TORONTO 2017 RE-CAP – SHE SPRAYS TO CONQUER!

GEN ‘THE PHOENIX’ LEBLANC CLAIMS ANOTHER CHAMPIONSHIP – FRESH FROM THE SET OF MAD MAX 2

May 13th was a glorious explosion of new and raw Air Guitar talent at the DRAKE UNDERGROUND. Our pre-registered numbers were excellent with returning favourites and a huge contingent of fresh new faces. The following post will share photos of all our competitors, including our brave souls and our pre-show air band and mid-show burlesque performance by Red Herring from the Toronto School of Burlesque. All the photos are courtesy of Henry VanderSpek of Culture Snap and videos by Cat Mills.  Huge thanks to Kyle from Collective Arts for the beer and prizing, and Fource Canada for the Wayhome, Boots and Hearts, and Feastival Festival passes for prizes, Eatertainment and Hogtown Pub and Oysters for restaurant gift certificates and lastly Panago Pizza for feeding us.  We made a great contribution to our charity Right to Play Canada!  Please join us at Nationals on July 15th at the MOD CLUB.

Enjoy the photos and the videos from the night. We can’t wait to rock out with you again.

If you wish to enter to compete – there is still a chance for you to join us at Nationals for your chance at the trip to Finland.

REGISTER FOR EVENTS

We’ve got Saskatoon, Medicine Hat and Kamloops too!

Next up in Ontario:

July 5th – Hamilton

July 15th – Dark Horse at Nationals  TICKETS TO NATIONALS

ON TO THE RE-CAP

Our host Nyree With a Microphone started the night off with some pre-competition music and an ode to Rocky Balboa with Eye of the Tiger.

She was joined by Toronto Air Guitar veteran and world stage performer Carlos ‘Hanzel the Manzel’ Mengual.

Legend of yore – Ari ‘Red Thor’ Hunter also joined the band along with 2016 Canadian Air Guitar Champ Blake ‘The Canadian Tuxedo’ Johnston who gave the mic some vox for a ripping rendition of No One Knows by Queen’s of the Stone Age.

Then some inflated goof-ball showed up and played drums and tried to sing. They called him the Winged Luchador. The fan in the suit busted… wore it twice. Value for money as they say.

We had some aces Judges: Blake ‘The Canadian Tuxedo’ Johnston, Ari ‘Red Thor’ Hunter, Joan Smith of Little Foot Long Foot, Ryan Gullen of the SheepDogs, and Kyle Wilson from Collective Arts Brewing. They had hard choices to make, but they made them well.

AND NOW THE COMPETITION!

Drawing the UNO, was none other than Toronto favourite Mark ‘Whiskey Pockets’ Slater. He rocked hard with wet booze soaked hair and custom clothing to the Cancer Bats version of Sabotage!

Next up was new comer Ichabod Fame. He did all manner of crazy mad jumps and shit. He looked like a taller, stronger version of the Canadian Tuxedo. He might as well have borrowed his costume. Though it did fit him like he went shopping in the toddler section of Northern Reflections. Ichabod was amazing and earned strong scores for Aerosmith’s Love in an Elevator as the 2nd to take the stage… see the performance below.

Next up was another newbie – Justin ‘TheJstrazz’ Strazzanti , he rocked out to assorted Guns and Roses songs. We are hoping he joins us again for Nationals as a Dark Horse now that he’s had his first taste of Air Guitar stardom.

Following was Marc with a C – who was inspired to come out and have some fun thanks to CHAMP FORRESTER. Marc kicked it to Walk this Way by Aerosmith and shook his mullet like a number 7.

Next up was Cat ‘Cat-astrophe’ Mills who put down the camera and lived her moment of glory.

THE CHAMP was back. Moving his way through the audience and rocking out with his signature coif and plaid. He killed it. We’ll see THE CHAMP back at Nationals.

The living legend Mr. Bob took to the stage in a brand new get-up. Purple like Prince, he rocked out to a new tune and gave his best performance in many events. He scored 5.7s across the board. He earned a berth in the second round for the 3rd straight year.

Hard to follow Bob, but this newcomer did that and more… Leona ‘RiRi Rockstar’ Placide was electric in her performance to Jimi Hendrix – All Along The Watchtower – she lit the stage on fire and landed herself a spot in the second round!

