. The had the full attention of the crowd, who themselves would sing along to the more famous melodies, or let out a shout or yell at an appropriate moment.

What was cool about everyone who performed was that they looked like they could literally be Joe Blow off the street, dressed in jeans, even track pants and mullets ( I swear I've seen one of the singers at a hockey game in Longueuil...) But as soon as they started performing it was clear that this was no accident, they were INTO this music.

And now that we've heard some tango, it's time to dance it. I've been told Sunday nights at a certain bar in Palermo are a good place to learn. To be continued...