Interzone Studios :: Web Home Of Producer/Engineer Robert "Void" Caprio

Well, it's been a while since I've blogged. Things have been pretty busy on the road and since I've also taken over TMing it's been even crazier. As many of you likely already know, David's brother died while we were out on the road. Very sad situation as he had been battling brain cancer for many years. I have to hand it to David, he handled it very well and only canceled one show.

So, from what I remember, here goes from most recent to oldest:

Corpus Christi, TX - Beach Jam '09
Radio station show at the beach. Had to drive 27 hours straight through from OH to make it in time. That SUCKED. Since we made it alive it's now time to go barefoot and try to tan my shockingly white body. Home-made (by Willie Mellon) boxes that actually sounded really good.
Soundcraft 200SR at FOH and monitors. Since I've been on a Profile for many months now it was a drastic change back to analog world of inserts and patch cords. Sounded great!

Midland Theater, Newark OH
Nice old theater. FOH was stuck under a balcony... again. Ugh. At least we have a tablet controlling the Profile and XTA so we can get out into the audience and mix from there perspective. Lemme tell ya that capability has made a huge difference in the way I mix since I can be confident when I go back to FOH that things are ok out front. I think the rig was an E/V line array, sounded decent enough.

Had a few other shows that were great but not really anything special.

Toad's Place, New Haven CT
Now this was a venue I was looking forward to. I went to shows there when I was a kid since they had tons of cool artists come through. Talking Heads, Blondie, etc. Lots of cool new wave bands from the 80s.
Ancient old mono PA original from the 70s when the place was built. Wow, still sounded pretty pumpin'. The dressing rooms and hospitality areas are skanky but I don't expect much from a rock club in that category. So glad we carry our own console, I didn't even want to peek under the dust cover of the house rig. The house lighting guy, I forget his name, was simply amazing. He seemed to know the songs and cues even though I'm pretty sure he never heard them before.

Skirball Center, NYU, NYC
Ah, a show on the home turf. The best thing about shows in NYC is the good food abundantly available within a few blocks of pretty much anywhere.
Decent MILO sound rig but not nearly enough of it. We really needed 2X more subs and perhaps 2-3X more boxes on top. Oh well, we made the best of it.

Ollie's Point, Long Island, NY
A decent rock club run by a cool guy I've known a while. Not a bad rig out front but their monitor rig needs some work, even though they swear by it. Soundcheck was rough and the show was rough on the band but I was ok out front. Good thing it was one of our 'hybrid' shows wherein we played mostly acoustic but with a few accents from an electric guitar and keys. Despite being barely able to hear anything on stage Ryan killed it.

There were many others that I simply can't remember the details of. Usually the pictures will help so once I upload some maybe I'll post an update. I'm expecting to go back out and do more shows with Ryan soon so more to come!

The last few shows have been somewhat rough due to sinkholes appearing on route 295 outside Delaware heading into NJ. Traffic backed up for MILES... that sucked. Almost didn't make the show. No soundcheck, barely a line check... no problem. Played in a gymnasium last night. Boomy, bassy madness. What fun. We made the best of it. As long as the audience digs it we're cool.

So, I got a call on Tuesday asking if I would be into going out to mix for Ryan Star who's on tour opening for David Cook. Here's how it went:

"Hey Void, you want to go out and mix for Ryan on a college tour with David Cook?"

Me: "Sounds cool... when do I leave?"

"Uh... You'll maybe meet up with them next week."

Me: "Ok, send me the details and hook me up with the tour manager... blah, blah, blah..."

On Wednesday I get a call from the manager who proceeds to tell me they'd really appreciate it if I could go out immediately, like Thursday. That's tomorrow. Wow, nothing like a little lead time! NOT! So, I tell my wife I'm heading out tomorrow and plan on waking up early Thursday to do laundry and pack up. Woo hoo.

First show went well after being thrown into the fire. The band and crew are all awesome. Second show at Borgata (the 1st of 2 nights) went really awesome and we're all looking forward to kicking it tonight. Hope to see you there!

Played at the NY Islanders Kids Day. Check this out: we performed on a platform that was lowered from the rafters onto the ice, we got on and then it was lifted about 20 feet off the ice for the show. It was then brought back down for us to get off of it. We played 3 sets like that. Pretty fun stuff, especially for me, the huge hockey fan. We of course got to watch the game but it was an embarrassing 7-1 loss to the Sabers.

Played a show at Recher Theater in MD last night. Cool place I've been to before. Nice sounding rig and a good sized room. The boys played a great, tight set. They just keep getting better!