Air guitar is a foreign concept to me, something frat boys do after one keg-stand too many. Thankfully, my judge’s seat was preset with an explanation, rules and the judging criteria along with the dry-erase scoreboard and a microphone.

Oh, so they want American Idol, do they?

Perpetually “the Paula,” I lavished praise upon the round-one contestants before revealing their scores, only twice awarding the coveted top score of 6. Along with fellow judges Jeremy Womack of XRadio.biz and Lauralie Ezra of TheSinCitySocialites.com, I graded 11 60-second performances on technical merit, stage presence and “Airness” for this, the first of Resodence’s four Las Vegas Air Guitar Competitions.

While many of the contestants impressed—especially Brother Luke’s Shaun DeGraff (aka “Wanger”) Vegas’ Sean Kennedy (“Juan Garcia”) and Yosemite wildlife biologist April Farmer (“Valhalla”)—it was LA’s Tim Granlund, the “Six-String General,” who brought the house down with his supreme airness to the tune of Van Halen’s “Everybody Wants Some.”

The General—renamed the G-String General by the judges—will compete against other Vegas finalists in June for a chance to represent Sin City in the U.S. Air Guitar Championship in New York, that winner going on to rep our nation’s air-guitar community at the world championship in Finland.

From Sin to Fin? May the airiest contestant win!