Forget about Lollapalooza: The best summer music show is happening right here at Liberty Science Center. This season, we debuted our mind-blowing Summer Pop Laser Show, taking place every Tuesday through Saturday at 5:15 pm in the IMAX Dome.

Featuring hits from Lady Gaga, Walk the Moon, Bastille, Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake and more, the show presents stunning laser art alongside some of the hottest songs on the charts. To learn more about how the show is made, we spoke with LSC’s Manager of Laser Shows, Bill McClain, about how he blends music with lasers – and gets the audience clapping along!

How did you get interested in lasers?

I really liked going to planetariums when I was a little kid. But when I saw laser shows, I loved the technology behind it and thought to myself “That’s really cool! How does that work?”

So what kind of technology do you use to create a laser show?

There’s two parts: The hardware and the software. The hardware is the laser projector. For the software, we use a special program produced by Pangolin, which is the leader in laser show software. It works kind of like a video editing software, where you can drop frames and animations and patterns onto multiple timelines. You can do all kinds of things, like zooming effects, color effects, three-dimensional tumbling and 3D-rendered images.

How do you choose the pop songs for the show?

We want to choose songs that aren’t just popular, but also songs that will work well with the lasers. We need to ask ourselves, “Are the songs telling a story that we can sort of storyboard and create visuals to go along with it?”

Like, if you have a song that’s really good but it’s just a thumping beat, there’s not much you can do with that. You need to try to find music that’s popular and people will enjoy, but also lends itself to a dark environment with bright lasers.

Why is LSC’s IMAX Dome Theater a good venue for the laser show?

Because it’s immersive – it surrounds you and makes it more awesome and great and spectacular. It’s different than just sitting in a movie theater. A movie theater is big, but it’s not all around you.

What’s something really surprising most people don’t know about how the show is made?

The fact that the show is being scanned from two mirrors that are the size of your pinkie fingernail. They’re only about 4 mm, and they’re scanning lasers that cover an 88 ft. dome.

In addition to creating the laser show, you also emcee it. What’s the trick to getting the audience clapping and singing?

You’ve got to have some fun with the audience. When most people go into a theater, they’re used to hearing “Shhh!” and “Be quiet!” Laser shows are different – it’s like going to a concert. So during the show, I’ll do things like say to everybody “Who’s happy?! Who’s happy?!” and sort of emphasize that “Happy” by Pharrell is coming up next. So then when “Happy” starts, they immediately start clapping along.

To learn more about the Summer Pop Laser Show, click here.