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SFist Reviews: The Air Guitar Championship
Last Thursday night we went to go check out the San Francisco Regional of the U.S. Air Guitar Championship.
And it was awesome.
How awesome was it? The dude who won was named Hot Licks Houlihan and he rocked the joint wearing a huge sombrero, some kick-ass aviator glasses, Marachi band jacket, and what looked like an actual honest to God real moustache. How awesome was it? The crowd fave was an older dude in a white Tina Turner type wig named "Rodney Thunderpants" who came in third because after rocking 
the house with a Metallica bit that ended with a stage dive, was too drunk to really put up much of a challenge in the compulsaries. How awesome was it? How about mullet wigs and Hair Band wigs and moustaches (fake and non-fake) and a frilled suede vest circa Roger Daltrey 1969 and some guy prancing around in a jock strap and some girl throwing off her t-shirt in mid performance to reveal the pink bikini underneath? Awesome enough for you?
The competition worked like this-- the first round consisted of all the contestants going up on stage and doing some air guitar for a minute on any song (or medley) they chose. They would then be judged by four judges and the highest scoring ten contestants would come back to the compulsary round where a song was picked for them and they'd have to come up and basically improv their air guitar mastery on the spot.
Photo of Rodney Thunderpants from Michael Butler's Flickr Account.
The first round featured twenty-two contestants, all of various skills. Most were about as good as, well, any half-drunk rocker type could do in the courtesy of their bedroom when nobody was looking (come on, you know you did it and, yes, we do a pretty mean Pete Townshend). Some were much better. The musical selection was either of the Pantera/Metallica variety or stuff you'd hear on the Bone (we agree with the judges on this-- Joe Satriani sucks). Most did some sort of variation of Metal Guitar God, complete with tongue flicking, falling backwards and your garden variety pump fist to the crowd. The only woman involved did her routine to the mighty "Living on a Prayer" and topped off her performance with a slide across the stage, just like the Bonster himself did (if only she could figure out a way to make it look like it was in slow motion....).
And some did more of a performance art thing - the only punk rocker type came out on a leash, neck collar and a jock strap and while his performance was kind of lacking, he deserved points by continuing in with the performance by throwing stuff at the audience throughout most of the first round. Another person came out in formal wear, a chair, and a music stand and pretended to be playing along with a symphony orchestra. He even mimicked counting time until he came in for his "solo."
Next up was the compulsory round and the organizers threw a curve at everyone by choosing as the song which everyone had to compete to, the Dead Kennedy's "California Uber Alles." Not the easiest thing to air guitar too, especially as most people only know their hard rock poses. Punk poses are a whole different beast entirely and most of the guitarists weren't up to the challenge. Hot Licks won mainly because he easily made the switch to punk. Instead of doing the pump fist to the audience, he did more of a Fight the Power pump fist and jumped pogo style instead of Eddy Van Halen style. He also took off his shirt to reveal he had written "punx" on his belly. Hot Licks now goes onto New York where he will compete in the US Championships. Whoever wins that goes onto Finland for the World Championship.
Good luck, Hot Licks Houlihan.
If there was any problem to the night, it was the vibe. There was kind of a bad vibe throughout the night at the totally sold out Independent. The crowd booed many of the performers, the crowd booed the judges when they gave a score they didn't like, and the judge -- who were totally probably too drunk and too cool for school -- snarked back. They gave the crowd the finger, the crowd gave the judges the finger, and towards the end of the night, the judges detailed why the voted the way they did as if they were Simon Cowell.
But oh well. As the winner was crowned and the remaining members of the audience asked onto stage to rock out to Neil Young's anthem for the ages, "Keep on Rocking in the Free World" a great time was had by all.