Sala BarCo

Madrid half emptied for Easter – and walking around the centre of town over the weekend was very pleasant as the rushing and bumping and elbowing that normally occurs was absent. It also meant most of the cafes, bars and nightclubs weren’t packed to the rafters (as is usual), so myself and four friends took the opportunity on Friday to make a proper night of it in our old hunting ground of Malasaña.

We started with drinks and tapas in plaza de San Ildefonso at Restaurante Conhache. Too cold to sit at the outside terrace, which was deserted, we went inside, which was also deserted. This is almost unheard of as Conhache is the only drinks establishment in the square and is thus SUPER popular. We reveled in the space. For dinner (at a suitable Madrileño time – i.e nigh on midnight) we went to Madrid Madriz, a popular cafe close to metro Tribunal. Again, this can be a very popular spot because it’s cheap, stays open late and the food is served fast – food like burger and chips, sausage and chips, bacon egg and chips, spam and chips. No, that last one was a fib, but you get the idea.

Suitably prepped, we headed off into the maze of old, narrow streets that make up this zone. My companions were all old-hands at the Malasaña scene and knew exactly where they wanted to go. We had ‘copas’ and a boogie at five different places, some of which are covered in the Madrid Nightclubbing section of my main website blog, but for this entry I just wanted to write about a new establishment for me, Sala BarCo.

Located on calle del Barco (geddit?) and open most nights it’s best known for live concerts on the funky-jazz-blues side of things, with some flamenco fusion. But after 1.00am (and we arrived at 0200hrs) it’s DJ time, playing funky hip-hop with a latin tinge. 8 euros to get in but you get a drink with that. The crowd were 20s to 30s and cool. I mean this in the sense that I didn’t see any coke-heads (rare in this part of town) and dressed casually but fashionably. Plus, they were digging the music, which again is rare because at times, and I say this with a deep love of the people, most Madrileños are more interested in the sound of their own voice than the entertainment, whatever entertainment it may be.

Again, because of the holidays, the place was not full which meant we had lots of room and getting to the bar was easy. Maybe this lack of crush influences my thoughts about the place, because I thought it was great. My compadres told me that it can be absolutely rammed at weekends and I’m not sure that I would like that. One other thing in its favour – it has the best acoustics and best sound equipment I have heard in years. The ceilings have been properly covered with sound insulation materials and the speakers, amps, mixing desks etc. were top drawer. Clear, crisp top notes, profound and well formed bass – it really augmented the experience.

Trawling around YouTube I found loads of videos of concerts at Sala Barco, but i thought this one (below) was quite cute. You gotta dig the Spanish accent singing Dr. Feelgood!

FIAT cafe

Hola! ¿Qué Tal?. Onwards and upwards toward c/ Serrano, 197 where that road meets Conche Espina, to go to FIAT. The Blonde is meeting her girlfriends from work and Madrid-Uno is to be introduced to their bf’s where, it is assumed, we boys will talk business and football and they will talk about whatever it is women talk about – knitting patterns, children, how good their men are at rogering them,.. but I’m like totally guessing here. As our taxi draws up Madrid-Uno sees Porsches, Mercs, cabriolets of various models parked about. Drat! The Blonde has failed to warn him it’s a posh place, although now he understands why she was grinning when she said Madrid-Uno looked fine before we left the apartment. Hmmm. Now why is she playing tricks? Anyway, a couple of very large lagers in nice glass ‘balloons’ soon make me forget my holey Converse sneakers and talk with the boys is serious – interest rates, bond dealing, derivatives, corporate mergers and whether a 140 watts of Alpine stereo is strictly necessary in a VW Golf. We have grouped inside with a couple of lads holding on tenaciously to our slot at the bar and the other end of the circle congregating by the empty well of the dance-floor. A DJ will start playing later but at the moment this area is being used for dining. Inside it is humming and there is an even boy / girl ratio with a high grooming factor – I smell Armani, Hackett and gentlemen’s sporting jackets. There are tables outside as well and plenty of people are just milling about on the pavement too, meeting and greeting, lots of that continental cheek kissing. We really must get these people to stick to handshaking. Service is poor in that it’s slow and the staff are surly, although this is obviously partly down to the crush – Fiat is a modern bar / restaurant for a primera hora de la noche, somewhere for the early part of the evening, and it’s very popular – clearly a place to see and be seen for the late-20s and 30 something yuppy crowd. The place closes at 2.00am but we move on at midnight. Madrid-Uno’s trainers forbid him entry to the next bar, but this place looks packed too, judging by the view through the windows looking down into the basement public area. Instead, we wander a bit further down to a bar called Dark Star – which shall be blogged later…promise…it’s just that Madrid-Uno needs time to collect his thoughts after a brief but, errr, interesting night in this particular club.