Music just as ‘being’: Skład Butelek/Warsaw

Skład Butelek is a bar in Warsaw in an area called Praga. This is a place I would definitely go back to when we are in Warsaw again. In fact, I would go back to Warsaw again just to go to this place: friendly and kind people, quirky yet welcoming décor and atmosphere and good drinks for really affordable prices.

And the music!

When we arrived a little after 19:00, there was only a small acoustic jam session with piano and cajon in the main bar area. The sound had such honesty and freedom and I really liked that. There was nothing showing-off and trying-too-hard about this jam session. What I didn’t know, was that it was actually about to get better and bigger.

At around 21:00, we started to hear some noises in the basement. We went downstairs to find a bunch of musicians jamming along with a bunch of different instruments: a couple of electric guitars, keyboard, bass guitar, voices, a can (yes) and some other instruments that I didn’t even know the name of. And it was amazing. They were there, listening to each other, being together, creating one music together. It was nice to be shown that music can be just about ‘being’. All of us in the room ‘being’ there within that music together in that very moment, and that was music.

In our current society, we are somewhat blinded (or deafened?) by the preconception that music is about being ‘good’, ‘the best’ or ‘unique’ (often just for the sake of it). Nothing is wrong with that, and I guess that’s just the nature of it, but I felt that I’ve never actually experienced that music can be quite this way; music just as ‘being’.

We had vodka shot (7PLN), vodka sour (10PLN) and screwdriver (5PLN). I don’t know anything at all about vodka, but everything was really tasty. The vodka sour with freshly squeezed lemon was my favourite.

‘Srubokret’=screwdriver was basically a vodka shot with a little dash of orange juice (not a glass of orange juice with a dash of vodka)!