SCENESTER: No one has done more than Maria DiIulis to make house music big deal in Boston’s clubs. |
The last time I saw Maria DiIulis, the owner of BonTon Productions, was at Rumor, the popular Theater District dance club on Warrenton Street. She was greeting guests in the “house music room” with a huge smile on her face and a notepad in her hand, checking off names on her “guest list.” Most she knew personally, and like me, they seemed thrilled to be recognized by a major nightlife “scenester” — which DiIulis is.
I doubt if anyone, DJs included, has done more than Maria DiIulis to make house a big deal in Boston’s nightlife. She sponsors at least a dozen DJs, including such major locals as Craig Mitchell, Jay Prouty, Shlavens & D-Lav, Etiquette, and Taner K. In most of her e-mail “event Invitations” she includes sets by these DJs and others that are available for download. In addition, she and assistant Danielle Dior (until recently joined by Mandy “Krokodile Tears,” who has just been hired to promote Avalon Fridays) send invites to a vast list of house fans, many of whom they know by name. The invitation is sent as an e-mail or bulletin to your MySpace page, and all you have to do is respond to join the guest list. Being on the list gives you a substantial discount at the door. It also means you’ll get into the club a little more easily, because the BonTons have their own admission line. And you can always call one of the gals by cell and she’ll come out and get you in.
After a BonTon-promoted gig ends, the gals often go to Rise, Boston’s after-hours house den. There they seem to know just about everybody. How did they become acquainted with so many house fans? More to the point, how did DiIulis — who grew up in Bridgewater, far from the downtown scene that house has always been — become a house fan? “I always loved listening to dance music. I especially listened to Vinnie Peruzzi [the late radio DJ whose disco classics broadcasts were extremely popular and who himself was known throughout Greater Boston as “Disco Vinnie”] and so did my best friend. She invited me to come to Tokyo. It was there that I discovered the club scene and fell in love. I was excited!”
DiIulis admits to being in her 40s, but she looks and expresses herself like a club kid, and she still voices all that excitement; it’s a major reason for her success as a promoter. Fans know she’s the real thing. “House music is my passion, my life. It excited me enough so that I left a good job — vice-president of a cosmetics company. But I believed in it and in myself. Here I was, out at the clubs. Wherever I went, I’d bring tons of people with me. So there I was, at Rise — this was eight years ago — and they told me I should go work at Avalon. And I did. I became a sub-promoter there.
“Anyway, DJ Jacob from Groove Fire told me, ‘Maria, Rise is looking for female promoters.’ I was the first, was bringing in 20 to 30 people every weekend. Jay Prouty met me at Rise. He aggressively went after me. We ran parties at Avalon for over a year. Now he has his own night at News and gigs at Rumor and other venues.”
Prouty understands better than many just how closely a DJ has to work with a promoter if he or she is to develop a following. House DJing is not a million-dollar, MTV, big-label thing. You have to do it yourself. So do the lounges and clubs that house DJs play in. Explains DiIulis, “The DJ guys need help. The venues too. A lounge can not make it without good promotion! Now most promoters just get paid to bring people into the clubs — they get a cut of the door fee. We at BonTon put the whole night together. We determine the music. We hire the DJ. We hire the percussionist, the dancers.”
BonTon’s efforts have contributed materially to the growth of house in Boston. It was hard to have a “house night” before BonTon got going, DiIulis points out. Yet once the clubs — Rumor, Aria, the Good Life, News, Sanctuary, Felt, Underbar — saw that BonTon had its own large and expanding following, they wanted to participate. Indeed, you could ask whether there isn’t a surplus of house events taking place in a city where they were once hard to find other than at Avalon. But having added the new “Deep Saturdays” night at Aria to her list of events that BonTon’s e-mail and MySpace lists are urged to attend, DiIulis hopes that her guest list will keep on growing. By bringing major house DJs like Victor Calderone and Tom “Superchumbo” Stephan to Boston, BonTon has at the very least found a way to maintain the intensity of the local scene.
“So yes, it was a good decision to leave the cosmetics company,” she reflects. “I’m very happy with my decision to do this full-time. I’m up all night, on MySpace, communicating, making people feel special, that’s what gets them feeling good about themselves. And coming back. I get a high doing that! All these people, having such a good time! They tell their friends. And house music, unlike hip-hop, is such a positive thing. It’s all about dancing. Laughing with one’s friends . . . ”
It’s really pretty basic — just like house music.
