Guitars? The Time Has Come Yet Again To Set Aside Childish Things
Regional competitions start April 6 and will be hosted by Bjorn Turoque & judged by 2008 World Champion Hot Lixx Hulahan. Tickets on sale this weekend.
If history has taught us anything, it is this: the spirit of US Air Guitar is indomitable.
If in January Steve Jobs had unveiled Air Guitar, would it have been any less innovative? If one day the Supreme Court unexpectedly judges a case using the following criteria: technical ability, stage presence, and airness, would the rest of us be any worse off? If the last episode of X-Files revealed that Air Guitar was the answer, would you not believe?
With zealous pride we announce the 2010 US Air Guitar tour, now 30% awesomer. Scale back? Heck no. The road awaits, and this year we re hittin it like Tiger Woods. After sell-out regional competitions across the United States last summer, including two nights at DC s 9:30 Club and consecutive nights at San Francisco s Independent, US Air Guitar has expanded its tour by two additional months, stretching coast to coast in April and then playing a couple of shows of biblical proportion in May and June. Inspired by mega-churches and God Himself, a month after the first tour, air guitarists will confess their sins at a colossal Vegas show. Then in June, US Air Guitar headlines the historic Fillmore Auditorium made famous by The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and now, uh, us. Finally, after extracting the greatest professional air guitarists from 17 regional shows and sending them each to New York City for the National Championships, our US winner will book passage to Oulu, Finland, and represent the stars and stripes against 30 other countries at the Air Guitar World Championships. Last year the competition was tight, with two Americans tying for second and a Frenchman named Gunther Love taking the crown. But this year America has an imaginary axe to grind.
US AIR GUITAR CHAMPIONSHIPS
2010 TOUR DATES
Tickets On Sale Friday February 12 – Check Club Sites For Exact On-Sale Dates And To Purchase Tickets.
Check USAirGuitar.com To Purchase Tickets as they go on sale and To Sign Up To Compete.
April 6 || Harper s Ferry || Boston, MA
April 8 || Johnny Brenda s || Philadelphia, PA
April 9 || Brooklyn Bowl || Brooklyn, NY
April 10 || 9:30 Club || Washington, DC
April 12 || House of Blues || Houston, TX
April 13 || Highball || Austin, TX
April 15 || Metro || Chicago, IL
April 16 || Cactus Club || Milwaukee, WI
April 17 || Varsity Theater || Minneapolis, MN
April 19 || Fox Theater || Boulder, CO
April 20 || Bluebird Theater || Denver, CO
April 22 || Dante s || Portland, OR
April 23 || Casbah || San Diego, CA
April 24 || Troubadour || Los Angeles, CA
May 28 || Hard Rock Café || Las Vegas, NV
June 5 || The Fillmore || San Francisco, CA
US AIR GUITAR / WORLD AIR GUITAR CHAMPIONSHIPS COMPETITION OVERVIEW
Each US Regional will consist of two rounds. In Round 1, each competitor performs to a song of their own choosing. In Round 2, the top competitors from Round 1 perform to a surprise compulsory song. In each round, contestants perform for one minute of a song and are judged on a combination of technical merit, stage presence, and airness.” All guitars must be invisible. In each city, the jury is a panel of independent judges that are hand picked by US Air Guitar. The results of the jury cannot be protested.
One winner from each city will be flown to a-yet-to-be-disclosed city in early August to compete in the US Air Guitar Finals for the crown of US Air Guitar Champion. The 2009 US Champ will then be sent to Oulu, Finland later that month to represent the USA in the World Championships, where he or she will compete against national champions from all around the world.
Founded in 2003, US Air Guitar is the official Air Guitar Association of the United States and is responsible for operating the US Air Guitar Championships, official Regional events, and specialized championships. US Air Guitar is devoted to taking our nation’s unofficial pastime out of the bedroom and putting it up on the world stage. US Air Guitar is an official member of the World Air Guitar Association. Entering its seventh year in the US and its fourteenth year worldwide, official national championships currently are held in 24 countries around the globe including the USA, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and South Africa, with more countries participating every year. The 2009 Air Guitar World Championships will take place this August 19 – 21 in Oulu, Finland.
A NOTE FROM THE FOUNDERS OF US AIR GUITAR
Photo Credit: Miriam Doan
First the good news. Bowing to pressure from the networks and the military-industrial complex, we’ve moved the start of the 2010 season up to April. That means we’ve a mercifully brief offseason of dull Bowls and ho-hum Olympiads to muddle through before the real excitement kicks off.
(A young staffer, who I’m told is well-versed in the ways of social media, buttonholed me in the hall just the other day and termed this “very cool”).
Of course for the talent (whose union battled the schedule change tooth and nail), this means an abridged training period. But the growing chatter among the circuit allays any possible concerns — songs are being selected, costumes fitted and routines perfected, even as I write.
So it is with customary honor and extraordinary excitement that we announce this, your 2010 US Air Guitar Championships!
Sincerely, The Office of the Co-Commissionership
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US Air Guitar official website:
www.USAirGuitar.com
www.twitter.com/USAirGuitar
www.facebook.com/USAirGuitar
World Air Guitar Championships Official Website: www.AirGuitarWorldChampionships.com
US Air Guitar s hit documentary on DVD now
Air Guitar Nation
