There are a lot of benefits of travel, especially when visiting places where the currency you have or are earning has greater buying power than it does in your home country. For instance, last night I went with three friends for a birthday / going home dinner for a friend to a nice place called Negroni in the Puerto Madero neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Three appetizers, three cocktails, four entrees, a bottle of wine, three desserts, and a cup of tea for a whopping total of $118.46 based on the current exchange rate on my credit card. If you read my last post, you know why that “on my credit card” is an important detail.

Another way I like to take advantage of my strong dollar is buying tickets to shows and performances. I love going to shows, but the combination of expensive tickets, not having a romantic partner or enough friends who like to do that sort of thing, and the rut I seem to fall into when I’m not traveling means I don’t do it nearly as often I would like when I’m home in Denver. I’ve just completed my fifth week in Buenos Aires, and I’m averaging one per week so far. Below I’ll talk about each one in order, and I’ll list approximate costs in US dollars because the number of pesos is surely to be different soon due to the rampant inflation here.

But first, a few things you should know that apply to most of these shows as well as other entertainment venues:

• The way they sell drinks here is frustratingly inefficient because you have to stand in line twice – once to pay and receive a receipt/order ticket and once to give it to the bartender to make your drink. And because tips are not the main source of their income, bartenders here are in no hurry. Tourists are recommended to tip 10%, but locals don’t tip at all. If you want a cocktail, settle in and get used to the wait.
• Argentinians have a completely different sense of personal space than Americans. Better said, they have almost no sense of personal space so if you are in a standing room only venue, expect to be shoulder to shoulder with your fellow revelers.
• Whereas VIP seats in the US tend to get you close to the action, paying for VIP in Argentina does just the opposite. You pay extra to be distanced (protected?) from the experience. My friends and I only made this mistake once, thinking that it was a good idea because the tickets were so cheap, and we’ll never do that again. I’ll call out the differences in the experience that we observed in two of the events below.

Fuerza Bruta

I still don’t know how to describe this one, but it was unquestionably my favorite among some very strong contenders. Part dance party, part Cirque de Soleil, part some indescribable magic – the result was pure joy. Their Instagram page calls it “El espectáculo más FELIZ DEL PLANETA” (the happiest show on the planet), and I think they have a legitimate case to make.

The show is staged in a two-story tall, airplane-hangar-like building surrounded by football / soccer fields near the Jorge Newbury International Airport. When your Uber or taxi drops you off, you’ll wonder whether you are in the right location. Hint: it’s not the swanky building by the main road that people are entering wearing tuxedos and ball gowns. Keep walking away from the main road through the area where the footballers park. About 200 yards down that road, you’ll find the Sala Sinpiso GEBA.

On arrival, a DJ is on stage spinning infectious, familiar tunes that the whole crowd can’t help but dance to. Given that there are no seats, you’ll be on your feet for the duration of the show. As the time for the show nears, staff begins to close off the performance area from the bar/restroom/lobby area with a floor-to-ceiling black curtain. Exits are marked in reflective tape in the event you need to duck out for a pee.

The version of the show I saw (apparently they switch it up periodically to encourage repeat attendance) started with an underwhelming percussion / vocal number in which the performers were clearly air drumming and lip syncing. So far I was not impressed. Then it got interesting.

From the rear of the space, a 15-foot inflated globe suspended from a track in the ceiling slid out over the crowd with four performers in harnesses also hanging from the ceiling, spaced evenly around the globe. The ropes were attached to their sides, so they hung horizontal to the floor, able to put their feet on the equator of the globe, allowing them to perform a “dance” number above a now gobsmacked audience.

Next, show staff pulled another curtain longways down the center of the space, dividing the audience in two. Above our half of the room, another ceiling mounted rig came out, a clear plastic box with water in the bottom and a woman lying in the water in the center. The crowd was pushed back so that it could be lowered to about shoulder height so that a guy could be attached to a metal ring in the bottom of the box. Everything was then raised back up for a spinning, splashing, tragically romantic number.

As mesmerizing as that was, I couldn’t help but wonder what was happening on the other side of the curtain with the other half of the approximately 1,500 people in attendance. I soon found out because the staff opened several double-door sized panels in the center curtain so that the entire crowd could switch sides of the room. Somehow this all happened smoothly and quickly, and we saw what we had missed before.

I won’t go through every act, but by far the most fun was a huge (maybe 60-foot long?) inflated blue whale containing a central metal structure that allowed two performers to rock and swing the whole contraption, resulting in the whale bouncing and bonking the delighted, giggling crowd on their heads with the whale’s snout, fins, and tail. The nylon parachute material out of which the whale was constructed made it feel like a gentle pillow-fight with a nautical beast.

