Air guitar returns to Custer

How do you follow up a successful U.S. Air Guitar Championship in Custer? You hold a bigger and better one, of course, while raising the stakes.

That will be the case this Saturday, March 14, when The Custer Beacon once again plays host to the U.S. Air Guitar Championships. Making this year’s competition even more exciting is that this year, the championship is a regional competition, which means the winner will automatically get to compete in the national competition while winning a $1,000 travel prize package to help them do so. This year’s national championship is in May in New York City.

Only 14 cities host regional competitions and most of them are metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, Orlando and Portland. The fact that Custer is now home to one of the regionals is a big deal, said organizer Chris Pelczarski.

“Every year we grow more,” he said. “It’s drawing in people from a bigger area. It’s making us a destination for another interesting and unusual thing.”

The championships started when Pelczarski and his girlfriend, Rene Ohms, watched the documentary “Air Guitar Nation” and started to host air guitar get- togethers. That has grown into the competition being held in a public venue as an official competition that has been reformed through the Custer Area Arts Council and is sponsored by Lost Cabin Beer Co., which will once again offer free beer to competitors and judges during the competition.

It costs $15 to enter the competition, which can be done by going online to tiny.cc/custerairguitar. Last year, an estimated 300-350 people showed up to cheer on the competitors.

“The people of Custer have a lot of spirit and a lot of heart. It’s a place where people are very genuine,” Pelczarski said. “In Custer, if you have an idea, even if it’s ‘out there,’ people tend to support it and make it part of our community. That’s why I live in Custer, because of that attitude.”

Each competitor performs a one-minute track, which they can edit themselves or select from songs on hand paired down to the standard minute. 

Competitors typically perform rock guitar solos (think AC/DC, Queen, Led Zeppelin, etc.) and can perform the electric or bass guitar from a song. Contestants are judged on technical merit and “airness,” which Pelczarski says is an intangible quality.

“It’s like an expansion of stage presence,” he said. “It becomes performance art that is inspiring to people and makes them go, ‘Wow, that is awesome.’”

The top performers aren’t always the ones who have the songs down pat and are the most technically proficient, Pelczarski said, but rather, those with an “it” factor that revs up the crowd and judges.

Pelczarski said he expects at least 10 competitors this year, but up to 20 can enter. There will be a $5 cover charge at the door to help pay for the winner’s trip to New York City for the national championship. The day will begin with a junior competition at 4 p.m., for which registration starts at 2 p.m.

The returning champion, Jason Deuhr, is set to compete this year. As his air guitar alter-ego Randall “The North Wind Dupont” (taken from his father’s name, Randall, the street he grew up on as a child, Dupont, and a desire to weave an air element into his name) Deuhr set the stage ablaze with his airness last year, although he said he isn’t sure he will return as Randall.

“I’m going to let it be a surprise whichever direction I go this weekend,” he said.

This will be Deuhr’s only second time performing in the sanctioned event, but he was a frequent competitor at Pelczarski’s get-togethers.

“It just seemed like something silly to do in February,” he said. “Little did I know it was going to grow into something that would turn into an incredible event people really get behind.”

Deuhr said, while he wouldn’t say doing air guitar gets easier each time he does it, he believes it becomes more fun each time he does it, saying it takes bravery and “a certain lack of self awareness” to be successful at air guitar.

Liquid courage in the form of beer can, as well, he added.

Deuhr and Pelczarski got to see just how serious air guitar can be last year, as after winning the local wild card competition, Deuhr, along with Pelczarski, competed in what is known as a “dark horse” competition prior to the national meet. That competition was in Nashville and was a satellite qualifier of sorts for the national meet.

They placed last and second to last. They learned a lot, however.

“The biggest thing I learned is you have to practice and you have to be really willing to go for it,” Pelczarski said. “Everyone who was on that stage did so amazing. Air guitar is about being unstoppable; just continuing to express yourself, no matter what people are going to think about it.”

Deuhr called the national competition “formulaic,” saying many of the competitors are seasoned veterans who know exactly what the judges are looking for out of the performers. The difference is hard to describe, he said, likening it to watching old WWF characters with their over-the-top personas.

“Their acts were so precise and very well rehearsed and choreographed,” he said.

Ironically, Deuhr said the Custer competition had a larger crowd than the dark horse competition he and Pelczarski competed at.

Deuhr encourages people to both compete and attend the competition, which begins at 7 p.m. He said it’s something for people of all ages that allows people to step out of their comfort zones and do something they wouldn’t normally do.

“I don’t think people understand how big of a deal it is Custer is an automatic qualifier,” he said. “(People can come) support something in what everybody considers to be the offseason.”