Literal translation: Timebomb. I went with a friend from the program and ended up seeing a number of other FLACSO people there. My host sister used to go to these shows all the time and I now understand why. It's pure fun though very difficult to explain since I'm not sure I can do justice to the way everything comes together, but here's my attempt anyway:

La Bomba de Tiempo is an improv percussion group composed of about 20 people with 15 different instruments. They play all over Buenos Aires on the weekends, but every Monday night from 8-10pm they play at Konex, an indoor/outdoor venue 7 blocks from my apartment.

This is what they do:



You can see from the guy on the left that signals are used to change rhythms and tell each instrument what to do. Each Monday night when they play they have a different guest that accompanies them for part of the show. Tonight they had an electric guitarist that was amazing although it took him a few minutes to understand how to fit in with the percussion. Additionally one of the percussionists plays his trumpet for a portion of the show.

Now that's what they do...I heard about this the other night, thought it sounded unique, and then decided to pass on an invite to see their biggest show of the year this past Saturday. Since I'm presuming you're thinking the same now, the following video is an example not of what they do, but instead how people in the audience hear them:



Granted the place actually has a large percentage of women in it despite the focus of the video. But the general vibe is right on. One guy was in a serious trance right behind me, dancing crazily and running into people around him. At various points in the show the front portion of the audience (which my friend and I were in) would get down as low as possible until a huge crescendo came at which point we'd leap up and dance. Because the entire show is improv there's a lot of give and take with the audience, from the conductor giving the audience certain beats to hold to recognizing that when everyone in the crowd gets down something really exciting needs to happen. Also many of the percussionists switched places from time to time, so they're clearly able to place different instruments, and 3 or 4 different people conducted. Each different conductor and addition to the show, from the electric guitar (amazing) to the trumpet, to occasional vocals, made the show as a whole crescendo until the entire place went nuts at the end of the set. One of the conductors even lept off the stage and crowdsurfed a bit.

Suffice it to say that for 20 Argentine pesos ($6-$8 USD) the show was more than worth it, and I'm sure I'll be back next week if not this Friday when they have a bigger show at another venue.