Band T-shirt Etiquette

You've just summed up every moment in my life when I've been tempted to make fun of hipsters.

Me, I have a long-sleeved purple Swervedriver shirt that I love dearly. It's warm, too.

What about the Cobra Verde? If the Mission of Burma doesn't make me look fat, what about this one?

Am I too old to be wearing band t-shirts? or holding them up in front of myself?

Where can I buy a swervedriver ls sweat? Maybe that'll cover me up better?

Is it wrong to think that guys in purple band swervedriver shirts are sexy? Especially if it looks like they don't fold it properly when they stuff it in the bureau drawer?

Is there a support group for this problem?

Where is the band t-shirt etiquette monitor?

"s Jeremy Piven sagely intoned in the underheralded classic, "PCU," to a then-portly John Favreau on his way to see the fictitious Merkins while wearing a Merkins t-shirt: "Don't be that guy!" "

I always thought they were talking about the Melvins

They finally solved the dilemma of all young people - how to simultaneously rebel and conform, by rebelling against grown-ups and conforming to each other. Thus to grown-ups they appear simultaneously stuffy and brutish.

And whatever label you wear on your chest, whatever it is, it's about being stuffy, really, isn't it. I guess you could say that about clothes in general but a label is taking it one step further and why would you want to? Except I suppose when you're trying to expose yourself to ridicule through the label like intentionally prostrating yourself in the Beck 'I'm a Loser' sense, but really I would question whether you can honestly claim that you're ever doing that in sincerity.

I loved your "Lost in Lameless" post on your site - re: Lost in Translation. It was so totally dead on. I would absolutely drop the Mission of Burma t-shirt for you. Everyone was telling me how fantastic that movie was...

...Yeah, if you're a middle-aged guy fantasizing about hanging with some young sexy lonely gal.

Puh-leeze. dream on.

And even the acting was crap.

and yes, shameful use of the soundtrack.

My middle-aged saga which will be out soon on DVD is
"Lost in Damnation", set in the "good part" of Burma, and includes scenes of the BurmaKitty lounging naked on some faux leopard lounge, being simutaneously pedicured by no less than six barely legal far eastern type boys while she gets oiled down and fed grapes by some nymphs and Squirrel Bait's "Sun God" is playing over and over again.

http://www.emerchandise.com/images/p/CPM/pzBYCPM0001.jpg

otherwise, who cares what shirt you wear and how you accquired it? ive got tons of t-shirts that found their way to me from boyfriends and friends, so, authenticity/proof of attendence be damned.

my only personal rule about band t-shirts is to not wear them as much around the office, otherwise i am mistaken for a student.

Over two years since the last post, surely cultural mores have shifted some since then?

For example, is it OK to wear a t-shirt for a band whose music you've got off bittorrent but never actually bought?
What if you download a scan of the shirt from bittorrent and print it yourself?

My bro gave me a sweet Grateful Dead tshirt this weekend. Stoked.

pretty sure it's only ok to wear t-shirts for bands you've never heard

i wear what i want, and if it's not ok, you can suck it

:)

the only band t-shirt i have is an old Caribou one, and I was never in to them, liked them live but the albums are boring. Nice design tho, pink lettering on yellow.

Have two record label t-shirts, this:

http://www.boomkat.com/media/stock_images/tectonicredSMALL.jpg

and this (in white):

http://www.catapult.co.uk/resources/cache/resize_fixed_height_resources-product-images-22108-bbkblueoutjpg.350x.jpg

Really couldn't care less about the politics of wearing band shirts, except I always feel it's a bit lame when someone wears the band shirt to the gig, whole lotta stanning goin' on.

i only wear my own band's shirts these days

I own a Univers Zero 1313 t-shirt that has a picture of a random band (not univers zero) on it.

No one ever notices this, however.

i don't have any band shirts any longer, except the very well-fitting Belle & Sebastian shirt i bought on their 2002 tour. i am embarassed to wear it now except when i am doing laundry or going to bed or hungover and putzing.

yea the only thing i have is my Lilith Fair tshirt. i wear it

I'm wearing a Lou Reed New York Tour shirt right now. I was born that year. It's really old and xxl, but I love it.

oops, duh it's old, i meant 'worn,' thx

k whew i was about to deduct points

I never heard this don't wear a band's old shirt to a show thing until this thread.

