Buenos Aires has a lot to offer in terms of nightlife, and I’ve had my fair share of amazing nights, average nights, and not-so-great nights. For months I’d had my eye on Club 74 in Belgrano – a disco, funk and soul night that boasted a multi-coloured dancefloor, disco balls and a showstopping soundtrack promising to transport its clubgoers back to the seventies and eighties for one night, in all its sparkling, multi-coloured glory.
Weeks went by – essay deadlines, other social commitments – and we never fulfilled our ambition, until one day a friend and I plucked up the determination to go for it. Leaving at 1am with the unappetizing prospect of a 50 minute bus ride ahead of us, we were a little apprehensive as to how the night would pan out… the club was in the middle of nowhere on a random street in Belgrano next to some weird cowboy western style hotel that looked like a brothel. Slightly shaky start. Nevertheless, we courageously went for it with our minds open… and had one of the most awesomely amazing bitchin nights out that we had ever had.
Club 74 is like stepping into a time machine, rocketing you back to 70s disco heaven. Disco balls and flashing multicoloured tube lights adorn the ceiling. The floor is a heady, intoxicating vortex of ever changing, brightly-coloured cubes, relentlessly moving to the beat of the music all night long, without a pause or moment’s rest. The music is a euphoric journey through the greatest disco, funk and soul anthems of our time: moving seamlessly between golden classics by the likes of Kool & The Gang, The Bee Gees, Chic and Earth Wind and Fire, while simultaneously fast-fowarding its audience to the present with Daft Punk and much more. Soul music also made an eagerly welcomed appearance with the likes of James Brown driving the crowd wild, although the crowning moment came in the shape of ‘Easy Lover’ by Phil Collins and Philip Bailey. Arguably one of the greatest songs EVER – to which I have danced around my bedroom countless times, never thinking that I would have the chance to replicate this behaviour in a club – my friend and I literally lost our shit when we heard its first magical, unmistakeable chords.
Unless you are averse to the infectious, dizzying joys of disco (in which case you worry me slightly), this club simply cannot be missed. Don’t be put off by its awkward, inconvenient location – for the chance to dance ridiculously all night long, like a deliriously happy maniac, it’s well worth the distance!
Frances Black
This post originally appeared in A Year In Buenos Aires
LIVIN' LA VIDA LOCAL 