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Berwick benefit
BY CAMILLE DODERO
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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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