Wearing a band's t-shirt to one of their concerts: Classic or Dud?

I guess I'm too old to care about the answer to this question. show that you're a fan-- great! show that you like some other band--also fine. the only thing I don't want to see people wear at shows is tall hats.

But Milton Nascimento has a Milton Nascimento t-shirt for every day of the week and wears them in all kinds of social situations.

https://www.otempo.com.br/polopoly_fs/1.1449347.1534248225!httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/main-photo-multi-article-f1-resize_620/image.jpg]

https://cdn-ofuxico.akamaized.net/img/upload/noticias/2017/01/11/milton-1_284155_36.jpg

https://cdn.opantaneiro.com.br/img/pc/400/300/dn_noticia/2016/12/83466300958641700d7ce77.62428291.jpg

https://aloalobahia.com/images/p/milton_nascimento_salvador_alo_alo_bahia.png

It's like the one kid from your high school who only wore Metallica t-shirts, but it's Milton Nascimento and they're his own shirts. This is a whole other level of wearing your own shirt outside a venue. At first found this heroically clueless but now thinking it might be legendary, or both.

I will definitely wear the shirt for an opening band / support band to a show. Generally, these are my friends' bands, and it's also to show support for them, because a lot of people at the show will often be disrespectful or at least don't really give a fuck about the opening and support bands, but they are usually really stoked to be opening for the headliner.

It definitely depends on genre though -- I generally don't wear band shirts to goth shows because I dress up more.

The standard band shirt is way more designed for a cis-male body than a cis-female one. I have recently done this thing where I will decorate band shirts I already own and make alterations to them so that they are more flattering on my, uh, feminine attributes, and for some of the shirts, they are a bit too tight in the stomach, so I've done alterations so that I look less fat while wearing them.

also re: wearing opening band shirts -- if you got in free to the show because a friend in one of the opening bands put you on the list, wearing their shirt to the show is often a very considerate thing to do!

Lately I've been wearing my Tropical Fuck Storm shirt to most concerts I go to, mostly because I'm too shy to wear it to the grocery.

Also, the guy with the 100% perfect Dr. Rockso cosplay at the Dethklok/Mastodon show is the only true head I've ever seen.

Milton Nascimento can and should do whatever he wants obv.

Re T. Swift

or in costume based on inspirations from her song lyrics

Yes and I only wear short skirts to her concerts now.

i hear she also sells pillows with pics of her cats on them

this is p much a hipster thing, you don’t wear the shirt of the band in order to affect like you go to shows all the time and are just corporally and spiritually ensconced in live music all the time

Milton Nascimento can and should do whatever he wants obv.

You're right, the man is a godlike genius whose every 'aheee, ahee-iya-iya-iya-eee-e' is like a divine transmission from the heavens, who am I to question him? Not sure what I was even thinking.

this is p much a hipster thing, you don’t wear the shirt of the band in order to affect like you go to shows all the time and are just corporally and spiritually ensconced in live music all the time

mmmm maybe somewhat? But also not entirely.

Yeah that's wrong. It's just too enthusiastic and earnest to wear the band's t shirt to their show. Too irony poisoned to even contemplate such a thing

If you are framing it in a hipster context, then it definitely depends on the band, where they are in the line up, how long they have been in existence ... people have already touched on examples upthread. It's not worth the effort of reiterating discussions and conclusions reached over a decade ago in our many "hipster studies" threads, often chaired by Dr. Whiney PhD

brimstead otm to a large extent, ime many of the people I have met who most vocally clown on concertgoers wearing the bands shirt back it up with "its so corny that they're so excited, were they writing the bands logo on their trapper keeper all day lol", obviously trying to put across a front of jaded connoisseurship, as if they themselves just happen to find themselves at this show and who knows, if its not totally boring maybe they'll stick around

nb I dont classify this as a hipster thing but nearly universal across genres/scenes, the phenomenon of snotty ppl who need to flex at shows by complaining about other concertgoers not measuring up to their standards of fandom

geez, do we have a new generation of ilxors who need to take Intro to Hipster Studies .... *sigh*

wearing a hipster studies tshirt rn

The biggest problem with this ‘rule’ is that I nearly always want to buy a shirt of one of the bands playing. If I’d do this after the show and walk around all evening in my supposedly cooler other shirt first, the good/fitting merch is all gone so I buy my shirt as soon as I’m in the venue. So I can never be that trve dude.

when I saw Datarock I bought a shirt first and wore it over my other shirt (what else was I gonna do with it?) and the singer noticed and brought me on stage so, that was cool

xxp - what kind of dog is on the front?

hipster puppy, obv

the breed! what breed of dog! geez

I threw all my old metal shirts out and regret it all the time. I had so many cool death metal shirts and it breaks my heart. I'm gradually buying them back (replacements, not my old ones).

