The concert t-shirt is common place now.
You can buy them at Target or Zumiez or online and sport your favorite bands without ever even having seen them in person.
I’m not being critical of this, I think it perfectly acceptable as long as you are not trying to pass yourself off as actually having been to the show. I myself have several. When I am at a show, paying $30 for shirt is usually a pass and I buy vinyl instead. But that’s just me.
When I buy a band shirt from a store, I am telling everyone… “Yeah, I’m wearing this Joy Division shirt (purchased from Zumiez) because I dig the band”. I have a Bob Marley shirt that shows him playing soccer. I love it. Never saw Bob Marley, but I love that shirt.
What about a shirt right from the band itself?
Cindy bought me this directly from The Smashing Pumpkins website. Check out the official imprint inside. This is legit.
She also got me an official pint glass!
Which I posted on Instagram and smashingpumpkins REPOSTED! This is the kind of thing that makes my day. Booyah!
but I digress…
I looked up concert T-shirts on Wiki and found this nugget which I will quote to make clear the whole “don’t wear the shirt of the band you are seeing” that I often hear. Lol.
Wearing a concert T-shirt is a cultural signifier, with commentators identifying various reasons behind the choice to wear a particular one. For example, attending a band’s concert while wearing a T-shirt from one of the band’s tours long ago can give the wearer a certain prestige amongst other fans, it being indicative of the longevity of their support for the group.
P.S. Check out the photo Wiki uses to demonstrate fans wearing concert T-shirts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concert_T-shirt
Here is what I saw and reacted to that made me want to write this post in the first place.
I am disgusted by this.
Disgusted in the fact that this is like using your kid as a billboard for the bands that YOU like. I have seen others like this too… other bands and other sizes too. Onesies with Rolling Stones on them? Seen it.
Disgusted in the fact that I can see this even further removed from actually seeing the band. I didn’t see Nirvana, but my kid is gonna wear this to pre-school to show everyone that Dad of said kid is cool.
and the ultimate Disgust…
if I had seen stuff like this when MY kids were toddlers, or yeah, even younger…
I definitely would have bought it!
Even now I can envision a scenario where I, never having seen Nirvana, buy a Nirvana onesie for a kid who never saw Nirvana, to give to his kid who never saw Nirvana and is incapable of saying “thanks pop-pop” and who will point to a picture of themselves in it decades later and wonder just who the hell Nirvana is.
Sigh
The Aural Retentive 