Results tagged “airguitar”

Taryn Kapronica, stage name Bettie B. Goode, may be the sickest air guitarist in the region, but the Brooklynite's title has come with a hefty price: her toe. The Daily News says the winner rocked her U.S. Air Guitar Championships Brooklyn Regional performance at the Music Hall of Williamsburg so hard that her toe bent backwards and was later amputated! She told the paper that: "By the time I hit the ground and looked down, my toe was pretty much gone and just hanging from a thread." Blood dripping across the stage, she continued to play finish her air cover of Scorpion's "Rock You Like a Hurricane," saying "I just kept on air guitaring". The U.S. Air Guitar blog has an account of the incident, which took place on July 9th:

Then, it happened. Bettie B. Goode started her routine by jumping off the stairs you take to get from backstage to on-stage. She promptly ran up to the balcony, climbed over the railing, onto the plexi-glass awning above the soundbooth that is, presumably, there to prevent drinks from the balcony falling on the sound equipment – that is to say, not meant to support the weight of a full-grown human being, no matter how slight or dainty her build. Bettie then ran over to the judge’s table where we all got a good look at her toe, which by then, was broken in half, bleeding, with white bone showing. She beat out the two technically superior contestants, but I mean... Bone was showing. She was declared the winner and promptly whisked away to the emergency room. Which just goes to show... In Air Guitar, sometimes when you win, you actually... are insane.

Kapronica added that she still plans to represent New York in the sixth annual U.S. Air Guitar Championships in San Francisco on August 8th. Now that's dedication! Another competitor dubbed Kapronica a "hero" having earned her place in "air guitar lore."

(directed by Joe Swanberg)

Last night at Irving Plaza, Andrew "William Ocean" Litz became the 2007 US Air Guitar Champion. Ocean, who lives in New York City, used his home-field advantage to...his advantage. He had several of his supporters in the crowd to aid his performances - throwing water in the air (like an ocean, we suppose) and supporting him as he crowdsurfed. Ocean's moves were enough to move him from 2nd place entering the finals/compulsory round. He defeated 14 other air guitarists that qualified in regional US Air Guitar events, including 2006 US Champion Craig ‘Hott Lixx Hulahan’ Billmeier and Fatima "Rockness Fucking Monster" Hoang, who was in first entering the finals.

article about the annual Air Guitar Championships in Oulu, New Yorkers Kriston Rucker and Cedric Devitt traveled to Finland to attend the event and discovered it lacked an American competitor. Back in the States they founded US Air Guitar and held their first qualifying event at the Pussycat Lounge in the Financial District. Little did they know about the untapped, overwhelming enthusiasm for air guitar in this country as hundred of amateur rockers came out for that qualifier and a subsequent one in Los Angeles at the Roxy.

Gothamist has been to way too many Tribeca Film Festival movies since it started a little more than a week ago. So many in fact that we almost dread having purchased all those tickets. Last night though, we were happy we purchased tickets for Air Guitar Nation, a wonderful documentary that chronicles the first US Air Guitar Championships and the quest to become the first American to be the world champion. The final screening of Air Guitar Nation is a midnight screening tonight at the AMC Loews on 34th St. While tickets are door sales only right now, Gothamist highly recommends heading over early and trying to get into this movie. It's easily the best movie we've seen at the festival this year (we've seen 5 at this point).

We've seen you do it. Your favorite guilty pleasure 80's hair band song comes on the jukebox and you immediately get in to air guitar positioning. Closing your eyes, raising your arms, curling your fingers around the guitar that only you can see. You are our favorite person in the bar. You embrace your love of music, you don't care what anyone thinks, and you totally rip on that solo. So we hope you heard about the Air Guitar Championships.