Back to the Futurum

It’s been at the back of my mind for the past two weeks, and whenever the thought emerged to the surface, my soul rejoiced. “What about 80’s/90’s at Futurum?” My friends suggested at the end of last year. I didn’t hesitate; “Count me in!” I’m sitting all excited on the metro heading towards Anděl now; after 14 days it’s finally happening!

It’s that age-old question that’s been bugging countless numbers of expats – what is it with Czech people and oldies music? Does music from the West travel to Eastern Europe with a 20-year delay? Have you guys just discovered this music? – If you’ve ever asked those questions, poor you, you probably got a lesson on how Czechia is, in fact, in Central Europe.

My story began when I was 15. It was a magical Friday evening when I entered Lucerna Music Bar for the very first time. Me and my high-school girlfriend made it in and looked around. The bar was completely empty.

“Where is everybody? It’s already 8 o’clock!” We were like deer in the headlights. We panicked around before we found our haven in a dark corner. There we argued for a couple of minutes, deciding who will fix us up with drinks. I drew the short straw.

So I took a deep breath and marched across the vacant space. I approached an idle bartender and feigned confidence. “Two glasses of red wine, please.” I practiced that unfamiliar line in my head the whole way over there. He knew it right away; “Can I see your ID?” Game over. I passed him the card, he looked at it and decided, “Ok, I’ll give you non-alcoholic wine then.” I watched his every move as he was preparing the refreshment. He took my money and before he let go of the glasses, he looked me in the eyes and ordered, “Don’t get fucked up.” He’d poured real wine in…

The place was filling up at a snail’s pace as me and D. were getting tipsy on our grown-up drinks. The music had us busting out more and more dance moves in our chairs till it became unsustainable; it was time… I descended onto the dance floor and closed my eyes… “Oh God I think I’m falling out of the sky, I close my eyes. Heaven help me!” In the midnight hour I definitely felt a power. It was my life, it was now or never, and Daddy was cool as ever.

That night set me off on a journey to becoming an oldies disco lover, and I’ve kept returning to Lucerna or its sister bar Futurum ever since. A few years later I moved for studies to Germany. There I learnt that oldies weren’t actually cool! I kept entering every club in the hopes that they would play some of my favorite tracks. Tough luck. I started to accept the fact that the oldies are dead.

When I returned back to Czechia I kept surfing on the wave of modern club music, but my heart was elsewhere. Until one day I heard the words from an expat friend, “Anybody wanna go party to 80’s/90’s to Futurum this weekend?” Time stopped for a moment. And then I saw, in slow motion, everything suddenly falling into place. I had found what was missing in my life!

Why we Czechs dig 80’s/90’s pop and rock so much is a mystery to me. Maybe it’s nostalgia; maybe the music is just bloody hilarious. Some Friday night, if you dare, you can come to Futurum and observe me and my friends from all over the world in our natural habitat. Losing our shit to Queen, John Travolta and The Village People. Maybe you’ll even join in… and now I’m off to the party of my life!