Thanks to flickr user Andrew Huff for this photo of reigning Philly US Air Guitar Champ Windhammer.

If you get up on stage and fake playing a song, a la Ashlee Simpson or  Milli Vanilli and you will lose your Grammys and never sell a CD MP3 again-except ironically, of course.

But get up on stage and blatantly put on recorded music and also PRETEND to be holding an instrument-and you’ll sell a hell of a lot of tickets.

Some how air guitar has gone from being something we did to entertain ourselves in front of the mirror and transformed into something people will pay good money to see.  Somehow both more fake and more real than a guitar game like Guitar Hero (both of which take a lot less talent and effort than say, I dunno, playing the guitar for real?)-air guitar is a thing now.  With it’s own contest and governing board and everything.

And it’ll be at the 9:30 Club on Friday (at 8pm).

Yes, go watch (or participate!) in the Washington DC regional of the US AIR GUITAR CHAMPIONSHIP.

Okay-so this whole fad strikes me as a bit too much hipster for my taste, but it probably is something to see at least once.  Just read that partial article on the main page for US Air featuring Air-Guitarist “Windhammer

Windhammer’s left hand was a blur. His right hand dashed up and down the invisible fretboard, furiously articulating chords in unprecedented contortions. If anyone witnessing the light-speed riff even had a chance to wonder what the hurry was, the abrupt emergence of the solo answered their question.“

And here I would have thought that the guy was just making it up.  Alas, I would have been wrong-apparently the emperor does in fact shred in his new clothes.

Any Metblog users going/participating?  I want to hear from you-what am I missing here?  Is this like LOST or soccer where you need a little background info to know and appreciate what is going on?  Enlighten!

(and for the record, I always used a tennis racket-I never felt comfortable with just air…)

In the meantime, here is air guitar in it’s natural, moving, element…