Ben Sisto: Practice Makes Practice
Drawing of Ben by Lauren Leilani
With Group Show, atac’s Ben Sisto will introduce some concepts and best-practices related to live event production. If you want to organize concerts, parties, flea markets, or whatever but have absolutely no idea what you’re doing, this is the place to be. Friday Feb 3rd at atac, 6pm.
Who are you?
Hello. I'm Ben Sisto, an artist from Providence. I'm the Marketing Manager here at atac and for a little while, am also helping out with programming. I've been organizing public events since the early 2000s. It’s the same as other art practices—arranging and grouping things together to see what happens. I’m hoping I can share some of the things I’ve learned over the years with people in MetroWest who want to get into this line of work. Or just have fun with it.
Where are you originally from, and how’d you get into music-world stuff?
I grew up in Seekonk, MA and as a kid liked stuff like The Monkees and Talking Heads. I was a big Pearl Jam fan in the mid 90s—trading bootleg CDs via AOL. One had a Sonic Reducer (Dead Boys) cover, which got me into punk a bit. Two huge influences on me by early high school were Nine Inch Nails and Wu Tang. I think both for the music, but also the brand and scope. The NIN “Halo” remix CDs lead me to artists like Aphex Twin, and Wu Tang was just so-many-dudes, all with their own solo projects. Both felt bigger than ‘a band’ to me; more like art projects. I had friends in local ska punk bands too, so I threw a show at the Polish Hall in Grafton (RIP) and was like "Oh...this is my role in music. I can’t play, but I can organize stuff."
What are your top desert island records? Is it just all 100 Wu-affiliates?
This might be cheating but there's a John Cage piece called As Slow As Possible that is set to run until like 2650, so that'd be long enough to last my lifetime. Dopesmoker from Sleep is something I've been listening two for decades now. I like anthology records a lot...Numero Group, Awesome Tapes from Africa, and those sorta labels. The Kiss FM master-mix records…I could have on repeat forever. Maybe Roxy Music, too.
Above: Fugazi at MassArt, 2002. Photos by Tara DeMarco.
What have been some stand-out live performances you’ve seen?
This answer changes day to day, but today I'm thinking about a time I was working at Ace Hotel in New York. My friend and co-worker Greg Bresnitz had a partnership in place with The Bowery Presents where occasionally bigger artists did these semi-secret, day-of announced underplays and one day, we got to host Tinariwen. They played in the hotel lobby to a pretty intimate crowd. I still can't believe that happened. I also booked Fugazi at school when I was 20. They were amazing nights, and people still ask me about it twenty years later. I once went into a wine shop in Brooklyn and the owner had one of the original tickets framed on the wall!
Any advice for aspiring performers?
Get into breathing. It doesn't need to be deep meditation or anything; just whatever works for you. I only discovered this later in life through therapy; but it’s real! Clubs can be stressful environments—it’s super helpful to be able to quickly center yourself under pressure. Also, try to think of practice as your practice. Artists are always refining, editing, and adjusting works, and all work is based on someone else’s prior art. If you let go of the idea that art has any definable start or end, or the idea that practice makes perfect, you’ll be a lot better off. Oh and budgets. Like seriously learn about budgets, taxes, etc.
Fat Day at Great Scott in 2004; where Ben was the Promotions Manager (2004-2006)
What's the roughest gig you've ever played?
A few years ago I was on a speaking tour while making a documentary. A friend in Seattle was booking this bar called Barboza—it's a legit, cool venue—and agreed to let me give a taped presentation there. I'd never been to Seattle, and it showed. Four people came for what was an hour-plus long slideshow in a 200+ cap room—and one got up and left midway through. 3,000 miles away from home, in a new room, presenting a decade's worth of research to so few people was brutal. I was lucky in that the bartenders and sound staff were super nice and liked my project but yeah...kind of made me question my life for a week there.
Got any great arts and music discoveries from travel?
This is a kind of far-out place, and not related to art travels but on my honeymoon we went to Japan. There's a place called Jazz Spot Yamatoya. It's like, old men smoking in old chairs while listening to jazz on a really nice vintage McIntosh amp. We also went to Benesse Art Site Naoshima, which is like if the video game Myst were a boutique brutalist hotel with James Turrell artworks scattered around. I’ve never been to another place like it.
Above: Some Ace Hotel events. Left: Roto Hotel with Tom Tom Magazine; Right: Juliana Barwick for Bedstock
Apart from this gig, what are you up to?
Right now I'm really interested in two types of art making, both with emerging intelligences. The first is using tools like Stable Diffusion and Midjourney to produce images from text-prompts. The other is making art with our four-year-old daughter. She is teaching me how to draw, and about new ways of seeing. I also have a lot of collections...old QSL cards, novel decision making tools. I curate some art shows in Providence at a bookshop, too.
So this event, Group Show, what should people expect?
I want people to know they can come to this event with absolutely zero idea what they are doing. They only need to have the most fleeting interest in live event production, marketing, promo, or venue-based project organization. I’ll be talking about things like how ticket sale money gets split up, what a radius clause is, and how to prepare your stage plots and input lists for the tech crew. It's an entry-level vibe; more about suggestions and best practices than rules. Getting a foot in the door at venues can feel daunting. This is a free, friendly way for younger people to get that foot in the door. If I can do this, you can do this.
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Group Show is taking place on Friday, February 2nd at 6:00 PM.
atac is at 160 Hollis Street in Framingham; no ticket needed just come on in.
