Yes, the shirt is WAY overpriced, and you have the right to openly bitch and act like the vendor is the one who set the price herself, but you are still going to buy it, so just suck it up and do so.
If they have multiple designs available, the first one you must buy is the one with the concert dates on the back (which will always be the most expensive). If the band is REALLY out to make a profit, they will have a specific shirt made for just that one city. If you choose to buy multiple shirts, THEN you can get the one with the album artwork on the front or back, and the one with a joke logo or whatever. Just remember that these are more often than not available from their website for much cheaper prices.
NEVER, EVER under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES are you to wear the shirt from that same band and same tour to the show. This especially includes the shirts you just bought.
You MAY wear an old, out of print concert shirt of the performing band to the show, but you won’t earn any points with the other fans unless it’s an authentic shirt from a really old tour.
As soon as the show is over, and you are off the property, THEN you may wear the shirt you just bought. However, if anyone on the subway/bus/reststop/etc asks if you just saw that band, then you are to give a smartass answer about how everybody around you is coincidentially wearing the same band’s shirt.
You are also to wear the shirt to work/school the next day. In THIS case, you are expected to brag about how awesome/awful the show was and give whoever asks way too many details.
Pretty much the only profit that the opening act earns is from merchandise sales, and chances are they will remind you over and over of this. Therefore, think wisely about whether or not you want to support them, or if you just want to throw more money at the act you really came to see.
Please, for the love of God, stop wearing that backstage pass you got when you saw that band 5 years ago. Unlike your vintage shirt, it isn’t going to win you any fan points, and it’s just going to piss off security, who will assume you’re trying to sneak in.
If you didn’t buy the tshirt, you weren’t at the show. End of story.
4a. To really score fan points, you have to wear a concert shirt from before anybody had ever heard of the band, or 20 years ago, whichever is latest. Bonus points for: autographs on shirt, “special” stains on shirt, and any artwork which depicts band members who have since died.
4b. And for top points, you can wear an old shirt from the previous band that a member of the current band was in before joining said current band. (Bonus points if you can work this into conversation, such as: “Sure, the Dropkicks are good, but I thought Al Barr was better in the Bruisers.”)
4b. Actually, total top points are for a shiert where group that disbanded after one concert. “Yeah, I was at that concert and I wish they had all stayed together.”
I had not heard of this rule, until the concert where I committed this crime. When my friend told me when I showed up there with the shirt on, I kind of shrugged it off. But then when I heard the people in front of us randomly mentioning the same rule (I don’t think they’d seen me wearing it, I think it was just a coincidence), I was mortified. I became so self-conscious, I couldn’t even really enjoy the concert.
Of course, I was much younger then, and cared a lot more about what people thought of me. Today, probably not so much. But still. Someone should have made these rules clear to me years and years ago, damnit.
ETA: Actually, technically, I didn’t break this exact rule. The shirt I had on was not from the same tour, it was just a generic shirt for the same band. And I had not just purchased it. But still.
Actually, you are allowed to wear a new shirt if it’s one that you just bought, fresh off the merch table. If you happen to get there early, fight your way through the masses for the joy of paying $50 for a t-shirt you can get for $5 sans logo, you don’t want to hold it in your hand the whole night while running around the mosh pit. So, you throw it on, and hope that there’s enough cotton in that “cotton-blend” to soak up the sweat. That’s A-OK where I’m from.
You are violating the Sports Corollary to the rule, which is: never wear more than one (1) instance of a sports team logo on your body at any given time. So, if you’re wearing the Yankees jersey, don’t wear the hat, and vice versa. Tattoos don’t count, though.
Yeah, that’s how it worked around here. Don’t come to the show wearing a shirt for the band(s) you’re about to see, but it’s okay-- and practical-- to put on the shirts that you buy at the concert. It was obvious to those around you that the shirt came from that show, so they knew you hadn’t violated dress code by arriving in it. For child-friendly shows, though, it’s almost de rigeur to put your baby or child in garb acknowledging the band.
At large music festivals, it’s kosher to wear shirts for years previous; you could wear a 1993 Lollapalooza shirt to later Lollapaloozas. The rules were also relaxed at these shows regarding the shirts-of-the-band-playing; in large festivals, it’s okay to identify as a fan of one of the bands, especially if you want to make sure people know you’re not there for one of the other bands.
I’m afraid the rules have fallen into disuse; it’s rather like the fall of the Roman Republic out here in the real world. Every show I go to, everyone’s wearing the band’s t-shirt. Everyone is “that guy,” except for me. I’m usually wearing some super-geeky Wondermark t-shirt asking Где мой слон? (вот он, в центре!) or the second coming of Lincoln or whatevs. It’s kinda sad.
You can earn extra points by wearing “genre cred” shirts from other bands (e.g. wearing your Pixies tour shirt to a Sonic Youth concert). This gives the impression that the band playing is so good that they have attracted the elite fans from other bands to witness the excellence.
I recall from my prime concert-going years (which are, sadly, long since passed) that the best t-shirts were always the ‘unauthorized’ ones being sold by the guys in the parking lot. They were extra crappy quality-wise, but bought extra cred because there was no way you could have bought them anywhere else but the concert.
Basically, if the shirt says “2010 tour on it”, you can’t wear it to any 2010 shows. I’d keep it safe in a drawer until at least 2015, just to be safe. I don’t write the rules, I only enforce them.
And yes, I actually did get into a fight with a girl at my high school who didn’t believe I was at the Tom Petty show last night (way back in 1995) because she was wearing the tshirt and I wasn’t, even though I could describe the details of the set a lot better than she could…and then her friends backed her up that if I was there, I would have worn a tshirt to school the next day.
Forgot one:
if you are IN THE BAND, for Christ’s sake do not wear your own damn band’s shirt on stage. Iron Maiden, I’m looking your way.
