Did you know that Tucson's US Air Guitar Qualifier took place in a mall? In broad daylight? With children? No one even had an air name or a song that they had brought with them! It was basically air guitar improv, or maybe air guitar from the ground up. Veteran competitor Vlad DM Wailer and the event's ATC (that's Air Traffic Control, for the uninitiated: the person who pushes the space bar and plays the music), Jonas, being the only people with US Air Guitar experience, did their best to educate their air guitarists and bring them into the fold, although they were hampered a bit by the venue (no beer) and the rules of the guitar festival that this was a part of (no shirtlessness, and definitely no raunchiness, which means that the entirety of Boston air guitar would pretty much be disqualified).
There were, as usual, two winners, who both stepped up to the challenge and gave themselves air names, at some point between the first and second rounds, so I give you G-Man and Jahbone, #1 and #2 in Tucson, and on their way to the Western US Air Guitar Semi-Final in San Francisco on Aug. 3rd. They might have their minds blown there when faced with such stiff competition as Tiger Claw and terrifyingly talented newbie Pops Rockwood, and all the other Western qualifiers that will feed into San Francisco that haven't happened yet - bearing in mind that they will bring not only their own winners and second-placers, but also their past champions and the organizers of the qualifiers. That's some serious wattage. So whether or not G-Man and Jahbone come home from San Francisco with air victory under their belts, what I can guarantee will happen is that they'll come home with a taste for real air guitar competition, and next year, Tucson's competition won't be in a mall with unprepared air guitarists, but where it belongs - in a bar - and competitors will be free to rip their shirts off if their inner air god requires it.
Want to have one up on Tucson's air guitarists and have an air name, a song, and a plan? Our email series will help you get competition-ready.
