I am lumping three qualifiers together into this post and it's still going to be super short. The reason for this is twofold: unsaved livestreams, and general lack of tweeting and social documentation. Sometimes those two go hand in hand, and it's going to be the death of me. And/or of this blog. Report on yourselves, air guitarists!
Let's start with Sacramento, whose qualifier was the same night as Boston's. Hosted by the man who makes us all look good (not by comparison - that would be more like "makes us all look ugly" - actually by taking genius photos), Sweetness, it was the first time Sacramento had held a US Air Guitar competition. They had 7 competitors, a couple of whom were walk-ons, which is pretty solid for a new qualifier! The winner was Blaze BaadAxxe, and second place and heading to San Francisco semis with him is TarraDactyl. Well done!
Next up, Seattle: Tony Tapatio hosted it, and while it was a smallish run of competitors, it marked the return of competitive air guitar to Seattle, which was sorely needed. Hopefully this means it sticks around. I can tell you who the winner was! That's what I know! The winner, advancing to the Western semifinals in San Francisco, and well-deserved if her performance in Portland was any indication - Sahexy!
And now, across the continent to DC! Wow, that was fast! Yeah, we are into the hacky lines in this blog post, learn to love it! DC welcomed a husband-and-wife team of newcomers (smart move, new friends! The couple that shreds together stays together!) in Kitty Minx and Randy Solo. As for what antics transpired, I don't know. Last year, T. Slaypool lit his chest hair on fire. I hope that this year brought something at least that good/smelly. Your winner this year was the delightful Dick Diesel, so he will advance to the semi in his own city. He will be joined by DC regulars Shreddy Boop and Leonardo Air Vinci.
All right, that's all I've got, go back to practicing!*
* I assume you're still practicing. Qualifiers aren't over, and you may very well have made it to a semifinal, or maybe you didn't but are thinking ahead to a possible Dark Horse run... or maybe you've never done it before and this has inspired you to get something together for next year. In which case, YES. I salute you.
photo of TarraDactyl and Blaze BaadAxxe by Sweetness; photos of Dick Diesel by Dick Diesel