At the end, the DJ returned for a short set, helping to space out the departure of the crowd and the demand for Ubers.

Cost: About $13; drinks available
VIP experience: Rather than being among the crowd on the floor of the venue, the VIP tickets are on a second level balcony overlooking the fun. No changing sides of the curtain or head bonking by a giant whale for the VIP. They definitely had less fun that we did.

Tango

If there’s one thing visitors to Buenos Aires know about the city, it’s that it is the home of Tango, and seeing a Tango show is on most travelers’ must-do list. What you may not know is that as central as Tango is to Argentinian culture, it’s not something most residents do themselves. Unlike Salsa / Porro / Merengue / Bachata dancing in Colombia where virtually everyone learns at least the basics growing up and such dances are part of every family celebration, Argentinians by and large do not dance Tango.

That said, some do, and you regularly see sidewalk performances in areas where tourists gather, and there are plenty of places to take in a show. My friends and I attended one at Teatro Astor Piazzolla and really enjoyed it. In addition to the expected sultry, super sexy dance numbers, there were terrific vocal performances, and the live band that accompanied each performance also did an instrumental-only number in which the band leader violinist blew the doors off the place.

There are two ways to do these events – with a pre-show dinner included or a show-only ticket in which you arrive just as the dinner crowd is finishing up. Having heard that the dinner you get at any of these tourist-focused events is significantly over-priced and of middling quality, we skipped dinner.

Cost: about $45 without dinner; drinks available

There are definitely cheaper options. The famous Cafe Tortoni, the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires operating since 1858, does one for about $12, but I haven’t spoken to anyone who has seen that one. I have eaten there, though, and you’re definitely going to want to skip that meal. The coffee and cakes are good though, I’m told.

La Bomba de Tiempo

This all-percussion group puts on a show every Monday night at a great venue called Ciudad Cultural Konex. My posse attended their 17th anniversary special performance late on a Saturday night. The venue doors didn’t even open until midnight, and the show went until 5:30 in the morning. I didn’t make it until the end. I was still getting over a cold that had come on after staying out too late too often and wearing myself down, but what I did see before calling it a night around 3am was a blast.

Members of the 13-piece band took turns as conductor, leading the group though numbers that had the packed crowd gyrating to the beats. The venue includes two spaces – an indoor stage for the winter months and an outdoor stage for warm, dry-weather performances. If you don’t like crowds, this is not the event for you. We were crammed into the indoor space, and that’s the case for all of the weekly performances and not just the sold-out anniversary show we saw. I met a woman recently who said she goes about once per month, attesting to the popularity of this group and why they’ve been at it for 17 years.

The Monday night shows start and end earlier, and they end with the band taking the crowd out dancing into the streets surrounding the venue. One friend who attended on a Monday said he thought that part was the most fun.

Cost: about $5, food and drinks available

Sex, viví tu experiencia

This show at the Gorritti Art Center was titillating to say the least. It included both dance and vocal performances by scantily clad (and sometimes completely unclad) men and women, one simulated sex act (at least I assume it was simulated – it was very convincing), monologues on the subject of sex, and lots of audience interaction. In addition to embracing both hetero and homosexual themes, it was also a body-positive performance – for women. While the female performers were mostly thin and toned, three of the nine or so of them were larger women of various sizes. The men were all chiseled out of stone without an ounce of fat to be found.

As enjoyable as this show was visually, with probably the most jaw-dropping pole dance I’ve ever seen, my limited Spanish skills kept me from understanding any of the commentary, which had the crowd often cheering and laughing. I recommend going even if you don’t speak Spanish, but you’ll enjoy it more if you do.

Cost: starting at about $7; food and drinks available
VIP experience: This is where my group made the VIP mistake. Our seats were on the second level with a railing blocking our view and completely removing us from the audience participation opportunities.

Alververás La Saga

This “alternative theater” show at Fundación Merecedes Sosa was my least favorite, possibly because the competition was so strong. The venue is the courtyard of what looks like maybe an old convent now converted into a cultural center dedicated to the promotion and development of Latin American music and art. A terrific live musical performance of Pink Floyd-esque music accompanies the projection of a light show on the walls and crumbling towers surrounding the courtyard.

At first, the light and music is mesmerizing, but it pretty quickly became repetitive. Combining that with the three hours of sleep I got the night before, I found myself struggling to stay awake and finally stopped trying. I never fully fell asleep, but I definitely dozed. My friends all agreed that for us, the performance would have been improved by selling about 10 times as many tickets, removing all of the tables and chairs, and making the outstanding musicians more of a central part of the show. Instead, they were off to the side, out of the line of sight, with no lighting.

Cost: about $7.50; drinks available