Remembering Louis Procaccino

Vickie Taylor England just learned that one of her former classmates will miss the Oceanside High 50-year class reunion on October 1 and 2. “Everybody knew Louie. He was very popular and very handsome. All the girls crushed on him.” Louis Procaccino, a vital part of the local music scene for decades, died on September 16.

Procaccino worked as a sound tech and stage hand shortly after graduating SDSU, manning dances at the El Cortez Hotel, KGB Sky Shows, and numerous San Diego Street Scenes. He ran shows at the Roxy Theater on Cass Street in Pacific Beach before moving up the local ranks as production manager for Marc Berman Concerts, the major local concert production company before Bill Silva and Avalon Attractions began to dominate in the mid-1980s

“The biggest show we had done up to then was Missing Persons at Golden Hall [in 1983],” says Casbah co-founder Harlan Schiffman, who oversaw Fineline Enertainment. “We had no experience working in a union hall. Louie said, ‘Do you want me to help you run the show?’ He pulled it off flawlessly Up to that time, he had been production manager for concerts at the UCSD gym, and SDSU’s Open Air Theatre and San Diego Sports Arena.”

It was Procaccino and UCSD student/promoter Marc Geiger who helped conceive and execute the earliest shows of the Humphrey’s-by-the-Bay Concert series. Schiffman says Procaccino was “taken with the whole punk scene,” and helped him and partner Tim Mays put on more than 40 shows at the Wabash ballroom, North Park Theater, and Carpenter’s Hall. “He had to take over when we did Social Distortion at the Adams Avenue Theater [in 1984], when I was arrested for operating a concert without a permit,” says Schiffman. The charges were dropped.

“I was the drunk kid sneaking into those punk shows,” says longtime local sound tech Brian Kountz, who started working with Procaccino in the ‘80s. Kountz will be the stage manager for the Tool tour later this year. “He always had a great sense of humor. Kind of eccentric. He always had food in his pockets.”

Fred Saunders, who retired from music last year, has toured with Ratt, Motley Crue, and Kiss. He says he and Procaccino go back almost 40 years. “Every single time I saw him, he had a smile on his face. You could never get pissed at him.”

Procaccino was the longtime sound tech for the Bob Marley Days celebrations, where reggae impresario Makeda Dread says he often saved the day. One time, “we didn’t have a sound system for Gregory Isaacs,” recalls Dread. “All the sound systems were being used. Louie had to bribe someone to do our show.” She says the two worked together for over four decades, staging reggae shows at the WorldBeat Center in Balboa Park and the Jackie Robinson YMCA.

Procaccino, who was also tour manager for the ska band Donkey Show, eventually became a member of the San Diego stage hands union. “Seven years ago, an amplifier rack fell off a forklift and shattered his ankle,” Schiffman remembers. “It was during the long convalescence that blood clots developed in his leg. That and a combination of other health issues could be contributing factors [in his death].

“He was absolutely fierce,” says fellow OHS wrestler Peter Samhammer. “He was super aggressive. He wrestled like he was playing linebacker. But when you got to know him, he was such a great guy. I hadn’t seen him since high school. We reconnected six years ago and always talked about getting together, but it never happened.” Procaccino lived in Point Loma.