My uncool t-shirt story: first gig I ever went to (the fucking Quireboys at the Hammersmith Odeon) I bought a t-shirt and went to the toilet and put it on.

unless there are like four dogs of different breeds sitting like good bois with a brick wall behind them.

I have a small holdall in the loft with a collection of band tshirts that are "not to go the journey". All are pretty cool, all bands I like, but also because I like(d) the t-shirt over all.

I also have a few 'down' that I wear but rarely. 808 state, a Moondog one, and a couple of Beatles ones I get as Xmas pressies you get the picture.

I tend not to wear them to gigs though. One time accompanying Alice to Reading Festival when she wasn't quite oldenough to go on her own, pondered which would make me not look like "accompanying dad". Decided on a paislyish shirt in a "if you can't join 'em, beat' em" style. Actually, the pic is still on our fridge!

Some bands like Kiss and the Grateful Dead are more about the merch, they are fashion/lifestyle brands as much as anything else. I had a Kiss shirt when i was 9 years old but never owned any of their records or attended a show. To this day, I've only heard about 3 of their songs. For pre-teen me, all the mystique around Kiss or the Dead was shattered the moment I heard a note of their music.

depends on how old the kid is.

Hafta admit I’m not big on adults dressing little kids in band gear, when the kids are too young for the band (but put whatever you want on your kid, who am I to object).

i think it's cute, unless the band is "problematic" -- there are so many other aesthetically objectionable wardrobe options for children, a babby-sized Ramones t-shirt is okay in comparison.

was at a toddler birthday party where one of the 3 year old guests was wearing a swans t shirt

Ugh. “Aren’t mommy & daddy cool?”

I judge these the same way I judge it for adults: if I like the band its cool & ok and if I don't, its lame

depends on how old the kid is.

― sarahell, Friday, February 14, 2020 3:38 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

What? No, it depends how cool the shirt is!

Saw like a 3 year old being carried around by his fully metal parents outside a Maryland Death Fest venue wearing a little jean battle jacket with Exodus and Jungle Rot backpatches. It was cute.

I always love shit like that

Metal jacket with patches is cute to me but swans t shirt is obnoxious somehow (even setting aside gira rape accusations)

I like Swans but def agree that one is not a good look for the parents.

maybe the kid likes swans (the bird)?

also p rapey iirc

^golf clap for this

I concede that a universal, fashion-y logo like Queen isn’t so bad (or even, I guess, the Ramones). The “cooler,” the worse, IMO

My friend got his one year old a Napalm Death onesie

Yeah I mean the crux of a lot of this is pretentious v. unpretentious.

Oft told story, but:

Alice - Ramones t-shirt - "Rock&roll high school" "oh OK then I'll go get the t-shirt"

dressing your toddler in a 'jesus is a cunt' cradle of filth shirt and dropping him off at a birthday party, pretentious or unpretentious?

Well, I think the idea that wearing a band's t-shirt signifies your deep appreciation of their music is bit old fashioned.

wearing your own shirt onstage is classic, outside of a venue it can be touch & go but Milton Nasimento can 100% get away with it

LOL this is so late 70s Lou Reed

Yeah I mean the crux of a lot of this is pretentious v. unpretentious.

― circa1916, Saturday, February 15, 2020 12:49 AM (ten hours ago)

oh geez ... this is still a thing people are concerned about? Also, what qualifies as "pretentious" when the context is fashion for children of an age where their parents choose their clothes for them? However you dress your child is a signifier of something, it is a performance, a pretense. Really, "pretentious" in this context, seems to mean, a performance you dislike. There also seems to be a bunch of class-related stuff tied up in this too.

i wear shirts featuring bands on them to shows where that band is playing, fuck it. i like the band! when is a better time to wear the shirt?

lol @ Milton Nascimento upthread. What a legend

I don’t even wear other band t-shirts. Just don’t get it. But most prob I don’t want pple approaching me at gigs. Just fuck off, I’m here for the music, not trying to decipher the banter you’re spewing in my ears. (Yes, I’m an asshole. I already talk to enough ppl during the day.)

/Yeah I mean the crux of a lot of this is pretentious v. unpretentious.

― circa1916, Saturday, February 15, 2020 12:49 AM (ten hours ago) /

oh geez ... this is still a thing people are concerned about? Also, what qualifies as "pretentious" when the context is fashion for children of an age where their parents choose their clothes for them? However you dress your child is a signifier of something, it is a performance, a pretense. Really, "pretentious" in this context, seems to mean, a performance you dislike. There also seems to be a bunch of class-related stuff tied up in this too.