Can't play it? Then just fake it -- they do

Competitors make phantom guitars sing

LISA HARDING

Special to The Globe and Mail

WHISTLER -- It's a Saturday night in Whistler, and the lineup outside the Garibaldi Lift Company pub looks like the wait for a chairlift on a weekend.

Inside, 220 people are on their feet, craning their necks to get a better view of the mock stage. There's an air of excitement and a smell of beer.

Contestant No. 15, Cole Manson, whose stage name is Johnny Utah, captures the crowd's attention as he climbs onto an elevated tabletop clutching nothing but air -- all the instrument he needs to compete in what's being billed as Canada's first official air guitar competition.

Wearing a black T-shirt and jeans, Mr. Utah starts moving his fingers in time with the chords as Metallica's Damage Incorporated surges through the speakers. The music peaks, and in a theatrical manoeuvre, Mr. Utah squirts water from his mouth as he leaps off the table and onto the stage, grasping an imaginary guitar. The crowd goes wild.

One by one, contestants with stage names such as James Bondage, the Mittens and Woody, face the packed house grasping their phantom six-strings.

Each contestant must play the air guitar for a minute to any song. The top six competitors must then perform the compulsory song, a mystery until the round begins. Performances are judged on originality, stage charisma, technique and "airness." Scores are on a scale from 4.0 to 6.0, much like figure skating.

The top six competitors are announced and Van Halen's Panama is revealed as the compulsory song. Johnny Utah wows the crowd with his "airness" by throwing up his air guitar, spinning and catching it. He is declared the winner.

Afterward, Mr. Manson tried to explain the appeal of standing in front of a crowd of strangers and pretending to play an instrument.

"It's as close to being a rock star as it gets. It's like a dream come true. Sort of. I'd like to be able to play a real instrument and play with a real band, but this way I can entertain people with music."

Official air guitar competitions may be a rarity in Canada, but the rest of the globe has been strumming air for years.

Since 1996, Finland has been home to the Air Guitar World Championships, and next year Canada will be sending a competitor there for the first time.

Mr. Manson is no stranger to the stage. He's a member of a male burlesque troop, a dancer in Whistler's Fire & Ice show, has five black belts and pays the bills by teaching martial arts at his own school. He is hardly ordinary, but according to his girlfriend, 28-year-old Magda Regdos, he has done "nothing as unique as the air guitar."

Mr. Manson finds it hard to express why he likes it, but doesn't think air guitaring is all that unusual. "It's acting combined with a rock concert. . . . The fact that it's a competition gives me a chance to have more fun with it.

"You want people in the crowd to see the imaginary guitar. They thought there was a guitar in my hand. That's the magic of it."

Mr. Manson acknowledged some people will think playing the air guitar is a joke and points out that part of a performance is comedy. But to him, the air guitar is serious business.

"I'm not there to make anyone laugh. I'm there to impress people."

Now that he's won a spot in the Western Regional Championship next spring, Mr. Manson practises to any song he likes, convinced he'll be Canada's representative in Finland in September.

The air guitar phenomenon hit the United States in 2003, inspiring the film Air Guitar Nation, currently on the film festival circuit. Producer Anna Barber believes air guitar will be a phenomenon in Canada, too.

"I think Canada has huge roots in rock 'n' roll as well, and I think the desire is universal. The desire to feel the crowd cheering for you and to feel like you're a star for 15 minutes crosses national lines and language barriers," she said.