On Wednesday night I had the pleasure of catching the Gauchos jazz sextet perform at the delightfully divey Amnesia Bar in the Mission District. The Gauchos play mostly gypsy jazz, ala Django Rheinhart, throwing in some other tango and New Orleans street jazz for good measure. They got some serious chops, tight grooves, and top notch musicianship.
I met up with my friend Robert visiting from New York, and got acquainted with several other awesome lindy hoppers and bal dancers there. Initially, we had quite a lot of room to dance in front of the bandstand. But as the evening wore on, more hipsters started arriving, crowding around the stage. So at most you could have three couples dancing.
But everyone was super friendly, and didn't mind us throwing down in front of the band. I grabbed one particularly enthusiastic hipster girl in a flouncy baby blue dress and got her dancing with the rest of us. Afterwards, she was asking about lindy hop and how she could learn, so maybe we got a new convert!
The divey bar, locals crowding around with fancy beers, and gypsy jazz made me miss New York a bit. I think Gauchos at Amnesia is going to be one of my regular dance hangs, for sure. Good times, good times.