Then came DAZ. Daz loves to point. Let us point out that Daz loves classic rock. Daz is our hero.

We saw the return of Adam ‘Holyrod’ Holroyd. He also got the memo about purple and whilst rocking out to Deep Purple’s Burn he delivered accordingly. Adam gave one of the purest technical performances of the night. I’m really hoping he joins us again for Nationals and some more mastery. Don’t even ask us what’s going on with this picture. The man levitates.

Then came another in the colour of the night our newest of the new registrants… the amazing ATOMIC PIXIE. While she was perhaps more fuchsia than purple. She did assume the position of pretzel and scored high scores for looking so boss and rocking so low. She moved on to round 2.

Then came our vet, our corvette, our ‘they’ pronoun rocket. Kit ‘Kid Vicious’ Kolbegger who must have ignored the memo and dyed their hair green for the meanest of performances.

It was time to welcome our 2016 Ottawa Champ – now a Toronto resident, Gen ‘The Phoenix’ Leblanc to the stage. She was all decked out in post-apocalyptic finery and totally showed the crowed what a re-birth looks like. The Phoenix earned the highest scores of the night so far.

Then it was the returning champ – Dana ‘Dana-Saurus Rex’ Schieman‘s turn to be welcomed back to the Drake Underground stage where it all started for her last year when she propelled and whipped herself into a champions title last year from the brave souls’ round. She couldn’t compete at Nationals last year but we plan to see her this year. She killed it. She moved on to the 2nd round. Started like this:

Ended like this.

 

VIDEO:

BRAVE SOULS ROUND

That wrapped the pre-registered competitors. Then it was time for the BRAVE SOULS. These are the people that come out of the crowd that night to give it a try like Air Guitar Karaoke.

First up was – Rachel ‘Namira the Cat’ . She was also helping us out with the ballots and sign ups and couldn’t resist. We hope she comes back again for Nationals!

Then came the serene meditative man Riley Boyd  – a long time friend and competitor who wanted to style out and rock the slow jams for us. We expect to have him back with us at Nationals for the Dark Horse.

Then we had crazy long awesome red hair super hot rocker like a chair please – She honestly used every inch of that hair to whip up some serious respect from all the ladies and the dudes who love the locks. Please come back July 15th and do that again. So cool. and those boots.

 

Closing out the Braves souls was Charlene Gibbons. Or as l like to call her… Sneak Attack Gibbons… out of nowhere she shows up and just levels the place with insane floor work and super sultry Air Guitar that earned her a spot in the 2nd round. Check this out:

From that the judges rendered their judgement and we announced our top 7 performers:

BUT BEFORE THAT – we had a special burlesque performance from the incomparable RED HERRING

The Compulsory Round song was chosen – it was Dragon Force’s Through the Fire and the Flames… just make it easy on everyone. Here were your finalists:

BOB went first. He rocked so hard he fell off the stage. He was fine… he used to be a dive instructor so taking a dip was nothing new for him.

Then came RiRi Rockstar…

Then Atomic Pixie

Then Sneak Attack Charlene Gibbons

Then the performance of the night happened and the pictures don’t do it justice, but Ichabod Fame… just killed Through the Fire and the Flames.  So much so that he jumped from his third place birth straight into contention for first place with perfect 6.0s.

Then came Dana-Saurus Rex – she needed to pull out all the stops and she gave it her all. But it was hard to follow Ichabod’s insanity. We expect Dana to come back with a vengeance at Nationals as she is the stuff of champions.

Last up was THE PHOENIX, riding the best scores in the opening round, she had to do well enough to hold back Ichabod and keep her top spot. She did just that. Pulling out more tricks and theatrics to thrill the crowd and the judges, The Phoenix got the scores she needed and can now proudly put herself in the history books as the first ever Canadian to earn two championships in different cities.

IT WAS A MAGICAL NIGHT. We caught these last pictures and then had to madly clean up for the Club night that was to follow quickly on our heels. Congrats to all the competitors and we sincerely hope to see everyone back at Nationals for more madness and mayhem and good times in the name of World Peace, Rock and Roll and our charity Right to Play.