Lets start with what a Ruben's tube is. Without going into too much detail, it is a method where standing waves can be demonstrated using an audio source and a row of propane flames. Essentially, a tube with equally spaced holes has propane pumped into it along with an audio tone. When the propane coming out of the holes is lit on fire, the row of flames visually display the standing wave generated in the tube by the audio tone. The photo demonstrating this concept is taken from wikipedia (1).
What makes Rusty's art both more interesting and more dangerous is his application of a recent Harvard discovery. It turns out that very strong electrical fields can be used to put out fire (2). Don't believe me? The basic principal is really straight forward. It takes advantage of the fact that when something is burned it is essentially a charged particle transfer via an oxidation/reduction reaction called combustion. It is common knowledge that electricity is, well, electrically charged. What the researchers were able to show is that a strong enough electrical field can force the combustion reaction to do strange things including cease all together.
What Rusty does is play music through two perforated tubes which are pumped full of propane then he applies a very strong current across the tubes. All I can say about the resultant visual display is that if it weren't the most dangerous thing I can think of I'd be busy making one for the stage of our friend's metal band.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubens%27_tube
2. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/3/29/electrical-flame-field-scientists/
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