Bostonian of the Week: Ben Sisto

What made you decide to move?

Initially I was one of those people who was very adverse to the idea, especially around '03/'04 when a lot of my friends were moving there. I decided to stay in Boston and make it happen here. Now that it's almost 2009, and I've had a very fortunate run here. The Milky Way was great to me. Great Scott was good to me. I'm a firm believer in ending on a high note. Not quitting, but changing the environment. Also New York is the closest city to Boston. It's New York, and it's a metropolitan city, and there's lots of opportunity; but I'm a New Englander at heart. I wanted to leave Boston, but Providence is too small. It's far enough way to be different, but it's close enough to come home.

Right. It's not that far away.

There's also some grad-school programs that I'm really interested in, so the main focus is to find a grad-school program.

[Ben has since told us that he's got a gig as the programs coordinator at a new venue, 92Y Tribeca.]
What did you study at MassArt?

I was in a program called SIM, which was "Studios for Interrelated Media." Whereas a normal major teaches you a specific craft like painting or photography and says, "With these tools, go make art." SIM says,"What's your idea?" and works backwards from there.

So you might be interested in linguistics, then you ask yourself, "What would be most appropriate for this idea?" Okay, video; time to learn video. Maybe the next project might involve sound; time to learn audio editing. It was a reverse structuring. It was kinda like a free, hippie major.

Even like a liberal arts program AT an art school.

Yeah, it was like the Hampshire College of Boston.

When did you start promoting shows?

I did my first show at MassArt in 2001.

What was that first show?

It was a Providence band called As The Sun Sets, they were kind of like a hardcore band, and There Were Wires, who are also hardcore, and a couple other bands.

The original idea was to do these benefit shows where we raise the money to put on shows at ICA. Well, things happened. We broke a lot of stuff, so a lot of the benefit money ended up-- We were all about 20, so we had yet to appreciate the value of... for example, a properly coiled XLR cable. There was a lot stuff breaking.

I remember someone threw a mackerel -- a fish -- through a window once... But we thought, "We'll deal with that." Now that I look back on it, I feel blessed that MassArt put up with me. At this point in my life, I would kick the Me of then out.

I was going to ask if there was some specific disaster show...

I remember there was this one time doing Kaiju Big Battel and Les Savy Fav. We were working with MassConcerts, and this was at the MassArt gym. The generator and everything was set up outside. When we took the the cable from the generator and the cable to the stage power, they were 3 feet apart. It was a half hour before the show, and there was already about a thousand people there... Fortunately at that point MassConcerts, they're a professional company, were able to handle it.

There were a lot of little things like that. But in general, everytime a PA breaks or something, someone from Boston would come and help out; so everytiime there was a mini-disaster, it turned out to be, "Oh, cool. That's what DIY is all about."

What are some of the shows that stick out for you?

I've talked about it a bunch, but first and foremost is when I did two shows with Fugazi in 2002, and that was like starting out at the top. I always joke that ever since then. I've been going downhill. Not even just because of the music, but because they were personal heroes of mine; and they showed up in a very small van and handled their own sound equipment. Most bands have a rider [specal requests for food, etc.], and they asked us to cook a potluck dinner with them. All these things really made me understand that the legend was true!

Ever since then whenever I dealt with bands that are more demanding or more detail-oriented, I really take a step back and think, "You weren't in Minor Threat." You never know where people are coming from; but after you work with people on that level and they're that professional, it really sets the tone for how you want other people to perceive your interactions and all that.

Recently I just did a show at Milky Way Lounge with Zombie Nation. That was great, because I used to listen to Zombie Nation on the radio in like '96 while driving around the suburbs... I got to meet them, and that was pretty awesome.

All events have their different qualities. One other thing that I really would say was special was in 2003. My friend Sarah and I did a boat cruise that Certainly, Sir played on. I had never owned a credit card before then... So we wanted to rent a boat, and I had to get a credit card. It represented for me personally a transition. From doing events in classrooms and basements, then all of a sudden we were on a boat, it felt special. It was a beautiful night, and we were looking over Boston Harbor... It was a nice beautiful evening.

Yeah, you're on a friggin' boat. You put a show on a boat together!

And it was one of those things where we were doing a show on a boat, but we got the gear there in my parents' borrowed minivan... It was the exact moment between professionalism and "my friends are already too drunk at load-in."

What advice do you have for people that want to do their own shows?

There are two main things I always tell people.

One is to register with the city as a business as soon as possible. It only costs $50, then everything you do is a tax write-off. If you take a band out to dinner, buy a music magazine, or buy a song on iTunes -- it all counts as research. It's an easy way to start. I understand the model of "just doing this for fun" or "We're just doing this for a friend's band. We don't want to get too business-y." If you get a little business-y, you can save money and pay your bands more. And with the cost of gas now, every penny counts. Even if you're going to ignore it, you should understand the economics of what you're doing.

The second thing is to never book crappy music. It's a really simple thing, but you just call bands you like and say you want to work with them. I think it was Carl Andre, the modernist artist, who said when he started making his work -- even when he was doing something really weird -- he said, "I'm not such a peculiar person that I expect that no one else on Earth to like what I'm doing." With these bands, you have to not give a shit about what pitchfork is saying. None of that matters. All that matters is that you book what you like... And eventually someone else will like it... And their friend will like it... There's so much good music in the world right now, I feel it's impossible to really strike out.

