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DEATH AND DYING |
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Jonah
Rapino keeps busy as electric violinist extraordinaire for local
instrumental-rock alchemists Devil Music and co-conspirator of Massive
Distribution (MassDist), a pro-bootlegging label that lives by the
anti-corporate motto FRICMT (Fuck Record Industry Conglomerate Monopoly
Trusts). He’s also the ingenious impresario behind this Saturday’s "The
Funeral Show," a sepulchral benefit for the Berwick Research Institute,
Dudley Square’s severely debilitated experimental-art space. The Jamaica
Plain resident penned an impassioned call-to-arms on the MassDist Web site (www.massdist.com), explaining why he’s
hosting the Berwick’s semi-premature burial rites. "The Funeral
Show" will be held in the basement of the Central Square VFW, one of the
few remaining local spaces still available for booking eclectic functions —
which is the point of this weekend’s requiem. "Can you name three places
in this city that aren’t a bar or club that you can book a rock show
at?" reads the MassDist’s Web site. "Something needs to be done and
we’re the ones that need to do it." What
Rapino has done is to organize a ceremony "to mourn the death/dying/near
strangling of the Boston independent art and music scene." Although
proper funeral dress is required, make-believe mourners are encouraged to
bring flowers, and there will be "somber" organ music in between
sets, Rapino isn’t a plumed-hat goth. He’s a JP-based musician with enough
post-ironic wit to dabble in parodic bands like Elvish Presley (a Tolkienesque
rock-opera-style spectacle) and the Monkeys (Rapino and his sister in suits
and simian masks). Ultimately, however, the 10-year Boston resident and
working artist has organized the event to make a tongue-in-cheek
"statement about the independent-arts scene." (Plus, each of the
four bands playing —U$AISAMONSTER, Devil Music, Pick Ups, and Godbois — has
at least one member who used to live above a South Boston funeral home.) And
Katya Gorker, the Berwick’s very own programming director, will read a eulogy
for Boston’s experimental-arts scene. "It’s partly for the Berwick, but
I don’t want to say that the Berwick’s dead — it’s more like an amputee
victim," says Gorker. "The
place where the show’s happening has a lot of significance," Rapino
says. "It’s right in the Cambridge monopoly-rock spot, where the bigger
clubs have a stranglehold." Which is symbolic, he says, because
"pretty much all the freaky people have moved out of downtown Boston.
They’re nearly out of Cambridge, and they’ll soon be kicked out of JP. What’ll
we do then?" "The Funeral Show" will take place this Saturday, August 30
at 8:30 p.m. "sharp" at the Central Square VFW, 288 Green Street,
in Cambridge, with music from U$AISAMONSTER, Devil Music, Pick Ups, and
Godbois. Suggested donation is $10. RSVP at dvlmsc@yahoo.com |
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