Band T-shirt Etiquette

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

lol "Hoosical Steens"

"Are label shirts are the trend nowadays?

― More Goth Than Your Grandmother (Bimble)"

i think they've been a music nerd thing. i used to rock a Moon Ska shirt back in the day with the whole roster of the label listed on the back, that was an awesome shirt. i always wanted a Sub Pop one waaaayyyy back when but i never got one. it's a bit easier to love dance music labels in general, maybe because of relatively small numbers of releases?

this is pretty amazing. i couldn't believe it was real

http://www.primark.com/whats-new/article/186

Tenji Tosspot · Top commenter · Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

A good friend of mine, John, is a strident purist when it comes to band-related shirts. Unless he was actually at the show in question, he won't wear a concert shirt. Like myself, he's perturbed by the "rock ironic chic" trend of the last few years, but he's particularly offended by shirts displaying bands that, in all likelihood, probably never sold shirts in their heyday (i.e. he hates people wearing Velvet Underground shirts, as chances are, when the Velvets originally played out, they probably weren't hawking merchandise). Moreover, he won't wear shirts that merely display the band's name or logo -- it has to have originated at a show he himself attended, or he won't go near it. A friend gave him a Clash shirt with the COMBAT ROCK logo on it (John being a big Clash fan), and he politely thanked him, but refused it,
admitting that he'd never wear it.

I would like to read a short story or novella that used this as it's opening paragraph.

Ivor Porkbelly · Do what i want when i want at Semi Retired
Worn by chavs with no musical knowledge-Pathetic..

its opening paragraph

If someone is wearing a T-shirt of a band/artist you like, is there a-n-y appropriate or non-weird comment to make other than, “I like your shirt?”

Sure! I mean, I reckon comments related to the band in question are all appropriate, as long as you don't say something condescending or creepy or dick-like, i.e., don't say anything you wouldn't say in any other circumstances. I've had some nice conversations with people this way, and some of those people are my friends now!

I was at the grocery store a few months back wearing a Misfits shirt, and one of the cashiers asked me if I went to see them play recently on their reunion tour. ... Totally legit question.

that's a good one

or just point at the shirt and say "<band name>! hell yeah!"

I've gotten "I like your shirt" when it was clear the person saying it had no idea it was a band shirt, so if you're saying it because you do know and enjoy the musical act maybe follow up "nice shirt" with something about the band

if it's a thrift store/salvaged shirt and they aren't actually into the band, would recommend shrugging it off with "oh, that's cool"

I met my first two bfs in high school because I said I liked their tshirt of certain band. There has been other band t shirt passing conversation in my life, both ways. I don't think it's creepy though if it's sincere and you don't expect anything else from the comment.

A lot of my long term friendships started that way.

Weird one - I went to the movies last night with my Queensryche tour shirt from last year and the manager says "I love your shirt by the way", so I said thanks and he kept saying "Al Bundy" after and it looked like he was talking about my shirt to the guy next to him as he was still facing me and the other guy didn't know who Al Bundy was so he explained it.

Obv kinda confused as my shirt very much did not look like Al Bundy nor was he a Ryche fan. Thought maybe it was a side convo or he was making fun of my receding hairline but i was embarrassed and confused.

Already embarrassed i hand my ticket to the taker to scan only to be told it was for the wrong Regal cos I was an idiot when i bought the tickets.

Went home and locked my door.

me and my ex met when he complimented my punk jacket that I had adorned the back of with duct tape that said "Part-Time Punks" ... it was part conceptual and part because I liked that song. I don't think he was familiar with the song, but he liked the concept and in highschool he was the arty kid that drew flyers for his friends' punk bands' shows

For dudes like me who are mega shu sometimes it helps start a convo i wouldn't have been able to otherwise

granted, "arty kid" in that high school context meant being able to draw a variety of skulls with fine-point sharpie

https://data.whicdn.com/images/20497400/original.png

When The Occasion was still playing around NYC I once saw a friend wearing their tee and said "Nice shirt, what's The Occasion?" I'm still proud of that joke.

I have this cool Beach Boys "Black Flag" shirt:

https://www.misswit.net/images/product_image/Black_Flag_w_address.jpg

I love it for lots of reasons, but mostly because the Beach Boys and Blag Flag more or less hailed from the same place. Anyway, I love the Beach Boys but (tbh) have never really listened to Black Flag. I wore the Beach Boys shirt to Trader Joe's once, and the green haired dude working the register complimented me on it, then started talking about ... Black Flag. I kind of nodded along and made small talk, but, like, read the fine print!

My favorite shirt might be this Opeth shirt that some Egyptian fan translated and redesigned into cursive Arabic:

https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/84a36227805587.5636bbbe12a21.jpg

I like it because it's a cool design made cooler the more you know what's going on with it. Might wear it to the show tomorrow, not that anyone will know, because it will be like 7 degrees and no one sells Opeth sweaters or long underwear.

I also love my Grant McLennan shirt, for much the same reason. It's his last name, but designed to look like the Monkees logo. Though I once wore it out and someone thought it was a Phish logo.

I wore the Beach Boys shirt to Trader Joe's once, and the green haired dude working the register complimented me on it, then started talking about ... Black Flag.

As a (barely relevant) follow-up, I will note that I have regularly seen Henry Rollins shopping at Trader Joe's.

Was he wearing a shirt?

No shirt, no shoes, no service.

I had my peak "band shirt to gig" moment a few years back, went to see Mogwai here in Hobart (ass end of the earth) and thought you know what, my CAN "Future Days" t shirt is perfect so I wore that. By a chain of coincidences I ended up going out with Barry Burns and a few friends until about 4am. At one point in the evening Barry squints at my shirt and says, "I fuckin love your shirt man. Actually, I think CAN might be my favourite band of all time." This vindicated the shirt choice dilemma so perfectly that I could turn up to every gig for the rest of my life in a Ralph Lauren polo and still feel cool overall.

I've complimented two people wearing t-shirts of a band I am in and neither knew who I was

I have made lifelong friends by talking to people wearing interesting band shirts at gigs.

A teacher at my daughter’s preschool was wearing an Sweetener World Tour T-shirt… I told him “That’s so awesome!,” asked him which of the local shows he went to, etc.

He could not have been less f’in interested in having that conversation…

Also: I was at a stand-up show recently where a young woman in the front row was wearing an Iron Maiden T-shirt. The comic asked her - "Are you really a fan, or are you wearing it ironically?" She replied - "No, I'm really a fan." So he asked her what her favorite Maiden album is (they're one of his favorite bands).

There was a really long, awkward pause, and she finally said: "OK... you got me."

He cringed and was like, "You said you were a fan! I wasn't setting you up!"