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Last month, AC/DC played a show in Chicago that had local residents listening to the music from their apartments…, a mile away. Amidst a shower of pyrotechnics, the band hit the stage running for a non stop two hour show starting off with their new song (and name of the tour) “Rock or Bust.” Taking a second to cool off before launching into a parade of hits, singer Brian Johnson announced, “Tonight, together, we’re gonna make some rock ‘n’ roll….., and the party starts now.” He wasn’t kidding, as a non-stop two-hour energetic rock ‘n’ roll show followed.

It’s been a dozen years since Shania Twain has hit the road on tour. She picked up right where she left off with a gorgeous production design for her current “Rock This Country” tour. In 2004, she stopped singing to heal her throat and stayed silent up until she took up residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 2012. Ten months before that run of 105 shows, the artist met with show director Raj Kapoor to come up with a production for those distinct shows. A good relationship was formed and, once again, the singer looked to him and his company for a vision on this tour, which launched in June and wraps later this month.

The growing number of country artists emerging from Nashville and crossing over into mainstream has brought with it a new discipline in lighting flexibility as production ramps up to 20,000-seat arena shows one night, immediately followed by a county fair. In the case of the Justin Moore tour, this has represented quite a challenge for production designer Sooner Routhier (of SRae Productions) and touring lighting director Aaron Luke in terms of carrying easily scalable scenography.