Production Profile

“Combining the shows is going wonderfully well,” Howard Page declares, as the current Paul Simon/Sting tour was getting underway in early February. He’s an honest man so there’s no reason to not take him at his word, but on paper, the current Paul Simon/Sting tour sure looks complicated and daunting. First, you have two very different performers with different styles of music (though both share a devotion to great songwriting). They perform together. They perform separately with their respective bands. Their bands perform separately and apart. Simon does Sting songs. Sting does Simon songs. At one point Simon’s guitarist joins Sting for a tune. It’s a spin-the-bottle of possibilities.

It never got as cold as predicted, but that didn’t make the Super Bowl XLVIII Halftime Show any easier.

It was the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show in history, and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Bruno Mars, the diminutive ball of vocal dynamite whose ability to avoid controversy made him the NFL’s pick for the halftime show at Super Bowl XLVIII, delivered an estimated 115.3 million viewers for the Feb. 2 event. They watched him and his hand-picked “special guests,” the Red Hot Chili Peppers rip though a 12-minute set at MetLife Stadium, which was prepared for sub-freezing temperatures but at showtime, Mars’ gold lamé jacket may have been plenty against what turned out to be an almost pleasant evening, with temps around the 40°F. range.

Drake is one of the few artists who successfully bridged the gap from acting to becoming a major musical artist. Born Aubrey Drake Graham, this Toronto native originally achieved critical acclaim in the role of Jimmy Brooks, a student on the popular Degrassi: The Next Generation TV series, with his poignant portrayal of a promising high school athlete whose career was cut short when the character became paraplegic after being shot by a fellow student.

Classical-crossover sensation Sarah Brightman’s Dreamchaser World Tour kicked off in Guangzhou, China in mid-June. Now, having just completed the Asian and North American segments of this 67-stop marathon, the show is currently playing in Central and South America, and goes back to China in January 2014, followed by the Middle East, Russia, Finland and Eastern Europe in February. It’s truly a “world” tour.

The artist wants a dinner club sound and vibe — nothing too surprising about that, except for the fact that the artist is on a world tour playing packed hockey arenas.

Amidst rave reviews from top media outlets from The New York Times to Rolling Stone, Taylor Swift’s Red tour is currently in full swing. The country-pop queen is working her way across the U.S., headlining 58 shows in 45 cities in 29 states and three provinces in 2013. Three DiGiCo SD7 systems and a d&b audiotechnik PA, provided by Eighth Day Sound Systems, deliver sizzling sound on the tour. The trio of SD7s are in place at FOH and two in monitor world — one for the band and one for artist monitors.

If anything’s predictable about Todd Rundgren, it’s to expect the unexpected. A brilliant songwriter/guitarist/synthesist with talents both onstage and in the studio, Rundgren’s career (solo or with his band Utopia) has spanned just about every musical genre, ranging from rock to pop to smooth soul to edgy electronica and most recently, EDM. And even at 65, he shows no signs of slowing down, hopping from continent to continent to promote State — his 24th studio album, as well as a series of “An Evening with Todd Rundgren” shows to stay in touch with the legions of fans of his catalog standards such as “Hello, It’s Me” and “I Saw the Light.”

On May 20, 2013, a massive and powerful tornado stuck the town of Moore, OK, a suburb located about halfway between Norman and Oklahoma City. The twister was given the maximum EF-5 strength rating by the National Weather Service. Tragically, the aftermath of its two-mile-wide swath of fury left hundreds of injuries, some two dozen deaths (including seven children killed when a school collapsed) and entire neighborhoods flattened, with more than an estimated billion dollars in damage to homes and businesses.

Chances are, even if you are not a “Belieber,” as the hard core fans of 19-year-old Canadian pop sensation Justin Bieber call themselves, you probably know someone who is. Bieber has become a true worldwide phenomenon since he burst on the scene in 2009. He has sold millions of albums and toured relentlessly since June 2010, first on the My World tour (U.S., Europe, Asia, Australia, Mexico and South America, through October 2011), and, since September 2012, on the Believe tour, which runs through November 2013 and will have hit old and new locales in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Central and South America, Asia and even a few dates in the Middle East and South Africa. There is no escape; surrender to the Bieb!

For four days in May (9 to 12), 26 acres on the grounds at the Napa Valley Expo fairgrounds in the city of Napa, CA, were transformed into a completely different kind of festival experience. Forget the dusty, crowded fields of many huge tribal rock gatherings. While basking in the glow of the sun that made this area into one of the world’s great wine regions, BottleRock Napa Valley festival attendees could enjoy an amazing culinary experience (supplied by world-class restaurateurs, 60 vintner partners and artisan microbrewers) while taking in performances by some of today’s hottest musical performers and comedians. Very civilized, indeed.

Definitely one of the hardest working bands in the business, quintessential American rockers Bon Jovi kicked off their 2013 “Because We Can” tour to a long string of packed SRO arenas, starting Feb. 10 at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. Named for the main single pull from the band’s current What About Now CD, “Because We Can” is perhaps Bon Jovi’s most ambitious live undertaking to date. The tour is appearing on five continents, including two early May dates in South Africa, as the band leaps up to a extended series of summer stadium shows, including a brief return to the States for five stadium shows in July before heading to Brazil and Australia later this year.