Air Guitar.
Published June 8th, 2006 in red dirt, Ridiculous Prime, spectacleSince there often isn’t much to do in Tulsa, when something truly bizarre comes to your attention, you must jump on it. When I heard that there was to be an air guitar contest at the Cain’s Ballroom and that it was going to be free, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
Ten or so people, myself included, met up at the house that Bob built, effectively increasing attendance by about 1/10th. We were a bit late, so we missed the first 4 performances. We were lucky enough, however, to see all 8 performers improvise to the same 30 seconds of “Crazy Train.” Boy, that was fun.
The real contenders:
Man in a unitard with chest cut out.”a1a”
Fat man in a vest and skirt.
Skank dressed like a skank.
Guy who looked a little bit too much like Jim Breuer in Slayer shirt.
Man wearing lycra pants, leather vest and leather cap with the stage name “Big rig.”"a2a”
There was a lot of needless skin showing, a fair amount of really bad performances (it’s amazing how easily you come to use the same number system used by the judges to rate them), but it was a lot of fun overall. The winner of last night’s contest, which was Big Rig (who won by knowing how to play air guitar to a song by The Cult in the “air off” against the Jim Breuer-looking guy) gets to go on to New York to compete at the national level. I guess from there there’s an international competition in Finland. All of it very strange. Who knew there was a culture based around this? Why is there a culture based around this? How many people actually lack the appropriate amount of shame to play air guitar in front of others? In this part of the country, the answer to the last question is 8.
It was a bizarre event, but it was a chance to hang out at the Cain’s without paying money at the door, and it was short enough to not make it boring. The crowd of people that seemed to be really into the whole competition were disconcerting though, especially since all of them seemed to be of the young and desiring to be hip variety. I’m pretty sure they were paid to be there. It’s the only logical explanation.
ahoy hoy, raver. read this from melbourne and enjoyed thoroughly!!!it was, indeed, a night to remember. hope you’re enjoying the wedding pics. was looking for the wedding blog–i’m sure you’ll have some fun insights, like how julianna cried as i was walking down the aisle or my own godfather inexplicably calling me seearrruh. going to tassie tomorrow—hope to see the devils. toodle pip.