Las Bombas del Tiempo

Buenos Aires is beautiful in the evenings. Especially now when it’s turning into summer. In the evening, you can remember that a world outside of Buenos Aires actually exists. The light changes and you start to notice the sky and the cloud, and no matter how busy and filled with traffic the streets are, everything seems to stop.
I’ve just finished my English-teaching course. Which turned out to be better than I expected it to be and now it seems like I’ll get placed in a job somewhere in Buenos Aires which would be good. Of course, that schedule depends on English lessons to Ashoka fellows, which definitely goes in the stellar category. Finalmente, the other day, I heard about a group that puts on educational plays in English and then trains you to sing and dance and takes you on tour around South America and Spain! Yay random skills and weird theater folk!
On the note of awesome things in South America, Las Bombas del tiempo rock my world. A group of Argentine-Brazilian percussionists put on a cheap (10 pesos) show every Monday night en Ciudad Cultural Konex, basically an awesome warehouse like performing space. Las Bombas plays in a covered patio with concrete pillars coming down everywhere. Now, I know you’re probably thinking, yeah drum circle, whatevs-. But these guys make freakin percussion orchestra a profession!
At seven (keep in mind this is an Argentine seven, so it’s more like 7:30), the warm-up group or best drum circle you’ve ever heard begins to practice. At eight, about 20 dudes and 1 chick, all decked out in red and black jerseys (with their names on the back!) and track pants come out and play their hearts out for two hours. Which is a pretty intense feat. There are 3 conductors who lead the group (but only one conducts at a time) and all of them manage to create a completely different kickass rager.
Of course it probably helps that most of the crowd is far gone by the end of the show. A beer means 10 pesos for a liter of Quillmes poured into a large plastic cup (and they sell rum and coke and similar tragos in the same sized liter-glass). Meanwhile, everyone is lighting up despite the prohibido fumar signs spattered across the space. Of course, there’s a crazy dance party just waiting to happen… So, you join in and dance like the world is about to end tomorrow.
On top of that, everyone is there. There are dudes who are seventy checking out the practice drumming (not in a creepy way) from seven to eight. There are five year olds there with their parents, there are preppies and hipsters, some strange mixing of a frat party and a reggae fest, a ton of foreigners. It’s like a giant world party. Of course, Las Bombas ends early for Argentine time (at 10 ~ 10.30ish). When it’s over, the crowd spills out onto the street and the street vendors take advantage of the ravenous and exhausted leftover excuses for human beings by offering delicious panes rellenos for only 5 pesos. At which point, everyone who has energy scours the street for an open bar and I wander home feeling glorious and a little bit fuzzy with the concept of reality and crawl into bed.