| Air Guitar Confessions |
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| Written by Brad Balfour | |
Watch our interview with "Air Guitar Nation" director Alexandra Lipsitz and air guitarist Bjorn Turoque:View in new window
Okay, hey, I admit it. I have done my gawdawful demonstrations of air guitar. Yes, I joined the air guitar nation long before there was such a thing, or even before the appellation of "air guitar" was conceived. Nonetheless, I have stood there, caught up in my own revelry, wildly thrashing my one hand close against my "beytsim," while the other hand--with the arm attached--made lightning-fast runs alongside the imaginary neck of an imaginary Gibson SG double-neck made famous by one J. Page, whose songs--especially one called "S-way to Heaven"--established his band, Led Zeppelin, as one of the greatest sources for today's air guitar aficionados. Anyhow, it is a great song, but not the most suitable one for air-guitaring. Too many slow passages, which take time to develop--not a tune that has the passionate, long, languid, stretchy lines of a track like Led Zep's smashing "Nobody's Fault But Mine." But that's what is so wonderful about the act of air guitaring. Once you get over the geek factor--"is that guy really standing there gyrating and gesticulating and spazzing out mimicking the best real guitarists in the world (or doing them one better?)"--there is a fundamental joy in wrapping one's head and body around the core structure of a great powerhouse song. And, with a song and solo that, on its own merits, can burn the house down--say something like the Blue Öyster Cult's "Cities A Flame With Rock & Roll"--the act of channeling the actual sensory experience through the act of playing air guitar can give a whole new life to rock and rolling. And that's what is great about air guitarists--they ain't no different than the rest of us, but then again, maybe they are. While one dreams of getting out in front of everyone, they are willing to the do the silent karaoke, with no inhibitions about enjoying a great song or solo. So when I had the chance to interview Alexandra Lipsitz, the director of the film "Air Guitar Nation," and one of its leading proponents, Bjorn Turoque (New Yorker Dan Crane) I seized the opportunity. At least I took advantage of this opportunity in a way I never did when I was younger. Then, I could've grabbed a guitar, taken my lessons and would have rocked out rather than merely become an air guitarist in its place. But back to the film--to abbreviate the IMDB registered description: "From New York to Los Angeles and then to northern Finland, this feature doc chronicles the birth of the U.S. Air Guitar Championships and the personal journeys of the talented contestants who vie to become the first World Air Guitar Champion from the United States. Every August, the Air Guitar World Championships bring thousands of fans to Oulu, Finland, to see the world's best air guitarists battle it out for 60 seconds of mock stardom. For years, the U.S.A. was missing in action. Enter the first official U.S. Air Guitar Championships" and this documentary that shows the pettiness, drama, and sheer hilarity of the act and of the community. Being as visual as it is, I figured this had be to shared as a video rather than just through text and audio; so my experience of being with Bjorn had to be transfered to you, my dear viewers, as I would transfer my love for a song like Brian Eno's "Baby's On Fire"--with six-string philosopher Robert Fripp's intense smokin' guitar solo--that, through my own gesticulations of simulated guitar riffing--becomes almost as orgasmic as the idea of having sex while listening to this song. Go and listen to it--tell me if you see what I mean. |
