If you haven’t figured out what all the fuss about air guitar is, we’d like to venture that you’ve never seen it done right. Lucky you, the US Air Guitar tour is coming through two Bay Area venues this week. Who better to help understand the intricacies of this noble sport than Hot Lixx Hulahan aka Craig Billmeier—Alameda resident and American champion who represented us all in Finland at the worlds last year. And hey, if you think you’ve got the stuff, make sure to bring it this week.

US Air Guitar Tour (tour bus and all) June 27 • San Jose CA • The Blank Club (21+) or June 28 • San Francisco CA • The Independent (21+)

When did you first begin to air guitar?
My old roommate had a 2 year old who would jump around to the Ramones and play air guitar. Nobody showed her how, she just put it all together and started doing it. It is innate. It just depends on who carries the enthusiasm with them as they grew older...

When did you realize you had mad skills?
When people ask John Frusciante where his inspiration comes from he says he's just channeling what the spirits around him are feeding him. Like him, I'm just following the cosmos, man.

What song is the “Everest” of the air guitar world?
The classic "Everest" songs are generally regarded as the most cliché. "Eruption" by Van Halen comes to mind. What sets certain air guitar selections apart is how they are presented by the air guitarist. Moreover, if you can take something that isn't a traditionally rocking guitar song and air guitar to it convincingly, then you've got something. The 2005 World Air Guitar champion won by air guitaring as a robot to a goth dance song that didn't even have real guitars. Purists might complain about that but purists can bite my butt.

What's your money move?
The Shred Salute is my own personal Triple Lindey, my Blue Steel, but it has since been retired. I'm working on a new one that involves a ladder, a flare gun and some lavender-scented shaving cream.

Take on the Bay Area air guitar scene?
Last year SF had some seriously upper-echelon acts. Most were either highly energetic or thoughtfully conceptual. Tons of costumes and balls, like SF in general. This year will rage even harder because, in my opinion, air guitar itself has finally burst out of the bedroom and into the collective American consciousness. I am curious to see what SJ will have to offer. I always think of San Jose as a Guitar Center culture so I can imagine there will be a lot of 'shredders' as opposed to a lot of 'performers.'

Tips for rookies on air guitar?
Go Big. Ditch the shame. Grow your hair out.

Name

Introduce yourself in one sentence
I play air guitar, and I vote.

Age and Occupation
33 years old, studio engineer at Mr Toads, aspiring gentleman.

Home Town
Pleasanton, CA

How long have you lived in the Bay Area and Where
I've lived in the Bay Area since the late 70's. For the last few years I've live in Alameda, on the decommissioned Naval base, far from things like McDonald's, Office Depot and dependable running water.

Favorite place to spend time online
YouTube. I routinely type in "ouch" or "boobs" or "fart" and see what comes up.

Favorite local business
The Alameda Natural Grocer. My roommate works there so he's always coming home with expired loaves of bread and bunches of bananas and cartons of soy milk.

What I'm currently Reading
The Lonely Planet Guide to Mexico.

Best Deal in San Francisco
Anywhere your friends work (wink wink).

Favorite mode of transportation
Favorite mode? Someone else driving. Chosen mode? Bicycle.

Best Band or Musician to come out of the Bay Area
I have two: HICKEY and Faith No More. You can leave out the "of the Bay Area" part of that question and the answer remains the same.

Favorite Bay Area Stereotype
I appreciate the liberal stereotype that applies to the Bay Area (namely SF and Berkeley). We may have some rich, stuffy, conservative regions but once you leave northern California you realize just how liberal it really is, bless it.

Favorite local hangout
Thrillhouse Records, 3422 Mission St.

SF has the BEST
(and most) vegetarian restaurants.

You've never lived in SF until...
you've paid rent there.

Favorite Bay area politician of past or present
Matt Gonzalez, or possibly Jello Biafra.

Now that Mayor Gavin is single, who are you going to set him up with?
A night at the Trannyshack.

You can tell someone is a local here IF
They can tell you what bus goes where.

SF would be soooo much better if only
The weather were a little more "California." Oh, and some parking would be nice.

Best Burrito
Pretty much anywhere in the Mission - Cancun, el Farlito, el Toro, Pancho Villa...

Best Restaurant
Can't list just one...Jay's Cheesesteak (BBQ garlic seitan), Truly Mediterranean (falafel), Maggie Mudd's, and as I said above any burritos (or as the US Air Guitar folks call them, 'food socks') in the Mission.

Best movie scene filmed in or about SF
I just snuck into "Zodiac" last week and that was pretty good. "So I Married An Axe Murderer" was pretty brilliant. But seeing GnR in their heyday, in Dirty Harry's "The Dead Pool," tops em all.

Favorite artist to come out of the bay area
Joe Demaree, though like so many artists he had to move in the early 2000's when the dotcoms came in and forced the rents went up. http://www.josephdemaree.com

Favorite author to come out of the bay area
C.D. Payne - "Youth In Revolt" is what "Catcher In the Rye" should have been.

Place you always tell visitors to check out
Out-of-towners usually want to see something 'gay,' like they don't believe the rumors. I just take them to a sex shop on Castro where you are immediately inundated with neon jizm and pictures of beer-can-sized penises. That usually clams them up. Then we head to Hot Cookie and eat some butch bars and everyone is ready to explore the rest of what SF has to offer.

Favorite Bridge in the area
My favorite bridge is the walkway from Pier 39 to their parking structure, probably because when I was a kid I could stand there and watch BMX freestylers, breakdancers, buskers, graffiti artists, and jugglers all from one perch. My girlfriend and I rode our bikes around the entire perimeter of the city once and took pictures on every bridge we crossed. It lost it's charm after the umpteenth bridge.

You have two hours and $15 bucks to kill in SF, what are you going to do?
In a romantic world I would swing by Askew for some tofu skewers and garlic mashed potatoes and take my lady up to a good-view-having dog park for a picnic. In reality though I would probably just rent a movie from friendly/surly Mark at Filmyard on Divisadero and take-out a couple tacos from Herbivore. How's that for name-dropping?

I have found/sold/bought the following on craigslist
I bought a Dell DJ mp3 player (stays charged for 16 hours!), tickets to see Muse, found a mechanic for my van, sold a handful of bikes, located some sweet-ass garage sales, and if nothing else I can always top off my day at work by cruising the Wild Side postings in search some sort of 'act' I hadn't ever thought of.

I want all the SFists out there to know
I floss regularly.

Tell us a San Francisco Story
I was watching the news one morning and my vehicle, parked at 17th and Capp, was considered a crime scene. Another time a sniper had gotten on my friend's roof on Franklin St and was picking off cops. Let's see...any Folsom St Fair tells a few stories. I saw the Grateful Dead at the Polo fields and to this day, of the 5000+ bands I've seen live, they stand as the MOST BORING act ever. I hadn't been so bored since I saw Out Of Africa in the theaters when I was 12.

Question you'd ask if you were doing this interview
Where is the bathroom?