Big air: Hot Lixx Hulahan takes air guitar title (again) in SF

Oh how San Franciscans love to hate Los Angeles.

Case in point: Friday’s sold-out 2008 US Air Guitar Championships at the Regency Center near San Francisco's Tenderloin District, where L.A.’s regional winner, "Houston Rockit," was roundly booed before he even took the stage at the event, which featured 24 aspirant air guitar gods who were already winners in regional contests held across the U.S.

“I didn't matter who I was, as soon as they heard ‘from Los Angles,’ they started booing,” said Justin Hypes, who competed in the finals (and "repped" L.A.) but failed to crack the Top 10.   

“It was shocking to me,” the 31-year-old (who rocked the tightest red shorts I’ve ever seen while hoping to get lucky with his take on Loverboy’s “Working for the Weekend”) said of the ribbing he took from NorCal hipsters hellbent on clowning him for being the unlucky face of the Southland.

But Hypes conceded that his effort wasn't good enough anyway to beat out stellar turns from the likes of Minneapolis’ hair-flipping gymnast "Airisol" and San Francisco’s own Hot Lixx Hulahan (U.S. champion in 2006), who won it all Friday night and is headed to Finland later this month to try and bring air guitar bragging rights back to the U.S. (America has only won the world title twice; in 2003 and 2004).

“Honestly, it's cool,” said Hypes, by day a Santa Monica-based director of business development for a software company. “I think the scoring was fair.”

Indeed, despite a few missteps (Brooklyn competitor Bettie B. Goode was robbed), the three-member panel of judges fared about as well as one might expect, given the copious amounts of tequila flowing (spirit company Jose Cuervo/Diageo PLC sponsored the Air Guitar tour this summer, where regional competitions leading up to the U.S. championship took place from Boston to Seattle).

This year's final, the first to take place in San Francisco after turns in Los Angeles and New York, was perhaps the best-run air guitar event I have seen in my life -- and sadly, I’ve seen many. It also was a sellout -- 1,500 tickets -- for the event, which was co-sponsored by TouchTunes.

Bay Area residents have embraced the competition and made it their own. Clearly, no city is better suited to the absurdity of an event where multiple contestants dressed as rock stars (wearing all manner of codpieces) go onstage in front of hundreds of strangers with no instruments.

This year, the level of “airmanship” had certainly stepped up. The top six contestants were all highly entertaining, with an Olympic-esque close race between the top two contenders, Minneapolis’ high-kicking “Airisol” and local favorite Hulahan (pictured above). In the end, it was Hulahan’s awe-inspiring performance (or perhaps, his yellow stretch pants?) that put him over the edge. Hulahan earned a perfect score of 18 (three “sixes” from the judges, naturally) for his performance of “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne.

“So far, I think you are the guy to represent the U.S. at the world championships in Finland,” one of the judges said after Hulahan’s heroic effort during the final round (the Alameda, Calif., resident sustained multiple injuries, including a sprained thumb earlier in the evening … competitive air guitar is serious business).

Hulahan, Los Angeles is behind you in your quest for air greatness at the worlds -- even Hypes (who, ironically, is moving to the "yay" next month, so be nice, all of you Mission District dwellers).

"I wish him the best," said Hypes.

-- Charlie Amter

Photos of Hot Lixx Hulahan (previous page) and "Houston Rockit" (above) by Misha Vladimirsky