Bajofondo ignites in the Midlands

The star-gazing ambience… The glowing sounds… The hubble-bubble of culture-loving intellectual voices… Is this Edinburgh? Is this the neo-Soho? Or maybe Paris? Mmm… no. Believe it or not, the übercool electrotango band, Bajofondo Tango Club took a brave step to our chavvy Cov, C-o-v-e-n-t-r-y less than two weeks ago. (Though I must add lest I may offend some Warwick uni students, they played at the well-established Warwick Arts Centre.)

Much to our delight and excitement, their performance was pretty awesome. Shame though the audience wasn’t any bigger, but it gave us good space to dance around and make use of the brilliant music. What is it about live music that gets us buzzing? Do they just play it differently? Is it louder? Is it because of the visual aid? Personally, as a performer, I always got a buzz out of the audience and big concert halls, probably because I had to tell my story to not just practice room walls and teachers but to so many individuals. You have to exaggerate, physically and emotionally, and you become much more dynamic and interactive as a result. You have to tell oh-so-many-of-them that you’re angry, happy, sad, or love-sick, whatever. My message to traditionalists is that this can be done so amazingly by electronic means as well as by classical instruments and golden-age music. Bajofondo was numbingly great at conveying their oomph. Only as I reached the bar after the show, I realised my heels were killing me.

What was so endearing was that we didn’t just love them. The Bajofondians also loved us, the audience. They showed their appreciation throughout and after each song. It was nice to see that the individuals were all very different-looking from each other. I’m not talking about outfit. I’m talking about their talents and characters. Individually, they were completely immersed in what they were doing, but somehow their strands of music, and their funky retro images in the background interwove so enthrallingly. Of course, that made the experience of dancing tango rather fabulous. As some of us were invited up on the stage for some serious bobbing up and down exercise, I realised the concert was worth every penny.

If you get the chance to see & hear & feel them live, grab a ticket immediately. Tracks from their new album sound pretty fantastic too… In conclusion, my rating for Coventry went up a notch :-)