Sahara Lounge
On a small white hill by a broken down bridge that the city
has been promising to finish for the past nine months squats a ramshackle old
one-story structure with a brightly illuminated sign proclaiming “Sahara
Lounge.” Once known as far-east Austin’s
most authentic blues joint under different ownership and the name TC’s, Sahara
Lounge continues to serve the surrounding African American community with
beats, eats, and drinks, but now the music tends towards tropical and African
rhythms, and the audience has grown to include a diverse mix of people of all races from all over Austin.
Tonight I am here to see my friends’ group, a collective of
four men and seven women tonight that goes by the name “Origens.” The front man is Brazilian, and the style is
taken from northeastern Afro-Brazilian roots with deep, large, heavy drums and
tinkling triangles and chiming cowbells.
The vocalists are female, from a range of nationalities and ages; they
lead the percussion in Portuguese, harmonizing, meandering between different
tunes and tones, rhythms and keys. All
the band members wear white, turquoise, or red tops with a variety of floral
skirts, red pants. The audience claps and sways, shoulders circling, hips
bouncing, feet stomping, shaking the ply-wood dance floor.
At one point three of the musicians come down from the stage
and create a circle, two-steps, clap, stomp in the middle; they grab the hands
of audience members on the dance floor.
The vocalist sings a sad, minor-key melody, and the drums are simple,
melancholy; however, our circle dance lifts the spirit – a paradox of
emotions.
The ceiling is draped with a chaos of cables, bulbs, strings
of Christmas lights; pipes and wires snake above leading to spinning disco balls,
one reflecting with tiny mirrors, the other shining seven colors in shapes of
stars, squares, and circles. Garish,
bright beer ads in neon tube-bulbs advertise Budweiser, Negro Modelo, and a
cluster of red roses are stapled onto a beam that marks the exit from the stage
up to the seating area and the pool tables.
Above this step, a long then gourd has painted “Music Joy Amusement”
then “Emotion Peace Soul Celebration.”
The show moves the audience.
We all applaud.
Glitter letters behind the musicians remind us where we are:
“Sahara Lounge, ATX.”
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