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FEATURE
P R O J E C T I O N L I G H T S & S TA G I N G N E W S
Tony Caporale
By BrentDiggins
Tony Caporale is never without his notebooks.
Doodlings of lighting schemes
and setups from the past, present and
future fill the large stack of the tattered multicolored
notebooks in which Caporale is always
writing and reading over. EastonAshe
band members and hangers-on tease him
about his torrid affair with his notebooks,
calling him obsessed. However, the one thing
that can’t be denied is that Caporale has a
passion for lights. And with a tiny budget, a
band with a similar dream of success and his
notebooks, he is forging his way and giving it
everything he has to transform himself from a
lighting Padawan to a lighting Jedi.
When he was enrolled at Duquesne University,
Caporale met with family friend and
WWE video director Tim Walberg, who gave
him inspiration to study video production
and pointed him in the direction of Towson
University. Tony quickly enrolled and eventually
graduated with a degree in electronic media
and film. However, while concentrating on
his course studies, Caporale found inspiration
and a new professional interest upon seeing
several Phish concerts and Chris Kuroda’s legendary
light shows.
That led him to Towson’s Recher Theatre,
a renowned music hall in Towson, Md., where
he inquired and received a job as a staff member.
He quickly moved up to house lighting
director. From there, he worked with a host
of musical acts and developed his chops by
working with established touring LDs who
gave him pointers and advice. During a regular
night at the Recher, a young, energetic and
talented band, EastonAshe, came through.
That is where Caporale’s career and life took a
direction that has led him across the country
many times and is helping his lighting dreams
take off.
“Because I Believe” PLSN
EastonAshe was touring the Eastern seaboard
when they had a stop at the Recher.
After the show, EastonAshe was so impressed
with Caporale’s work that they inquired into
his availability. After graduation, Caporale
signed on as the exclusive lighting and video
director for EastonAshe. Some people question
why Caporale abandoned his regular
lighting gig to tour with an up-and-coming
rock band, and, to him, the answer is simple.
“I wanted to be part of something, part
of a legacy and part of people’s memories,”
says Caporale. “I could have gone to a lighting
company or hooked on with various
gigs here and there, but that wouldn’t satisfy
me. Plus it’s not like being an employee. We
are all great friends, and we treat each other
like family. It’s a very unique thing that EastonAshe
has going.”
He said his goodbyes, picked up and
moved from Cumberland, Md. to EastonAshe’s
home base of Phoenix, Ariz. to start his career
and build the lights that he writes in his notebooks
and sees in his head.
The $50K Rig on a $5K Budget PLSN
Today Caporale, who is 24, and EastonAshe,
also in their early twenties, are growing
as a unit, sharpening their skills and waiting
for their big break. Until then, they are
enjoying enough success to live on, but not
enough to warrant anything but a modest
lighting budget. This is where the creativity of
Caporale comes in.
Caporale’s current rig is very efficient for
venues with a capacity of up to 1,500, and he
can make it feel like more than the $5,000 rig
that it is. The rig includes:
1 Elation Stage Desk 16
console for conventional
lighting
1 Elation DXM Pro Operator
console for automated
ighting
1 Elation Co-Pilot2 console
with wireless trans
mitter for effects lighting
4 250-watt moving head
fixtures
2 500-watt moving mirror
fixtures
10 PAR 56 300-watt fixtures
4 PAR 46 150-watt fixtures
3 PAR 38 150-watt fixtures
1 MBT haze machine
1 Chauvet 1000-watt fog
machine w/wireless remote
6 ACLs
You’ll Know Him PLSN
During the show, you’ll know Caporale as
the wooly bearded, dancing, bandana-and-
Italian-soccer-shirt-wearing guy at the front
of house console. He’ll jump up and down,
do a spin, bob his head and sing along while
working on his three Elation consoles, which
he finds cost efficient and reliable.
Caporale prefers working with three consoles
because of the manual chase triggering
he can get from the effects and conventional
board, and he uses the automated console for
the moving lights. Conventional lighting is
run separately from automated lighting because
he feels that he has more freedom to
do what he wants with conventional fixtures,
which means that he can play with manual
fades to a particular band member.
“If our guitar player uses a talk box, wahpedal
or whammy pedal, I like to move the fader
from my conventional board or my speed
knob from my effects console with the sound.
Another key factor in keeping conventional
lights separate is our drummer, who I have to
pay the most attention to. I hook up PAR cans
on four separate channels on my console to
bump as he is hitting symbols or a ride bell.
The cool part is that I have the lights set up on
left and right channels so it looks dynamic. It’s
a great thing if you know the drummer and
where he’ll play on his drum kit.”
He still gets questions about using the
three boards instead of the all-in-one option,
but he’ll say that is part of his style and
it works for him.
“A lot of guys tell me I need to get an allin-one
board, and I’ve used them a lot, but I
love the three consoles; it’s just my style,”
says Caporale. “It makes me feel like I’m doing
something unique and really gets me into the
show because I always have to be concentrating
and moving my hands. Plus, I don’t have
the luxury of working with a high-end board
that neither the band nor I can afford to keep
on a permanent basis.”
A lot of his friends and peers, especially
guys from Phoenix-based Clear Wing Lighting,
let him come to their warehouses and
36 PLSN FEBRUARY 2007
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