Light shows

Great interview of Bill Ham - one of the absolute pioneers in the 1960's psychedelic light shows that accompanied rock performances. From Collectors Weekly:

Lightman Fantastic: This Artist Drenched '60s Music Lovers in a Psychedelic Dream
When kindly old grandparents beckon their fresh-faced grandchildren into their rock-poster-lined man caves and she sheds, to vape sweet kush and wax nostalgic about the San Francisco music scene of the 1960s, their rambling recollections are often accompanied by the sounds of “Cheap Thrills” or “Aoxomoxoa”—cranked to 11.

Getting high with grandma and grandpa while listening to Big Brother and the Holding Company or the Grateful Dead is actually a fairly good way for curious Millennials to learn about this watershed era of the late 20th century, but loud music and recreational drugs were only part of the story. Just as important, if not more so, were the light shows that accompanied and responded to the sounds. Indeed, for the seriously stoned, the pulsating colors produced by light-show outfits with names like Heavy Water, Little Princess 109, and North American Ibis Alchemical Company were often the main event.

If you never saw one, a San Francisco light show was an immersive ocular experience for audiences and musicians alike. Amid these real-time paintings built from layer upon layer of ephemeral light, performers pushed their instruments to the breaking point, while audiences danced until they dropped. Without the light shows, San Francisco’s fabled music halls, where everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Eric Clapton held court, would have resembled just so many more run-down auditoriums and crumbling former ice rinks. In fact, that’s basically what the Fillmore and Winterland, two of the city’s most famous music venues, were. When illuminated by a light show, though, these decrepit dives were magically transformed into glorious temples of psychedelic iniquity.

Wonderful rambling reminiscence - the author had several days to interview Ham.

I was in high-school in Pittsburgh, PA during that time, spending my weekends at The Rising Tide coffeehouse in the basement of Calvary Church. I was building the sound system from old movie theater parts - several theaters had been condemned and were being demolished. Nabbed a bunch of speakers and amps. The whole idea of a light show intrigued me a lot so a friend and I started playing around with overhead projectors. Was able to get some acetate theater lighting gels (intense color filters) as well as the clock glasses and we had a lot of fun. As I started getting into it, my Dad stepped in - he taught Physics at the University of Pittsburgh and I was able to borrow a lot of optical demonstration pieces over the weekend - stroboscopes, prisms, very large projectors, etc...

This brings back a lot of wonderful memories...

Here is a 31 second sample: