US Air Guitar National Finals Next Week

Air Guitar’s Best and Brightest Descend Upon San Francisco. Seek Nation’s Top Air Guitar Honor, Affirmation.

THE 2008 CUERVO BLACK US AIR GUITAR CHAMPIONSHIPS, PRESENTED BY TOUCHTUNES

Friday August 8^th, 2008
The Grand Ballroom
1290 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA
Another Planet Entertainment
To Purchase Tickets: http://www.apeconcerts.com/

It’ll make the Olympics look like your Grandma’s tennis tournament…

EVENT OVERVIEW

Below is an X-Ray of Brooklyn winner Bettie B. Goode’s toe, taken immediately after the Brooklyn Regional on July 9^th. You’ll notice that her 4^th toe is at a sideways 90-degree angle. If you thought this was a game, I’m afraid you’re sadly mistaken. And for those who didn’t know what we meant when we said of Airness, “you’ll know it when you see it.” Well, now you’ve seen it. CNN, TMZ, New York Daily News, and Gothamist were among the media that have run stories about her toe (or lack thereof):

The 2008 Cuervo Black US Air Guitar Championship Tour, presented by TouchTunes, took on a life of its own. One contestant, bless his soul, competed in eight different Regionals without a single top-five finish. A father of three defied all physics and flew, costing himself a perfectly good ankle upon landing. One talent rode into the venue and up to the stage riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle (talk about a carbon footprint). Meanwhile, a man in Los Angeles made flames rise from his fingers, only to be outshined by a ‘ROCKIT’ (sic) who finished his routine hanging head over heels from the rafters. We saw Vikings, Leprechauns, a professional stripper, an inflatable fat-suit, an official NBA Mascot, and, in an old church in Pittsburgh, we heard the very Voice of God.

From the fray, US Air Guitar has assembled an unprecedented array of talent: 25 of the nation’s fiercest and finest face-melters will go head-to-head on August 8^th to prove to one and all that they should represent the red, white, blue, and undecided’s at the World Air Guitar Championships in Finland.

Defending 2007 US Champion WILLIAM OCEAN will again have to fend off a crop of talented newcomers, all gunning for his crown. But those are the least of his worries, as arch rival and local Bay Area hero HOT LIXX HULAHAN is back, and by all accounts, better than ever. McNALLICA and BIG RIG both look to improve upon their top-5 results from last year. Living legend THE ROCKNESS MONSTER looks to go out on top in this, his final US Air Guitar competition.

The city of San Francisco is also a story line in itself. Past SF Regional winners Hot Lixx Hulahan (2006), RICKY STINKFINGERS (2007), and this year’s winner AWESOME (2008) have all made it to this year’s finals. Hot Lixx took the DC Regional, and Stink traveled to Portland to punch his ticket.

LIST OF REGIONAL CHAMPIONS

Complete list of winners below. Spandex and Airness will never die if we have anything to say about it. And you should expect to see a lot of both.

CITY STAGE NAME
Aspen Big Rig
Boston McNallica
Brooklyn Bettie B. Goode
Chicago Nordic Thunder
Cleveland Derek Not-So-Smalls
DC Hot Lixx Hulahan
Denver Magic Cyclops
Des Moines Joseph of Air-imathia
Detroit Stryker
Los Angeles Houston Rockit
Minneapolis Airosol
New York Shreddy Mercury
Philadelphia Windhammer
Phoenix Hardcore Henry
Pittsburgh Will Clear Will
Portland Ricky Stinkfingers
Salt Lake City D.R.U.S.A.
San Diego Rockness Monster
San Francisco Awesome
Seattle Chuck Mung
Vegas Guitarsonist
Houston Rip Darko
Austin MOD
Dallas Guardian

DEFENDING US CHAMP
William Ocean

In 2008, Air Guitar went ahead and made the switch to HD, just in time for segments on CNN, E! News, and MSNBC’s Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough. Regional TV coverage included ABC 5 Minneapolis, ABC 7 Los Angeles, CBS 4 Minneapolis, CBS 5 San Francisco, CBS 19 Cleveland, CW 11 New York, Fox 8 Cleveland, Fox 11 Los Angeles ‘Good Day LA’, Fox 13 Seattle, Fox 13 Utah, Fox 31 Colorado, Fox 32 Chicago, Fox 36 San Francisco, KING-5 Seattle, KOMO 4 Seattle, My43 Cleveland, NBC 3 Las Vegas, NBC 4 New York, NBC 9 Denver, NBC 11 Bay Area, NBC 7 / 39 San Diego, Park City TV in Utah, WTTW 11 Chicago.

CNN coverage is available online; a mere mouse-click away:


Radio coverage included Associated Press coverage and several pieces on NPR: The Story with Dick Gordon, Freewheelin’ with Meredith Ochs and Chris T (SIRIUS Satellite Radio), and the Kojo Nnamdi Show on the NPR affiliate in DC. Regionally, you may have heard talk of air guitar on Cities 97 (Minneapolis), KBER (Salt Lake City), KBOO (Portland), KENZ (Salt Lake City), KFNZ (Salt Lake City), KHTB / KRAR (Salt Lake City), KIRO (Seattle), KJKK (Dallas), KLBJ (Austin), KROX (Austin), KSPN (Aspen), KUFO (Portland), KXL (Portland), KXRK (Salt Lake City), WBCN (Boston), WBEZ (Chicago), WCSX (Detroit), WGN (Chicago), WYSP (Philadelphia).

Regional papers that covered their respective Regional: The Arizona Republic, Aspen Daily News, Austin Chronicle, Boston Herald, Chicago Tribune, Cleveland Scene, Dallas Morning News, Denver Post, Des Moines Register, Detroit Metro Times, Houston Chronicle, Las Vegas Sun, Los Angeles Daily News, Minneapolis Star Tribune, NY Daily News, The Onion, Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Tribune, Portland Mercury, Salt Lake Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, SD City Beat, Seattle Post Intelligencer, Village Voice, Washington Post, et al.

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS WELCOME US AIR GUITAR



Everybody’s getting into the madness. MLB’s San Francisco Giants will host US Air Guitar’s All Stars at AT&T Park during the August 6th day game vs. the Atlanta Braves. In between innings, Bjorn Turoque, hometown heroes Hot Lixx Hulahan and Ricky Stinkfingers, and Awesome (among others) will lead the stadium in an air guitar session alongside Giants mascot Lou Seal.

US Air Guitar All-Stars
Wednesday August 6^th, 2008
AT&T Park
24 Willie Mays Plaza. San Francisco, CA

SPECIAL US AIR GUITAR TICKET OFFER COURTESY OF THE SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS: Go to www.sfgiants.com, click ‘schedule’, and then click ‘T’ in the ‘August 6th box. Once you are on the ticket page, type ‘AIR’ into the Coupon Code to purchase a half-priced View Reserved ticket for just $10.

Each US Regional will each 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, and defending champ William Ocean will be brought to San Francisco in August 2008 to compete in the US Air Guitar Finals for the crown of US Air Guitar Champion. The 2008 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 sixth year in the US and its eleventh year world-wide, official national championships currently are held in the USA, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and the United Arab Emirates, with more countries participating every year. The 2008 Air Guitar World Championships will take place this August 20 - 22 in Oulu, Finland.

TO ENTER, GET TICKETS OR FIND OUT MORE:

US Air Guitar Official Website: www.USAirGuitar.com

To View The Airness at: www.youtube.com/USAirGuitar

Lets Get Friendly: www.myspace.com/USAirGuitar

Official Blog: http://usairguitar.blogspot.com/