Going to a few concerts and music festivals, made me think about band t-shirts, as you see a lot of them during this sort of events, and I made a compilation of a few observations.
Lots of people go to a show wearing the t-shirt of the band who’s gonna play. Is it too much? It looks like the perfect opportunity to wear that Fiona Apple’s tee, but if you are here, don’t we already know you’re a fan? Aren’t you afraid to look like a redundant dork? Some people pretend it is against the concert etiquette! Etiquette? That sounds ridiculous anyway, and I have been guilty of doing it! But it could become more interesting when you go to a concert wearing another’s band gear… I have been to a Polyphonic Spree’s show wearing a ‘Iggy and the Stooges’ tee, and, strangely the person next to me was a Iggy fan too.
Sometimes the musicians themselves wear their own tees! But I would say it totally depends, if it’s a small band, they are completely forgiven, if they are the Stones, it’s different and totally self-serving. I read somewhere that Iron Maiden are always doing this,… assholes!
T-shirts are part of fashion unfortunately, and I have seen too many Joy Division Ramones or Black Flag t-shirts lately to be convinced all these people were real fans of these bands. My bet is that most of them were wearing these shirts because they look cool, and that’s totally wrong! Stores such as Urban Outfitters, which carry band t-shirts as a fashion trend, are guilty of the same thing, and only bands should sell their own merchandize!
In general, I would say that people in my neighborhood are imaginative with their band shirts, you don’t see many Beatles, Stones, Hendrix and Marley tees or other big all-time classics these days, people will rather impress you and show you how deep into the underground local music scene or into Metal and punk bands they are, but when I see shirts showing tour dates older than the person who is wearing it, it looks kind of ridiculous.
There is a big t-shirt business, thrift and vintage shops are full of them and I own a few band shirts myself. But I have an ambiguous relationship with them in the sense that I wouldn’t wear them anywhere. It is a sort of paradox, since, if I like a band to the point to wear their moniker across my chest, you would think I would be proud to parade in public wearing the shirt? However I have always thought that talking too much about my musical tastes was too revealing, and almost too intimate for anyone out there to know about it; it becomes very personal, and exposes too much about me. So I have reluctantly worn my band t-shirts in public, and have ended wearing them mostly when I stay home, which, I know, sounds kind of ridiculous.