So what changes have you noticed in the Boston scene since you started out?

Well, I guess most recently the largest thing I've noticed is the migration in Boston with dance and DJ culture; it's just through the roof. What the Hearthrob guys and Make It New and David Day did with Thunderdome -- that really is important, because it's inspiring other people to say, "Hey, we can rent this DIY hall and make a better party than a big club." I was always working here on Fridays, so I only made it to one or two of them; but both times it was just great.

It's been really interesting to see all the different DJ styles popping up and then overlapping. There's people I've known for years from the punk scene that started DJ-ing a little bit, and suddenly they're in a fancy downtown club. It's a really interesting progression to watch.

And on a negative note, I feel like the city is getting increasingly strict about DIY spaces and age restrictions. That's a big bummer, because everyone is moving out of Boston, and I don't know if they understand that in order to prevent that you have to create a climate of local creative culture.

Somerville gets it. They did the McGrath Highway thing, they did VidFest, and they're printing 5,000 copies of a comic of a local artist. These are all great things that even when they seem trivial, it makes people that are creative want to get more invested in the community. Right now... Downtown Boston is a wasteland after like -- 2pm...

I don't have a problem with Allston getting nicer or JP getting nicer. People have their gentrification issues. I want all the areas to get nicer, but i just want them to do so in a way that's not displacing people and recognizing that you can't have this homogenized, "current state of Kenmore Square" culture.

When you watch all the sporting events, there's a certain type of person that's doing the rioting, because without a sense of local culture all businesses become disposable. If you walk down the street, and it's Panera Bread, Panera Bread, Panera Bread -- and you're from the suburbs it's Panera Bread, Panera Bread, Panera Bread... What does it matter if you throw a trash barrel through the window? You know how much money that company has -- but I'm not advocatng that.

It would be different if it's a Mom and Pop shop that you get slice from everyday...

You want people to feel like home, and not this invasion of your space. I think if the city invests more money into non-traditional art and experimental programming, it would mean a lot. I think Menino wants it to be thought of as a world-class creative city -- and there's tons of great stuff here -- but there's just a gap between the money and the people that really need it.

Well, "Love During Wartime" was something in the right direction.

Yeah, that was fun. All the DJ's played for free or cab fare. It was nice to be able to say, "We're going to do this event for free, and we're going to give the money away." The money ended up going to someone we all felt was deserving, so it was the best thing to hope for.

I think DIY is about the community and helping othe people out -- doing something to keep the scene flourishing.

Yeah. I probably got on a lot of people's nerves over the last couple years, because DIY punk shows and civic action and school boards and whatever are all really the same thing for me. The punks care about alternative education, and liberals care about progressive education. Punks care about women's rights, gay rights, and trans- rights; so do leftist politics. I've had a tendency to promote shows like, "Hey, it's the community! Come together," and some [resist]. No one likes politicians even if they're well-intended.

The terms punks and norms get thrown around a lot, but really there's cool people in both camps. There's also people that waste water in both camps. You've got to stick with the good.

Then there was the move to have all clubs in Boston be 21+.

When they did that I actually called City Hall, or wherever the woman's office was, and asked what was going with this. We went back and forth a little bit, then I went on a bunch of social networking sites, all the phone numbers are public, and told people to call them. I called back a few days later, and they were inundated with phone calls. So I think their stance right now about all clubs officially being 21+ is a gray area. It's sort of like wiretapping -- you really don't know when it's 21+.

You should want 18+ clubs. You don't want 18 year-olds to sit at home until their 21 year-old friends to show up with kegs and have house parties... Do you remember that "Operation Rolling Thunder" or some crap? They were going around Dorchester and breaking up illegal parties? You can break up illegal parties by offering people a better, legal alternative.

I think when they started changing clubs to 21+, most of the violence didn't involve people under 21.

It was people from suburban areas that come in to party on the weekends. It wasn't the people that were here.

Oh, I think I have to start DJing soon...

Okay, let's talk about Friday night. How did you choose the bands?

Well, I don't know. Neptune and Major Stars are two of my favorite bands. In terms of music, people, working relationships with them, and what i think it's going to be like at the show -- it's just going to be good. I think I booked Reports' first show. They also have a song -- I think it's called, "Your Honor" -- out of all the live bands in Boston, I just love hearing that one song. They're also great people.

Is this the last public "Farewell Sisto" show?

Yeah, I've got a lot of jokes that I've been promoting my exit for a bunch of months. Love During Wartime was the last big party, and this is, "Okay, I'm really leaving. One last show." We're giving some of the door money to 826 Boston, so that'll be good. It'll be a fun show.

Since you're leaving, is there any secret you'd like to share about Boston?

A secret about Boston... Umm, let me think.

Is there anything you'll miss about Boston?

Oh, yeah! I'm going to miss the Arboretum; I'm going to miss everything about Jamaica Plain.

Okay. Yesterday, I went to -- I want to say... the Sunny Side...? [Sunny's Diner] It's a little breakfast diner in Cambridge that I'd never been to.

Just off of Mass Ave?

Yeah. It was a great place that I had never been, and I've lived here for all these years. I'm supposed to be one of these people that knows Boston, and I'm still finding stuff out. So I think the biggest secret is that there's way more going on than people think.

That's a great end.

I'm sorry to cut it short.