Wednesday
May282025
It Is Fine To Wear The Shirt Of The Band You Are Seeing In Concert
Wednesday, May 28, 2025 at 12:28PM Damnit, I will die on this hill: it is perfectly fine to wear the shirt of the band you are seeing in concert. Like, why wouldn't you wear a Metallica shirt to see the Blackened ones? I don't know who made up this stupid concert "rule" but I'm over it.
I have lots and lots of band shirts. There are definitely shows where I go out of my way to wear a shirt in support of the band.
Is the whole goal here to brag and show off all the band shirts a person owns? Like, what is the point? As for the cartoon below, yes, I've been that person sifting through 15 different black shirts just to pick the "right" one.
Reader Comments (8)
In my day (back before the tent and the baldness and the age) I had every conceivable sort of concert shirt. When they got worn out, I actually would cut out the cool picture and stick it on my wall (again, before the tent). There they were--Doro, Dio, Maiden, Crue, and Rick Astley--in all their tattered glory.
Nowadays, not much of a fan of branded shirts. Retro shirts also make me cringe for some reason. And concert shirts cost way, way too much. I'd rather buy a set of picks, or a drumstick, or maybe a concert poster.
But, again, if you want to do so, that seems like a perfectly fine thing to me. Might even give you the 'smoker's nod' as you walk past if it is a particularly cool band shirt.
Thing is, this could have been a bit more fun. Consider wearing a "give Bob Daisley his money and recognition" shirt to the last Sabbath show? That might be fun. Or maybe a Megadeth shirt to a 'Tallica concert? Who'd notice, though, as their phones' screen glare would obscure it? For me, though, the greatest shirt-show (get it? nudge, nudge?) would be wearing a Fastway shirt to a Flogging Molly show!!! That guy would probably drop his brogue (next to the harp, where it would then fall into a field of shamrocks) and start whining like Waldo in the "Hot for Teacher" video.
I recently went to a Doors Tribute show and wore a Madonna Shirt.
At the last M3, I wore a Pretty Boy Floyd shirt to the David Lee Roth show (PBF weren't on this years lineup)
And, every year, I go to a Tribute festival in New Jersey on the beach at Seaside Heights...AKA "The Jersey Shore" location and the proceeds of this festival is donated to those in D/A recovery.
New Jersey has legal, recreational marijuana. The first year I went, I asked on Facebook if the event will be "pro-420" and the promoter responded, 'ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!" The festival is fantastic, but it's a far cry from what I thought was going to be festival promoting a D/A free lifestyle (with speakers in between each act talking about their recovery) and the first Band was a Carol King tribute to her critically acclaimed album, Tapestry. For VIP's, there was an open bar. Non-VIP's had a cash bar and the smell of Marijuana permeated the air from dawn till dusk. In between sets, I walked on the boardwalk and bought a shirt with a pot leaf and pro-marijuana slogan, which I now wear each year to this event.
"shirt-show", him? you had me spit out some coffee.
Instead of Fastway at Flogging Molly, I am a Devout Atheist (I know, it's a paradoxical term, if not 'a bit" oxy-moronic), yet I wear a shirt of "The Almighty Jesus Christ" with the slogan, "Disappointments All of You". When people ask me about it, I reply, "I'm atheist, yet act more Christian than people I know who claim to be "Christian".
The shirt has Jesus with his arms outstretched.
Peace/rock on.
I once wore a Cinderella shirt to a Cinderella show but it was a DISNEY Cinderella shirt!
I got a lot of side eye looks like I was clueless but also got a lot of laffs from people who realized it was a joke!
It was a great study in sociology to see peoples reactions.