Interview with lightshow artist musician Marc L. Rubinstein of Pig Light Show, a visual analog to the music

"Psychedelic is a frame of mind, available to anyone, and attainable without drugs if you are open to and desirous of more than what faces the average person."

Marc L. Rubinstein: See the Music, Listen the Colors

The Pig Light Show (Saint Elmo’s Fire) started by Marc L. Rubinstein in 1965 as Saint Elmo’s Fire. The name was changed after (in his own words) "a strange episode having to do with a Mothers of Invention concert at the Garrick Theatre in the Village", which resulted in Marc being given the local nickname "Pig", and the light show was known as Pig’s Light Show. The first Pig Light Show was at the Fillmore East under the direction of Marc L. Rubinstein” with Larry Wieder on reflectives, Patrick Waters on liquids, Mark Miller at the controls and in charge of slides.

Later they were joined (for a while) by, Joe Lipton, Marvin Chanes, Sandy Frank, Robert Cohen, who had had a show called London Lights. Not long after his 18th birthday (after already performing with most of the bands who appeared at Woodstock), Marc did a Tuesday night “audition” show at Bill Graham’s Fillmore East. By night’s end the whole backstage crew - including members of the Joshua Light Show - were calling him (and his VERY professional, for being so young, light show) Josh Jr. - much to the embarrassment of Marc and the obvious pleasure of his mentor, Joshua White.

Exactly six months later (and many more shows at The Ritz, The Academy of Music and other venues), Pig Light Show became Joshua White’s hand-picked replacement for Fillmore East house light show. Marc hadn’t reached 19 but had his young heart’s dream, and was lauded in, among others, the New York Times, the New York Post and Playboy magazine’s prestigious Jazz and Music reviews. The Fillmore East closed just before the beginning of July in 1971. John Scher and Al Hayward asked Pig Light Show to be house light show at their upcoming Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ. Marc L. Rubinstein talks about the Fillmore, psychedelic art, the art of light shows, his band The Gray Lions, Poco and BB King.

Interview by Michael Limnios

When was your first desire to become involved in the art of light shows? How important was music in your life?

I was a musician before I got into lighting and then light show. It was 1965-66 and I wanted something to set my band apart from the others around, and no bands carried their own lighting, and most venues had little or no special lighting if any stage lighting at all. I created these light boxes, each with a few colored spotlights for which I created a control board with dimmers and momentary “flash” switches. Soon other bands were hiring me and I got more work from them than from my own. Around 1966-67 I saw my first liquid light show effects and thought them cool, but it wasn’t until I saw a very early performance of the Joshua Light Show that I realized the power and theatricality light shows could wield and moved from stage lighting to strictly light show.

How do you describe Marc L Rubinstein light shows and what characterize your music and artistic philosophy?

My Pig Light Show has always been about the music…about giving a visual analog to the music and not just “doing my art with the music” as seemed the attitude of most light show artists. Being a musician that beat, build, binding is everything and although I can and have created beautiful things to be seen in silence, I am never as happy or fulfilled as when I am creating as part of the music. I feel like a visual musician when I do, and it is not so much the recreating a psychedelic experience as it was for so many of the early light show artists (and even many today), it is about opening one’s mind to the music to the mind’s visual side, the side most never encounter when listening.

What experiences in your life have triggered your ideas for light shows most frequently?

Closing my eyes…or taking my glasses off. The things my mind supplies for examination when “normal” input is unavailable – especially when listening to music – is the most evocative.

What have you learned about yourself from the psychedelic art and culture?

I have learned that the human mind has a need to meld experiences, feelings, stimuli. The mind feeds best on a wide and varied diet. To see a beautiful vista without the smells, sounds, chill or warmth is to see a poorly framed picture. Art attempts to replace the experience that is missing. An artistic photo, painting, music might make you feel warmth that your brain knows it cannot provide, but accepts it nonetheless. We are very much multi-sensory beings, but so very often we shortchange our senses.

Which is the most interesting period in your life? Which was the best and worst moment of your career?

The most interesting period of my life is whenever I am experiencing something new and absorbing that new experience into my being. When young there is so much that is new, but we must never close our minds to the new…never! My career’s best moment? There are many great ones, but one that stands out most was probably the Santana concert at the Fillmore East when between bands, as the equipment was being changed out, the light show screen rose and I glimpsed the first few rows and saw that my parents had bought three rows of seats for themselves and friends. The worst? I really don’t know. You tend to work through them if you want to continue, so they then don’t seem as bad as they did when first confronted.

Which meetings have been the most important experiences for you? Are there any memories which you’d like to share with us?

I have, thankfully, had so many great meetings between light show and musician that it is as hard to pick a favorite as it would be to choose one child of your own over another. But I have had two guitarists as friends, Chuck Hammer and Elliott Randal, who have given me great pleasure. One was when I did a video to a piece of Chuck’s, “Chinese Stockings”, and told him the effects I created were inspired by watching snow fall on a night just before Christmas in New York City near the South-East corner of Central Park and smelling the roasting chestnuts and pretzels vendors were selling. There was a thriving life about it that felt so right with what I heard. He then told me he had gotten the idea for that song while in the same place at the same time of year and the same time of day and many years earlier…and we had not seen or spoken to each other for some forty years or so at that point. It could have been the same winter…perhaps the same night that inspired us both! With Elliott it was a bit different. He was in a recording studio in London and playing with a short tune, “Endings Are Beginnings”, which as he added effects and voicings he thought the song would be a great vehicle for one of my light show videos and he sent me a copy of it right from the studio. I did a video for it and two months later he asked if he could use some clips from it for cover art for his “Heartstrings” CD because none of the photos he’d been searching through “felt” like the music. He ended up using my work for the cover, back cover, CD label and CD tray.

