Virtuosi.
“There was a lot of crotch-grabbing, lip-licking and tongue-flicking.â€
No, I’m not describing Date Night at a College Fraternity. All this was going on during the Air Guitar World Championship, which were held in, of all places, Oulu Finland last week.
Yes, as reported by Sarah Lyall of the New York Times**, there is such a thing as the Air Guitar World Championship. And, this year they were attended by 19 men and one woman from 17 countries, each the Champion in his or her country.
Perhaps one of the highlights of the competition came when the French national champion, Guillaume de Tonquḗdec, at the end of a killer air riff, dove into the audience only to have the members of the audience (who obviously were not quite as hip as Guillaume had thought) step back and let him and to a chest and face plant on the floor.
In the unlikely event that there is someone out there who doesn’t know what “air guitar†playing is, think back to the days when you were listening to ass-kicking guitar music (often fueled by booze or whatever) and you saw some dweeb who couldn’t even play the radio standing in the corner pretending to play the killer guitar lick that everyone was listening to. If he was good – real good, he might well have made it to Finland this year.
The Swiss contestant described “air guitar†best when he said, “To me, it’s like a guitar, only it’s made of air, so you can’t see it. Pretty much.â€
According to a past champion Cedric Devitt, produced a film called Air Guitar Nation, air guitar playing does not require that the player mimic the actual guitar playing [Duh, which would mean he maybe could actually “play†a real guitar], but that the “imitation is so good it transcends the art form.â€
Huh?
I know you’re dying to know if the U.S. of A. sent a contestant to the competition. USA! USA! USA!
Well, we did, and his name is Andrew Litz. He actually holds a real job, but he stated that he hoped to win the championship, which would allow him to quit his job and become a professional air guitarist.
The end of the competition was marked by a truly memorable moment, when the best air guitar players in the world all came on stage and all rocked it out with Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.â€
Awesome.
I know you’re just dying to know who won this year’s championship, but if I told you, you might not read the whole thing, which I suggest you do.
I’ve never been able to master the air guitar, but I have been practicing my air cranial surgery.
** The New York Times can publish some good stuff when it’s not pretending to report the news.
BONUS: Here is a video of last year’s champion in action.
Air guitar competition… good grief.
I am shaking my head just as much as when they announced that ping-pong was added to the Olympics.
*sigh*
Comment by Jean — September 10, 2007 @ 8:57 pm
Maybe the winner won enough money to go buy a real guitar? Practice anyone?
Comment by dudley1 — September 10, 2007 @ 10:13 pm
The real kicker is that the winner won a guitar. Probably a bit heavier than the one he’s used to playing.
Jimbo
Comment by Jim — September 10, 2007 @ 10:24 pm
I get this feeling that these guys that will enter an air guitar contest actually play a skin flute..and could probably win a contest doing it..even in San Francisco or Key West
Comment by GUYK — September 10, 2007 @ 10:36 pm
Good lord, I’m just speechless.
Comment by Jerry — September 11, 2007 @ 12:22 am
I wonder if there is such a thing as the “Pretend to be a Rock Star” competition, where the performer uses an air-mic [or hairbrush] and mirror, because I know I’d come away with top honors. Not to be a braggadocio or nothing, but I do a great Judy Garland singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
Comment by Erica — September 11, 2007 @ 7:47 am
Damn, hours and hours spent practicing. Learning chord after chord. Learning and refining the art of the perfectly bent note and these chuckleheads get to play on a stage in Europe with a full sound and light show WHILE THEY STRUM FAROOKIN AIR!!!!!!
This is just another sign that the apocalypse is upon us.
Hey by the way…shameless plug time.
Please go to http://www.wingstocknj.com, click on the Battle For Wingstock and please vote for my band Cool Days End (we actually play instruments that aren’t invisible or whatever). Below the voting is a little section where you can hear our song “New York City Streets”
Comment by Robbie K. — September 11, 2007 @ 8:30 am
Back when I was young, drunk & single, I usta do a good lip sync to that golden oldie hillbilly western song…”I got tears in my ears from lying on my back crying the blues over you”…..maybe it was just cause I was drunk, it was closing time & I could not get up.
Comment by dudley1 — September 11, 2007 @ 8:33 am
Robbie,
Done.
Jimbo
Comment by Jim — September 11, 2007 @ 9:17 am
Thanks Jimbo!!!!
Hey BTW, are your “inside sources” asleep at the wheel? We haven’t seen any inside info on conversations between Queen Hillary and her evil minion The Speaker In The House Nancy “Nice Gams” Pelosi.
Come on, dude…get your sources to cough up the good info.
Comment by Robbie K. — September 11, 2007 @ 11:12 am
“But I’ve been practicing my air cranial surgery” Buwahahaha! That was great.
Comment by Bou — September 11, 2007 @ 12:34 pm
wow. I just watched the video. I think that air guitar is like a mime to music.
Comment by Bou — September 11, 2007 @ 12:35 pm