Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is famous for tango but Time Out goes off the tourist track to seek out the more authentic clubs

When the lights are dimmed at the Centro Cultural Torquato Tasso, I’m among the happiest bunch of miserable gits in the world. We’ve come to see Victor Lavallén and his orquesta típica. Steaks and red wine have been served. The band have taken their seats: five of them wielding button accordions; one musician half as old as Argentina. With an ‘uno, dos, tres…’ the accordions breathe in and we let out a collective sigh. The room fills with the gloomy, mordant spirit of the 1920s and everyone reaches for another slug of tinto.

Tango divides visitors to BA. Aficionados say its mélange of sex, death and fishnet stockings makes for the most intoxicating experience on earth. Detractors think tangophiles are weird, and consider the dance a kitschy old cadaver propped up to please the tourists. Many young Argentinians share the latter view.

Like most antitheses, this is based on false assumptions. For one thing, the music – not the dance – is the secret life of Buenos Aires. You hear its melancholy strains on the radio every time you take a taxi. You catch the rhythm in everyday chit-chat. You can see the sway of the tanguera every time a local woman walks by.

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Then there’s the iconography. Carlos Gardel is as famous as Diego Maradona in Argentina and his smiling mug is everywhere. When a porteño – or BA native – sees a cobbled street, a vintage lamppost, a splash of swirling paintwork on a bus, they think of tango. The average Argentinian unconscious is rammed with old lyrics, sayings and bits of lunfardo, the tango slang.

To tap into the tangopolis, go to places like Lo de Roberto (Bulnes 331, Almagro; no phone), a café-bar on a corner in Almagro, away from the expat strips in Palermo and downtown. Here, while you’re enjoying a litre of Quilmes beer, wasted old blokes may come by to strum a guitar and sing. If they don’t, a boozy conversation with a regular should do the trick. Tango is a state of mind.

If you want to see – or watch – dancing, skip the glitzy shows and go to a milonga or ‘dance night’. For a night of alt-tango, it has to be La Catedral (Sarmiento 4006 timbre 5, Almagro; 00 54 15 5325 1630), a cobweb-strewn industrial space that lures young porteños into the seedier side of tango. La Viruta (Armenia 1355, Palermo Viejo; 00 54 11 4774 6357/www.lavirutatango.com) is straighter; you’ll see smartly suited and befrocked tango vets stroking the floor with their patent shoes.

Some artists are worth looking out for. Soledad Villamil croons – and looks – like the old birds that sang in BA’s belle époque. Rodolfo Mederos, Julio Pane and Dino Saluzzi are all great button accordionists; Pane still does a turn around lunchtime on Sundays at the beautifully faded Miramar Spanish restaurant (Av San Juan 1999, San Cristóbal; 00 54 11 4304 4261); feast on rabbit stew and shellfish while he delivers a nine-minute solo. Of the new orchestras, Fernández Fierro's is the one everybody’s talking about, with their modern swagger and endless energy.

However, if there’s one artist who represents the voice of new, streetwise tango, it’s Daniel Melingo. Sometimes likened to Lou Reed, he blends a punk ethos with poetic lyricism. He’s in London to play the Royal Festival Hall in April, but if you see him in BA it will be in a dark bar, with skinheads and barflies among the tango fans. And there won’t be so much as a flash of fishnet.

Local knowledge
Eduardo Makaroff, guitarist, Gotan Project
‘The emporium for tango – as well as folk, jazz and world – is Zival’s (00 54 11 4371 7500/www.tango store.com) on the corner of Callao and Corrientes. You can buy music by all the emerging talents, as well as cut-price classic CDs. For a more personalised service, far smaller Miles (Honduras 4912; 00 54 11 4832 0466) in Palermo Viejo is excellent.’

Get packing
Getting there
There are no direct flights. BA (change at São Paulo) or Iberia (change at Madrid). Returns from about £500.

Stay
Moreno Guest House (www.morenobuenosaires.com) opened in 2007; rooms are big and bare, and there are great views of the cupolas and churches of old BA from the roof terrace.

Money
£1 = AR$6.21 (Argentinian pesos). In a week you’ll get through £300 if you eat lavishly and drink Mendoza Champagne at every opportunity.

Climate
Steamy and hot in summer (Dec-Feb) with mild winters. Spring and late autumn are best.

Chris Moss

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