When attending a concert, it is important to realize that one has the unique opportunity to showcase his/her musical tastes and expertise. This is not by way of one’s knowledge of the bands on stage, comprehension of music theory, or the ability to beautifully sing along to every song in perfect harmony. No, one’s musical understanding is best expressed by the T-shirt that he/she has painstakingly chosen to wear. There are few other ways that one can show to his/her peers that he/she is truly down with the current scene and deserving of the upmost respect. This seemingly simple choice from one’s wardrobe can open a wide variety of opportunities such as gaining admiration, making a friend, or even getting the opportunity to converse with a member of the band.
With so much at stake, it is important to choose the best T-shirt for the concert being attended while avoiding the numerous pitfalls that await the un-savvy dresser. As such, I have crafted a list of twenty concert T-shirt options, ordered from worst to best, to help when making such an important decision.
Note: This list is only intended to help showcase your musical expertise and not to help showcase your sense of humor, intelligence, status as a badass, etc. As such, this list will only be addressing music related T-shirts and will not address other T-shirt alternatives such as the college/university, political, humorous, intentionally controversial, explicit, or socially aware T-shirts.
Alright, on to the list:
#20: Feuding /Rival Band – Starting at #20 is the T-shirt of a band with which the current concert band that you are seeing is feuding. This is definitely a faux pas. Before going to a concert, it is extremely important to research rivalries between bands. Some simple Internet searching can result in a wealth of information regarding inter-band relationships. Wearing a T-shirt of a feuding/rival band will, at very least, indicate to others that you are not a true fan and, most likely, cause some type of confrontation resulting in a war of words…or a fat lip.
#19: Sell-Out – Only slightly better than #20. This category of T-shirt encompasses any band considered by patrons of the current concert to be a sell-out, no longer cool, never cool, never properly considered to be part of the genre, or “Top 40”. Stay away at all costs.
#18: T-shirt Bought at Current Concert – I know you’re excited about your new T-shirt, but really? Despite what you think, wearing this T-shirt does not make you cool, since everyone at the concert that has $20 can get it. This includes any shirt that you bought at the current concert including a general “Tour” T-shirt or a T-shirt of any band currently performing. The only circumstance where it is acceptable to wear a T-shirt that you just bought at the merch table is if, upon entering the concert, you receive new information that makes you realize that the band on your current T-shirt falls into one of the Feuding/Rival Band (#20) or Sell-Out (#19) categories. Otherwise, wait until you get home to put it on.
#17: Current Concert Band – Based on what I’ve seen it might surprise some people, but it is not generally acceptable to wear the T-shirt of a band that you are seeing at the current concert. Everyone already knows that you’re a fan…you’re already at the concert. So what are you trying to say? That you’re a super fan? The point of wearing a band’s T-shirt at a concert is to provide additional insight into your musical aptitude. This will not happen if you wear the T-shirt of the band up on stage. Additionally, you run the risk of wearing a T-shirt that is currently being sold at the show, giving the impression of #18. If you must wear a T-shirt of the current concert band, there are two somewhat acceptable situations which I will address later in #13 and #12.
#16: Current Concert Band Frontman – This is a T-shirt only illustrating the frontman/frontwoman of the current concert band. A little better than Current Concert Band, since you are putting some effort in it, but still suffers from the problems of #17. Besides, the frontman/frontwoman inherently gets more glory than the rest of the band, which might already be sparking jealousy in the other band members. Your T-shirt is only adding fuel to the fire. The last thing that you want to do is give the frontman/frontwoman a big head and start a fight between bandmates. This category is also intended to encompass the rare situation where another individual in the current concert band is the focus of the T-shirt (i.e. guitarist, drummer, etc.).
Note: This is not addressing bands that are basically only a frontman/fronwoman, such as Ozzy Osborne. In such a case, this category does not apply but wearing an Ozzy shirt would be subject to #18 and #17. If at an Ozzy show, better options would be to wear a Randy Rhoads T-shirt (#7-to be addressed later) or a Black Sabbath T-shirt (#3-to be addressed later).
(To be continued…)
Filed under: Music | 6 Comments
Tags: Concerts, T-shirt
Are you saying you didn’t like that I wore my Joshua Radin tee shirt to the Killswitch Engage concert then? Maybe you should create an “exceptions” category for people who have no other clothes clean
and a category for groupies. they ONLY have band t-shirts, i think.
Hmm…I might need to extend my list. Maybe Joshua Radin would fall under “Unrelated” or “Unknown to Current Genre”?
“Unknown to current genre and therefore awesome and mysterious”= NEW CATEGORY
screw concert t shirt etiquette! who cares if you are wearing the shirt of the band playing that you are seeing, its called being a fan! its only emo kids and scene kids who give a toss! grow up and grow some!
I feel as though you may be missing the tone of the post. However, since you mentioned growing up, am I correct in sensing an overgeneralized criticism of emo and scene kids?