Just adding details to this as it's changed from when I last travelled.
For handiness when I played my last gig (in Germany) I took a tiny two rack case. In the case I got a Koch ATR 4502 and Boss GX700. Within that I used the Ibanez TK999HT which is a high voltage Tube distortion pedal/preamp. This went in the loop using very short patch cables and say on the top of the 2U rack case. The TK99HT by itself is nice but I needed that extra layer so then I used a light boost from Boss GX700 analogue overdrive. This give me the tone I was after. Then I had an EQ pedal and Rocktron Silencer pedal run after that and back into the return of the GX700. This was a very small setup. Out front I used a behringer expression pedal to control the volume and also an behringer ab200 to move down patches and also to turn my boost on for solos. I sacrificed one pedal for the boost option, so that left me with only downward patch control. Why? Because having control of the boost was more important than changing patches during the set. It meant I had to at one point walk over to the rig and move back up a patch once through the entire set but for the rest of it I could switch down a patch. Since I was using the GX700 to it's full non midi potential using only the expression pedal output and the control pedal output it only meant I could program three choices so that was my choices.
Volume, Down a patch and Boost on/off.
The boost varied from patch to patch but was always involving turning volume up a bit. Some patches I turned Delay on, and Chorus off, other patches I just turned volume up. Was a great setup and I can't emphasis how goo the Ibanez TK999HT is. Very amp like, lots of tube like response, lots of harmonics. If you ever get to try one, do so, as I think many would like it on here. It does a lot in one box! It also has a built in noise gate that really helps with the feedback at high volume!