My First Club takes us back to the beginning, transporting DJs and producers back into the depths of their memory, asking them to take us on a trip to those pivotal first nights in clubland. week's subject: Sergio Muñoz & Israel Sunshine of Fur Coat.
Sergio MuñozIn October 2002, I attended my first big electronic party. It was a Ministry of Sound Global Tour. I didn't have much knowledge about DJs and genres, but I used to listen to stuff by Carl Cox, Paul Van Dyk, Timo Maas and Mauro Picotto with some friends at the time. The DJs that were playing that day were Andy Morris of Narcotic Thrust and Petrae Foy.I was 17 years old and many of my friends were under age. We had to create some fake IDs so we could buy the tickets. One of my friends had a scanner and I think we used Microsoft paint on his computer to cut and paste some numbers and change our birth dates. Venezuelan ID's were really easy to fake.We were super scared, but it worked out. We couldn't believe that we were going to this "rave party." When the night came, our whole group of six friends crammed into a super small car of the only friend who had a driver's license. We had no experience and big expectations of what was going to happen next, but we got in!The feeling was so amazing and new for us. We arrived really early, I think around 10 PM. The crowd was only just starting to get together and there was a local DJ opening.The laser lights, huge sound setup, and stage impressed us. We heard all the sets that night: we actually tried to hear every mix, see the crowd's reaction, and of course, check out all the beautiful girls dancing. I think we left the party almost when it was ending, around 6 or 7 am. We left thinking we had the time of our lives.That night was key in my clubbing and DJ career. It was really a pleasant experience and motivated me to investigate and really dig into electronic music. From that day on, I started going to a local Venezuelan electronic music party called Boogie Nights and to every big event to see international DJs that visited the country. It's funny how many years have gone by, 13 already! Wow, I've been partying a lot!Well, opening day arrived and some other DJ friends and I were at my place having some drinks. Of course we were talking shit about the club that was about to open that night like, "You know this is going to be a fiasco. Of course it isn't a real Ibiza club."We got there one hour before the opening and the first thing I saw was an endless line to get in. I had never seen anything like that before. It was very well organized by bouncers wearing black suits and headsets, and the line was like airport immigration. The name of the club was Amnesia Caracas. It had the same logo, great logistics, and Spanish DJs — maybe the rumours were true.Once inside, I couldn't describe it: a real super club packed with more than 5,000 people and the best lighting and sound system ever seen in Venezuela. I was just standing in the middle of the dance floor for hours, watching everything and listening to the DJs whose names I don't really remember. The music was totally different than what we used to hear at clubs. I recognized three or four tracks that night, like Josh Wink - "Higher State of Consciousness," and Robert Miles - "Children." The rest was all new for me and definitely it took me into another dimension. I realized that the clubbing scene in Venezuela and all of us there were "still in diapers," as they say. After that night, I was convinced that my next step had to be Ibiza. I did it three years later and the rest is history.In the end, the club lasted just three months. We never found out if it was the same Amnesia Ibiza owners. Maybe it was the typical Latin-American money-laundering business.Fur Coat is playing at CODA in Toronto on Saturday, November 21. Tickets and information are available here.Fur Coat is on Facebook // SoundCloud // Twitter
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Israel SunshineDuring the 90s and as a teenager in Venezuela I certainly went to many kinds of parties all over the country, from small clubs to open-air raves that were all the hype at that time. However, I couldn't say that any of them were proper clubs for electronic music as we know them nowadays. It wasn't until the year 1997 that some Spanish and Venezuelan corporations joined forces to open a real Mega Club in Caracas. Actually, the rumor was that an Ibizan club was about to open there, but we didn't know what to believe. We knew our country was in an economic boom and a lot of people were investing there, but a club from Ibiza opening in Caracas? Pffff…yeah right….
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