What, you might ask, is the definition of “airness”? Well, as the battling air guitarists explain throughout B Street Theatre’s funny, thoughtful production, airness is as difficult to define as it is to attain. Nearly a century later, playwright Chelsea Marcantel appears to have borrowed a page or two from Pirandello’s playbook for “Airness,” a more joyful, lighthearted variation on the theme of “Six Characters." The play focuses on six air guitarists - over-the-top performers pretending to play heavy-metal guitar while dancing -searching for their “airness,” or their joie de vivre.
Airline guitar review full#
"Air Guitar Nation" is a well-made documentary that presents an unbiased look at an often misunderstood subculture that may rekindle rock and roll passion in it's audience as well as embarrassment for watching something about a bunch of adults (men and women, by the way) pretending to play invisible instruments.Playwright Luigi Pirandello’s celebrated and controversial “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” written and first performed in 1921, was a drama within a drama and chock full of existential angst emanating from six characters searching for their story, their raison d’etre. After the National Champion was crowned, it was off to the International event in Finland where things are taken very seriously. Fashion photographer Alexandra Lipsitz, whose main credits stem from Bravo's "Project Runway", has assembled a film about the first ever Air Guitar Championships in the United States which drew an unexpected huge crowd in downtown New York in 2003. Perhaps it is what dorks who can't play guitar do when listening to power chord heavy rock music, or perhaps it is a performance art in the family of pantomime or lip synching, or perhaps even the purist completely anti-corporate art form that exists. For those completely out of the loop, air guitar is many things. It raises them above expectation and stereotype, at least to a point. "Air Guitar Nation" does for the peculiar rocker nerd what "Spellbound" did for the quiet word nerd. In a genre that has been over-inundated with highly political and overly depressing fare for the past several years, a documentary like "Air Guitar Nation" is a welcome change, albeit one you might not likely talk about with others. AIR GUITAR NATION captures the explosion of competitive air guitar through the eyes of former world champions, fans and media, and through the personal rivalries of those trying to attain the title of "The best Air Guitarist in the world." - Anonymous Full of triumph and disappointment, patriotic spirit and political tension - and of course invisible guitars - this tension filled competition quickly turns very real as the contest becomes even more fierce as the contestants work hard to win the title of World Air Guitar Champion.
What starts as a friendly contest above a New York strip club becomes a battle of naked ambition played out on the national and, ultimately, the world stage.
Enter the first official US Air Guitar Championships. For years, the USA was missing in action. Every August, the Air Guitar World Championships bring thousands of fans all the way to Oulu, Finland to see the world's best air guitarists battle it out for 60 seconds of mock stardom. AIR GUITAR NATION chronicles the birth of the US Air Guitar Championships and the personal journeys of those talented contestants who are vying to become the first World Air Guitar Champion from the United States. AIR GUITAR NATION is the feature documentary about the year that air guitar swept America - from New York to Los Angeles and then all the way to northern Finland.
It's time to rock and roll - air guitar style.