Kathy H.
Yelp
This is exactly the reason Madrid is a "night city." At first I didn't understand, but with events like Barco starting at midnight in the middle of the week. I get it.
On the particular night I visited, Freshness was performing. It's a jam session, the group plays and sings as if it's improvised. The singer sings random things, random songs, sometimes make up the words, sometimes actual songs they wrote. Once he looked at his two guitarists and sang, "whaaaaaaaaat are you doing????" because they were totally lost.
Freshness had a guitarist, bass, drummer, trumpet, keyboard. They play and accompany the singer, and they're very good!! A moment later, somebody from the audience asks, "Hey can I play the next song with you?" and swaps with the guitarist. Later someone swapped with the drummer. We had 2 other different singers as the main singer went to bar to take shots. The keyboard guy is cute, he got a solo and he's amazing. It's thanks to the singer (who's so lovely, I talked to him of course!!!), I find him really cute too and he's full of energy. It's thanks to him I want to take dance classes again!
That is one highlight of Barco, but they have tons of other musicians play. Freshness plays every Wednesday. AND OH YES, you meet a LOT of locals here. But also a lot of tourists, because nobody really goes out Wednesday nights. (Back in Toronto, Wednesdays are study days)
The bartenders are snobby.
It's 5€ for a Mahou beer though. I for one had a lot of fun here, I got a cute guy's number (but we never chatted after hahaha), and the atmosphere is soooooo cool. I arrived at 11:45pm and nobody was there, I asked if there's a show? The show starts at 12:30am, intermission at 2, then starts again at 2:30am. Crazy huh? And these locals have work at 9 the next day! I LOVE THIS!!! You only live once!
The bar got a LOT busier at around 1am. By busy, I really mean it! A lot of people!! Almost club-like! Ah, Malasaña you're so cool.
