I confirmed my lifelong suspicion that I was born old the moment I stepped into my first night club at the ripe age of sixteen. “Club Magique” was dark, loud and full of badly-dressed chain smoking French people. I remember sipping my first ever (and last, as the case would be) Tequila Sunrise and thinking: “So this is a night club…”

Five minutes into this socially-encouraged activity, I had reached my final conclusion on participating in these all-night soirées:  “This really sucks. I could be in bed right now.”

Seventeen years later, and my opinion has never wavered on going out wicked late to a place where I can’t hear the person sitting next to me. While it’s great that I know what I want in life, this isn’t exactly an optimal mindset when you ask to live in a country where nearly all entertainment kicks off well after midnight. It’s gotta be something really compelling if I’m gonna pretty myself up to go out on the town when I would rather be crawling into bed. 

This was going to be one of those rare weekends.

I haven’t cracked the code on how advertising works in this country, but this chalkboard outside Just 4 U seems to do a good job of getting the word out in Dakar.

“Just 4 U” is a great little restaurant/bar/music venue just around the corner from my house.  As I was rolling by the other day in a taxi, I managed to spy the name of the weekend’s musical act on the chalkboard. Orchestra Baobab was playing Saturday night! Sweet! I had been told previously that this group of guys were now retired (again), and I figured that I’d never see this great ensemble play live.

If you haven’t heard of them, then your knowledge of African music is likely limited to what mine was about two years ago: you knew about Paul Simon’s collaboration with Lady Blacksmith Mambazo….and that’s about it (Akon doesn’t count). I realized pretty quickly that Senegal was a musical mecca, and I needed to start schooling myself with a few of the better known (and ahem, world famous) bands before I stepped onto an airplane.

The whole Orchestra clustered onto the stage.
(Yes, I know the photo is crap)

So I was told that because the group was getting on in their years that they play “early”.  Great news for aspiring old people like Megan. I called Just 4 U and was told that they’d be taking the stage at around 11:30pm (which really means 12:30 by the way). Yeah, I guess that is early for Dakar…but it’s still usually bedtime for me.

I respect him for grooving out of his comfort zone. But check out Laura- you can tell she is hating this.

I cannot spend all of my time here in social lameitude, nor do I have any desire to stay locked up in my hermetically sealed ivory tower every night just so I can have a full night’s sleep. That’s a crime far worse than going out and doing the white man’s overbite for all the world to watch (and re-watch) on Youtube.

There is far too much to explore in Senegal, and indeed I am not looking for you to pat me on the head for deciding to step outside and see a late night show. If anything, I wanted to introduce you to some great musicians, and let you in on the secret that most of the best music in the world is stuff that you’ve never heard. That’s worth sacrificing at least one Sunday morning run no matter how old you are.