‘No Air Guitar Allowed’ is painfully funny guide for concertgoing metalheads
Written by James Wall
Steve Weinberger with Sarah Torribio
No Air Guitar Allowed
I am of the firm belief that the only people who should write about heavy metal are metalheads themselves. Like horror films, metal is a genre that isn’t penetrable by critics, especially the elitist mindset that many of them subscribe to. We want to be entertained; we’re not looking for the meaning of life. Although he doesn’t explicitly say it, first-time author Steve Weinberger is a metalhead. His true colors are plasted everywhere on the LOL concert tutorial, No Air Guitar Allowed. In his introduction already, Weinberger talks about seeing Ted Nugent and KISS concerts. No legitimate music reviewer will ever confess to watching Nugent and KISS. From that point on, Weinberger has our attention and an instant approval; he carries our badge with pride.
The tone of Weinberger’s writing – tongue firmly in cheek yet incredibly insightful – is reminiscent of the beer-soaked gonzo days of Creem magazine in the ’70s. For those who aren’t familiar with the long-gone Boy Howdy period, Creem was Rolling Stone‘s bastard classmate, unruly, sarcastic, and funny as hell. No Air Guitar Allowed is definitely unruly, sarcastic, and funny as hell. Weinberger looks fondly back at three decades of going to concerts and describes the wild and wacky people who attend them, creating names for them (i.e., the Beer Whoo Crew, the Supportive Girlfriend, the Indie Guru, etc) and describing their features and antics. One of my favorites is the Rastafari Man, who is so high that he is oblivious to James Hetfield’s guitar prowess at a Metallica show: “Fueled by medical grade marijuana, he is having visions of old James bedecked with a halo and angel wings, while a blown-away Jimi Hendrix keeps whispering ’Wow!’ in his ears.”
What had me cracking up so much about No Air Guitar Allowed is how true it all is. And nobody should take offense at the less-than-flattering representations here. Face the truth, folks, because Weinberger does so himself. If we can’t laugh at ourselves, we are denying ourselves one of life’s greatest treasures.
