Local guitar heroine rocks Air Guitar Championship in Vegas

By Joe Brown

Monday, June 30, 2008 | 12:06 p.m.

The Hope of Henderson, Angela Corvello represented Las Vegas in the Air Guitar Championships at Harrah's Carnaval Court Sunday night. Competing under her "air name," Shama Lama Airly Legal Ding Dong, Corvello, a 40-year-old sales manager for a local hotel, strapped on her invisible Stratocaster for the first time in public and placed a more-than-respectable fifth in the competition. "The Guitarsonist" took first place and the $400 prize money, earmarked toward getting him to the August 8 national finals in San Francisco.

On Monday morning Corvello was quietly suffering the aftermath of the rock star lifestyle, but she provided the Las Vegas Sun with this exclusive first-person recap:

"There were about 15 competitors but they also allowed people from the audience to compete, so all in all there were about 20 competitors. I played Molly Hatchet's 'Flirtin With Disaster,' and the comments from the judges were 'It is really nice to see a girl who is as good as the guys,' and 'You have the essence of air guitar.' My scores were good enough in the first round to get me through airness!)

"For the first round I wore my "Make Air Not War" t-shirt, with tattoo sleeves and black flowy pants. In the second round I wore my "Make Music Not Enemies" shirt with ripped jeans and a blonde wig with a bandanna around it. Bruno, my roadie/bodyguard, played a great role by bringing my air guitar on to the stage in the first round and then standing right in front of the judges intimidating them in the second round." (Judges chose Metallica's "Enter Sandman" for Corvello to perform in round two.)

"I had an entourage of about 15 people ,with a limo and party favors. We stayed at Harrah's for a little bit (after the competitioin) and then we partied til the break of dawn back at our house, which I don't think the neighbors were very happy about. But hey, that's what rockstars do...

"The whole day and night were just awesome. I sent a text message to my family and friends that said, 'I may never say this again but I am performing on the Las Vegas Strip tonight!'"

You can follow the city-by-city action at the official US Air Guitar blog.