I had absolutely no idea what to expect when I walked into the Redhouse on Friday night, April 22, for the Air Guitar Competition they were hosting. I knew the winner would go on to a regional competition in Boston and that, apparently, air guitar is kind of a big deal.
Now I know, it's a huge deal. So huge a deal, that the host of the competition, Bjorn Turoque (prounounced: Born ToRock) has written a book about it and starred in the documentary, Air Guitar Nation. He's also won second place a whopping seven times in the Air Guitar World Championships held annually in Finland.
The whole night was composed of inappropriate jokes, that only became worse once the few children in the audience left, and wild, unpredictable air guitar moves that had me laughing, scared and amazed. (You'll see why when you watch the videos.)
The impressive lineup of judges included guitarist, Emmett Van Syke, who will be working with mini-rockstars at the Redhouse's Rock Camp this summer; The Post-Standard's music writer, Mark Bialczak; assistant professor of music history and culture at Syracuse University, Theo Cateforis; assistant professor in the Bandier Program for Music and the Entertainment Industries, Ulf Oesterle; and Daniel Hege, former music director of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. The judges ranked each guitarist on the Olympic figure skating 6.0 scale, judging on technical performance, stage presence and "airness." Yes, airness. Each performer had the chance to do a song of their choice in the first round and all were given the same song to perform in the second. These lucky contestants got to jam to Scorpions' "Rock You Like a Hurricane," a perfect choice.
A total of eight air guitar-shredders competed: Math Romancer, The Wizard Meat, "Air"moine Granger, Satan's Closet, Cornelius Aurelius, What about Bob, The Fantastic duo of Flint and Hall (which became The Fantastic Solo of Flint/Hall) and Woz.
...So. Yes. As you can possibly gather from that list of names, this was rock'n'roll at its finest.
See for yourself: (And trust me - watch them (you'll laugh), especially the last video of Satan's Closet...)
First Round
First Round
First Round
First Round
Second Round
Second Round
...Phenomenal.
Flint/Hall solo, the only female competitor, ended up taking third, Satan's Closet moved up to second and Math Romancer was the lucky winner to get a bus trip to Boston to compete in a regional competition on June 7.
I guess all I can add to those videos (I think they speak for themselves) is congratulations to all the brave contestants, kudos to the Redhouse for bringing air guitar to Syracuse (thank you!) and God bless you to all the judges, who actually sat back and analyzed what turned out to be a night of complete insanity.
...I can't wait to compete next year.
Now I know, it's a huge deal. So huge a deal, that the host of the competition, Bjorn Turoque (prounounced: Born ToRock) has written a book about it and starred in the documentary, Air Guitar Nation. He's also won second place a whopping seven times in the Air Guitar World Championships held annually in Finland.
The whole night was composed of inappropriate jokes, that only became worse once the few children in the audience left, and wild, unpredictable air guitar moves that had me laughing, scared and amazed. (You'll see why when you watch the videos.)
The impressive lineup of judges included guitarist, Emmett Van Syke, who will be working with mini-rockstars at the Redhouse's Rock Camp this summer; The Post-Standard's music writer, Mark Bialczak; assistant professor of music history and culture at Syracuse University, Theo Cateforis; assistant professor in the Bandier Program for Music and the Entertainment Industries, Ulf Oesterle; and Daniel Hege, former music director of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. The judges ranked each guitarist on the Olympic figure skating 6.0 scale, judging on technical performance, stage presence and "airness." Yes, airness. Each performer had the chance to do a song of their choice in the first round and all were given the same song to perform in the second. These lucky contestants got to jam to Scorpions' "Rock You Like a Hurricane," a perfect choice.
A total of eight air guitar-shredders competed: Math Romancer, The Wizard Meat, "Air"moine Granger, Satan's Closet, Cornelius Aurelius, What about Bob, The Fantastic duo of Flint and Hall (which became The Fantastic Solo of Flint/Hall) and Woz.
...So. Yes. As you can possibly gather from that list of names, this was rock'n'roll at its finest.
See for yourself: (And trust me - watch them (you'll laugh), especially the last video of Satan's Closet...)
First Round
First Round
First Round
First Round
Second Round
Second Round
...Phenomenal.
Flint/Hall solo, the only female competitor, ended up taking third, Satan's Closet moved up to second and Math Romancer was the lucky winner to get a bus trip to Boston to compete in a regional competition on June 7.
I guess all I can add to those videos (I think they speak for themselves) is congratulations to all the brave contestants, kudos to the Redhouse for bringing air guitar to Syracuse (thank you!) and God bless you to all the judges, who actually sat back and analyzed what turned out to be a night of complete insanity.
...I can't wait to compete next year.
Air guitar is a forgotten art!
It's the raw passion of playing a guitar without having to know how to play a guitar.
Thanks for posting the videos, and I hope we will in fact see you competing at next year's even bigger and better competition! Keep up with the news here, and register so you don't miss anything: http://syracuseairguitar.blogspot.com/
and p.s. I organized the competition so I should note it was made possible by SU's Department of Art and Music Histories.
Thanks for organizing it Sydney! Obviously, I had a ton of fun. And thanks to the SU Department of Art and Music Histories, too!