One of my students told me last week that he was going to see a great group performing a Murga For those of you who won't click on the link, a Murga is a type of show/music performed during the Carnival in Uruguay, and in Argentina too, it's just that the Uraguayans are the best. The band, Falta y Resto, are apparently one of the best in Uruguay. So, said my student, I think you'd like it.

Liz has a very good approach to invites and the like, say yes... I'm coming to see the advantages.

The show started at 10 (a lot of theatres seem to have two shows on a weekend, one starting at 8 or 9 and the other at 10 or 11) and the place was packed, I had noticed a poster in town advertising the show, it said 'By popular demand' and they weren't wrong. The crowd was a mix of all ages. I had no idea what to expect.
So when 12 men in suits/shirt and tie combos with painted faces (think of a cross between KISS and a pierrot clown) came on stage it was a little surprising. The music is multiple part harmony, the closest I can describe it is as though Showaddywaddy and the Flying Pickets had children who were cool and liked Billy Bragg. The singing is backed by a couple of drummers and a cymbal player, and a guitarist every now and then. It's very rhythmic, it's for carnival after all and you can easily picture crowds shuffling along to the chk-chk-chk, pa paaa (alright, it's hard to do rhythms in text). It's also at full volume, normally it's all loud but tonight they were a little quieter because of the inclusion of a tango in the spirit of togetherness (that song ended, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Two cities, one heart).

The theme of the show was Amor Rioplatense, which is Love, in the River Plate area... it concentrated on the rivalry between BA and Montevideo, there was a lot of comedy that went over our heads but we got enough of the sense to be amused. There were a few digs at the current crisis between the two countries over two massive paper mill projects upriver in Uruguay. One song described how in order to face the ongoing world environmental crisis they had formed the society of friends for cleaning and breathing and how they were going to clean everything.

While the singing is going on, various members of the group are miming and generally capering in a jesterish fashion so it's good to watch even when you don't get all the jokes.

They finished at midnight or so, and we went for a drink with my student and his wife, and his boss (also an English student)and his wife, so we had the tables turned on us and had to speak Spanish for a while. Then we had a quick trip to the Pizzeria El Cuartito for a couple of slices at 1am and had an early night...  ¶ 4:21 PM