I think paying for today's overpriced tickets would be more a more embarrassing admission of fandom than admitting you went to a concert 10 years ago.

yeah but it's just like "fuck, obviously you like the band." actually i don't care about people wearing the band's t shirts to shows but whenever say metallica or iron maiden come to town there'll always be their shitty old boring fans on the metro or bus the next day or the afternoon of wearing shirts. i don't know if i'd say i condemn doing such a thing, but it depresses me when i imagine myself 30 years from now in the same situation.

Just throwin' this into the mix...

A question to those of you who wear "concert" t-shirts.

at his show in oakland, jeff beck had an awesome t-shirt for sale with the Beck/Bogert/Appece logo that i would have gotten but fuck $30 for that shit. and i have a problem fitting into t-shirts so i probably would hardly ever wear it anyway.

the one "band" shirt that fit me was an aphex twin one. i was not informed of this until the shirt was already in tatters, but i guess the logo is extremely similar that of this video game "half life" but i guess afx is about as dorky as videos games so whatevs

Funny that this thread should be revived as just yesterday, I posted a sorta semi-related piece. Read it by clickin' right here .

i wouldn't wear a reproduction concert shirt, even for a show i went to. that's just retarded. however, if i manage to score a shirt that was bought at a concert i didn't go to, that's cool (i got my Depeche Mode Violator tour shirt at a thrift shop in the late 90's for $1, i inherited a Donovan '84 tour shirt from my dad which was pretty awesome with this weird heart/peace sign logo).

if a band had shirts that were made with logos/artwork and not associated with a tour, i have and will wear those. some of my favs were the Nirvana seahorses shirt, the Porno for Pyros shirt with the city in flames in the front and the band's name written in naked women across the bottom of the back, and i was wearing an extremely faded Tribe Called Quest shirt with the "Beats Rhymes and Life" artwork on the front the morning my son was born back in December 01.

the offensive band shirts are fun too: the My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult shirt that said their name and had a hand holding a dripping knife on it (with the same thing mirror imaged on the back!) always got comments, my Anal Cunt shirt from their 96 or so tour is pretty much one of the most offensive shirts i've ever seen anyone wear (it was hard to actually sport this in public), and my old school Anti-Flag shirt (circa 94, way before they had much popularity outside of pittsburgh) with the guy burning a flag on it would draw some good comments.

nowadays i'm into label shirts and shit like that. Inner City, Trax, Dance Mania, Technoir Audio, 7th City, Underground Resistance (the puffy paint one of course!), Hot Mix 5, and Prestige are amongst the ones i wear now. i also have a really great "The Godson" shirt which is essentially a shirt for Rick Wilhite, which i probably wouldn't wear if that wasn't my boy. oh yeah, i have the cover photo from the "Anotha Black Sunday" LP with Moodymann's face on it but no text which is awesome because no one knows who it is.

i definitely support the wearing of shirts that are unrelated to the music being played at the event. though i did recently wear my UR shirt to a techno gig which got me many many positive comments from fuckheads that i am sure couldn't name one track of theirs. unintentionally irritating, but it helped since i was handing out flyers for an upcoming gig.....

oh yeah, i also rock shirts for record shops now, especially the local pittsburgh shops when i am going record shopping out of town.

Are label shirts are the trend nowadays? I saw two young guys in a restaurant recently...they were both wearing musical shirts of some kind, one of them was a Trojan Records shirt, and it struck me "hmm...a label t-shirt...that's kindof an interesting thing" I don't remember there even being any label t-shirts back in the day. Some wonderful goth put the 4AD logo on the back of their black leather jacket, though, and it was a sight to behold.

What's wrong with being a big fan of a band and wearing a t-shirt to one of their gigs? I refuse to be embarassed about that. Band T-shirts are to wear and be seen in and compare with other fans, even. Those people out there who might think I'm uncool for wearing one are not the people I'm concerned about.

One of my favorite memories of Area:One at The Gorge was walking around and seeing the entire history of New Order represented in tour and album tee shirts.

i buy band shirts at shows (but never tour shirts) and i make sure i buy a shirt for a record store when the employees start calling me by name