In the early days for Upstaging, now marking 50 years, the company’s main work was lighting a lot of small, local shows. “We worked with a lot of local bands. We did Styx, who back then were playing high schools in the Chicago area every Friday and Saturday night,” notes Don Carone, who founded Upstaging with his brother Robert along with their friend Robin Shaw. “Then, later on, REO Speedwagon opened up as a little local band; then when they got bigger we would move up to those shows. It was just different bands that we started with young and got to grow with. Cheap Trick was one that we started with in small clubs then moved with them when they played stadiums. Cheap Trick was probably the first where we went from 10 lights a side to playing Dodger Stadium and places like that. We were just kids; the band was kids. Everybody was in the same hotel, and you hung out with them and got to know them.”
