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

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.

If I see a toddler at a show in a Swans shirt, I'm calling them a little fucking poser, and I don't care if they cry.

I wear band T-shirts (usually not for the band I’m seeing but maybe I have? Idk) and don’t care what other people are wearing at the show. It’s rare that a stranger talks to me without me talking to them first so that’s not a problem and the people I do talk to don’t give me shit for what I’m wearing so I don’t really see what the problem is. If someone is so uptight about me not knowing some invisible rules I’d sooner just avoid them than try to please them. Snobbery is very boring imo.

Sarahell otm about this idea that pretentious = a performance that makes you u comfortable for some reason (reasons may differ)

I think the difference when someone is using their kids to express their own personality/taste is that the kids aren’t really consenting to be part of the “performance,” they’re sort of being used as a prop. (It’s not a high crime or anything, though.)

I doubt they put that much thought into it

I found out that chemlab reformed when I told a random dude I liked his shirt. That was cool

where do you all stand on shirts for babies that have words on them

like, “This Is My Resting Burp Face”?

"Fuck the Police"

https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1YuhIfXuWBuNjSspnq6x1NVXaA/Hot-Casual-Kids-Baby-Boy-Girl-Novelty-RAP-T-shirt-COOL-Summer-Tee-Tops-1-6Y.jpg_q50.jpg

I just meant words in general not specifically unfunny memey stuff but I’m just trolling anyway

https://res.cloudinary.com/teepublic/image/private/s--Jm2Ni35h--/t_Resized%20Artwork/c_crop,x_10,y_10/c_fit,w_470/c_crop,g_north_west,h_626,w_470,x_0,y_0/g_north_west,u_upload:v1462829017:production:blanks:qe3008lhp5hquxmwp4a0,x_-395,y_-325/b_rgb:eeeeee/c_limit,f_jpg,h_630,q_90,w_630/v1509003454/production/designs/2001556_1.jpg

i will agree that graphic tees with text worn by anyone who's not old enough to read are almost always kinda lame

I bought mine for my son last year.

Then I remembered I don't have kids

I’m just hoping nobody steals my “Resting Burp Face” idea, before I have a chance to jump on Etsy.

I mean... putting a Swans shirt on yr kid vs. a Ramones shirt or something signifies a certain smugness that can be discussed without having to unpack complex class issues ffs.

"A certain smugness" definitely sounds like code for "class issues" to me. I'm assuming there are a variety of types of smugness one can signal via clothing one's child: see the above images other people have posted. Maybe you have problems with those "lower class" items as well, and are only mentioning the band shirts because this is a thread about band shirts? I don't want to make assumptions.

i always love when the kid sees the pic years later and loudly proclaims that band sucks balls

I'm kinda creeped out by children dressed in fuzzy hoodie pajamas with animal ears and tails and less bothered by alt.rock.babby ... like, maybe your kid will grow up to be a fan of Swans or the Ramones. Your kid will not grow up to be a bear or a bunny rabbit.

not with that attitude

okay, maybe they need to make animal fuzzy pajamas with ears, tails, and the Animal Collective logo on the chest. Then we can join together in hating it.

kid-tested, ILX-disowned

sarahell, I am not understanding yr class-based analysis of these t-shirts at all(?)

which shirts?

xp hahaha

any of them!

when you see these shirts, do you think about what kind of parent(s) buy this for a child and dress their child in said garment? Do you perceive that the same parent could dress their kid in a Swans shirt one day and a "Troll hair don't care" shirt the next?

I feel like we've had hundreds of threads about this or related topics ... maybe someone can just link them?

"Promiscuous"

xp Yes, I do perceive that. I don’t really see different “class markers” in any of these shirts

Ok, don’t wanna open a can of worms if this is something that’s been talked out elsewhere

eh, it's just that in ILX's 20 year history, undoubtedly someone, or ilx collectively through discussion, has articulated this better than I would at 10am on a Sunday.

I will say this (to add color to my own p.o.v.): occasionally, I’ll see a Very Metal or Goth couple whose kid is dressed in a totally normie toddler style (conventional, colorful clothes), and I’ll think — cool, they’re on my wavelength; they’re not using their child as a canvas to express their own unique style, they’re letting him or her make that choice layer.

*later

(also want to stress, once again, that I don’t go around judging very harshly how anyone dresses their kid; I would just roll my eyes a bit at something like the Swans edge case.)

do you know the kid made that choice? Did you ask it?

all I'm getting at is -- we can find any mode of dressing a kid to be annoying and smug, even all the ways ... but the specific annoyance at Swans shirt babby, does seem to have class connotations.

Kids should be naked to respect their right to choose