"I feel like a visual musician when I do, and it is not so much the recreating a psychedelic experience as it was for so many of the early light show artists (and even many today), it is about opening one’s mind to the music to the mind’s visual side, the side most never encounter when listening." (Photo: Poco on stage and Pig Light Show)

What are some of the most memorable light shows you've had? Which memory makes you smile?

Working with a great band or artist, and letting that union stretch you and make you dig deep down is always memorable. There have been so many shows with so many very famous people, but we always had great nights with Poco and Vanilla Fudge. People and personalities and music. B.B. King always pulled a lot out of me, and so did many of the British and American blues bands. How can you not be affected by the blues. The memories that make me smile most are those when a performer tells me they looked behind them at the light show and got so intrigued that they forgot it was their music I was performing with and wanted to just stop and watch. It is then they realize in my way I was, and very proud to been, part of the band. I don’t like to perform in a vacuum, I like to weave in and intermingle with the music and musicians, and the ones that come to realize that make me feel a part of something bigger than either of us…and the audience benefits most.

Why did you think that the Psychedelic – Acid Art and Culture continues to generate such a devoted following?

I think it has very little to do with the acid or psychedelics…we were part of a group who opened ourselves to new and exciting things…changes…experiences…and it was that open acceptance that made these things affect us and drew other people who recognized that facing new things was necessary…and exciting…and so very fulfilling. Back then drug use was part of opening up one’s self to ever more rewarding experiences, today drug use is an escape from experience. It is the desire to experience ever newer and ever greater levels of life and feeling that is important, not making yourself so “high” you can shut out everything absolutely and completely. Psychedelic is a frame of mind, available to anyone, and attainable without drugs if you are open to and desirous of more than what faces the average person.

"My Pig Light Show has always been about the music…about giving a visual analog to the music and not just “doing my art with the music” as seemed the attitude of most light show artists."

What are the differences between a Rock light show and Blues, Progressive, Jazz, or other kind of music?

Differences? Not much. No more than you might imagine the notes are different. The effects are the same, the way they are melded and juxtaposed and combined are as different as the music is. Though the visuals will come from a common spring, what I do with them is very different. Check out in youtube my blues song I wrote for my own rock band, The Gray Lions, “Love Come Soon” as opposed to this Progressive Rock thing I did for Bang Tower, “Groove Snake” to see what I mean.

What do you miss most nowadays from the past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of music?

What do I miss most? I miss the expectation of quality. When a person bought a ticket to see a band the theatre or club, the amenities they supplied, their sound system and lights, their light show, the way the crowd was treated were all taken into account and promoters who didn’t value the audience-member didn’t stay around long. Today the audiences are all too used to being treated as cattle, to suffering through whatever sound and lighting systems the band brings instead of the venue supplying the best they can for that building itself, and the audiences are even too used to bands and artists who may be lip-synching or using pitch-correction (auto-tune) and other things which make them seem better than they are. People go to concerts today more to hear a song than see and hear a performer. A dance routine, smoke and moving lights are more important than musical talent. My fears for the future of music are all for the musicians.

"I create visuals to music for all those people whose minds do not do it for them as mine does, and I help scale it up so the visuals reflect the emotional, the experiential size of the music." Photo: Pig Light Show team from Fillmore East final program

What has made you laugh lately and what touched (emotionally) you from the music circuits?

What makes me laugh is that after 50 years I am proven right…the Beatles are still here, rock has taken over as the “Norm,” and if greed is ever seen for the destructive force it is all the arts still have a chance. What touches me most is when someone comes up to me and mentions some concert they saw so long ago that they still remember because the addition of Pig Light Show there made it memorable to them. I have musicians who come off stage and thank me for being there and tell me of when they used to sneak away from home to see some band at The Fillmore East or Capitol Theatre with Pig Light Show behind them and how it helped to cement their desire to be a musician. I get a LOT of satisfaction from other people’s memories.

Let’s take a trip with a time machine, so where and why would you really wanna go for a whole day..?

I would go back to Woodstock and be that mesmerized audience member again, with no responsibility to entertain and all the musical world to explore…or maybe to one of my shows at The Fillmore East…so many of them were so very worth repeating.

What are the lines that connect the legacy of Acid Art with music and continue to visual art and psychedelic experiences?

None. Not to be flippant, but the lines are all within the viewer’s/listener’s minds. There are no real links, just as no two people experience the same thing when doing acid or music or art…the EXPERIENCE itself is the link, and for many it has nothing to do with drugs or anything other than just the wonder and excitement of opening themselves to Life…and not just one facet of the experience or another, but to the whole. As I said at the beginning, too many people just do not allow allow themselves to open up to everything they are experiencing. For so many back in the day that was what acid and other drugs did, they allowed those people to drop their barriers and experience everything. I create visuals to music for all those people whose minds do not do it for them as mine does, and I help scale it up so the visuals reflect the emotional, the experiential size of the music. A picture lets you see. Art reminds you there were also smells, sounds and feelings when that moment happened. Psychedelic or “mundane,” there is/was more than merely met the eye.

Pig Light Show - Official website

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