There’s a corrollary. It’s “Don’t buy/wear concert tees if you’ve got more common sense than cash”.
I mean, ANY concert on a guy’s shirt says “I am SO good at managing my money that I think shoveling five thousand pennies into the coffers of Ticketmaster is a good idea… and THEN, because I’m not a big enough idiot yet, I spend twice-what-it’s-worth on a shirt”.
Now, if it’s one of my Rusted Root or Widespread Panic shirts, people will just assume I was wasted at the time…
Oh, just thought of a weird twist on this. What about a homemade hat?
I was at an Interpol concert that turned out to be one of those “I might as well be listening to a CD for a third of the price” gigs. So I ducked out, ran to the variety store on the corner, and bought a stack of ball caps in weird colors (for $3 each!) and some Sharpies.
Spent the rest of the concert drawing/writing all over the caps-- Interpol logos, tour dates, snippets of lyrics, and stuff like INTERPOL: The Band That Would Never Put A Teal Giraffe On Their Licensed Merchandise, right next to… well, you get the idea.
The hats ended up looking pretty cool. So as I got done with a few, I’d take a break, sneak up to a side balcony, and frisbee them out over the crowd. Now, I heard that people were grabbing them, sharing them, shaking their heads in them, and thinking they’d gotten something cool for free.
But what does this “There are rules to t-shirts” crowd think? Lame or cool?
– I just thought, what if someone here has one of The Hats? Ok, has it been sitting in your sock drawer since the summer of Ought-Eight?Go ahead. I can take it…
Homemade gear is cool. I don’t know that I’d wear your caps, digs, but that’s 'cause I’m a design snob. You’d have to be a hell of an artist to make something I’d go for. But still, several of my best shirts are “unofficial” fan creations.
Are T-shirts at big concerts really $50 these days? I can’t say I’m surprised, but I don’t make it to many arena-size shows anymore so I hadn’t thought about it in a while.
Just because you see someone with a band’s T-shirt on, it doesn’t mean he paid that kind of money for it. Most of the ones I see are $20, or $25 at the most.
Good god, and I thought the people who worried about your socks and shoes being the same color had too much time on their hands. I mean, we’re not talking about someone turning up in a 3-piece suit; we’re talking about someone in a sea of people in jeans and t-shirts wearing…well, a t-shirt. People actually pay attention to this when they could be drinking beer and, you know, listening to the music?
The “five thousand pennies” was a reference to ticket prices. Of course ticket prices vary enormously. I’ve never seen a t-shirt of any kind sold for $50 anywhere.
Seriously. Are Joan and Melissa Rivers standing around outside of concert venues now? I’ve never heard of these “rules” in California before, even though the hipster douche ratio is on the high side around here. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a concert in my life where I didn’t wear the band’s shirt, along with the majority of the crowd.
My crowning achievement had to be at the Heaven And Hell concert in '07. Being too cheap to buy an actual tour shirt, I bought some of those iron-on sheets you run through your printer, found a nice hi-res scan of the Mob Rules album cover on the internet, printed it up and ironed it on to one of these. It was just like when I saw KISS in '79 wearing an iron-on shirt of the Dynasty album from the t-shirt shop at the mall. Take that Joan and Melissa!
Yeah, I didn’t think anyone was actually trying to tell other people what they can and cannot wear. It’s just a bit of light fashion humor, people.
(Says the guy wearing the Uruguay 2010 World Cup home shirt.)
[hamlesss rant]
It’s worth noting that the indignant protestations over wearing “whatever the hell I want” is just another brand of hipster cool. Go ahead and break the rules guys. You are all individuals and you won’t let society tell you what to do. I for one am impressed.
[/harmless rant]
For the rest of us who aren’t quite that cool by observing concert decorum which makes us simple slaves to trends or hipster douchebags or whatever…
As for the concert T-shirt rules, as my age has advanced I’ve noticed that the rules flat-out change when you hit 35 or so. The 40 something dude I just saw at a Rush concert looked a little extra ridiculous in his Orzic Tentacles tee…just trying a bit to hard for his age. The better option here is just accept that you’re a old guy, and wear a Rush shirt. Preferably not the brand new one you just bought. Trying to be too cool at these dinosaur band shows looks more like a desperate attempt at trying to be cool, and you might have been cool 5 years ago, but you should be growing past this nonsense by now. The “cool” thing to do is accept it.
Jam bands shake these rules up a lot. Communicating how cool you are though T-shirts is the language of the land. In fact, it’s probably the number 1 ice breaker (outside of selling stuff) in the parking lot scene. My HST “Gonzo” shirt went a long way this summer. Also, girls at summer jam band shows seem to avoid t-shirts altogether in favor of higher fashions such as summer dress, decorative tank tops and (for the daring) bikini tops.
Somewhat related…If you go to Radio City to see Trey Anastasio perform with a orchestra, it’s appropriate to dress up a bit, but remain shaggy & unshaven. You should not wear a T-shirt to this show.
Wearing a Soul Coughing shirt to see Mike Doughty? Surprisingly not cool. Took me by surprise too. Mike Doughty shirts are fine everywhere though, except Radio City.
Question…If I wear a Sandman (comic book) T-shirt to an upcoming Amanda Palmer show (Who’s engaged to Neil Gaiman) is that cool? Or Geeky? Or Geeky Cool?
Exactly. Nobody really takes this stuff seriously, do they? The rules I pointed out before are simply my rules.
The rule I’ve set down for myself, now that I’m 35, is that I simply shouldn’t be wearing any band tee-shirts in public.
Question - Does the “Don’t Be That Guy” rule for concert t-shirt “ettiquete” pre-date the movie PCU?
Because one of the most popular quotes from that flick when it came out was Jeremy Piven’s character saying “Don’t be that guy” in relation to wearing the shirt of the band you’re there to see. Here’s the audio clip of the quote on YouTube.
Anyone here of this “rule” before 1994?
That’s where I picked it up. Words to live by…
How do you break that which does not exist?
Well, sure. Not as a “rule,” though–just an aesthetic judgment.
Lightweight pop movies like that rarely contain anything original; they codify/commodify notions that were already floating around.
Iron Maiden is the exception to the rule. When you’ve got a mascot as cool as Eddie the Head it’s perfectly acceptable to wear your own band’s shirt on stage.
But, but… all my kids’ friends like my Quarrymen shirt.
Hmmmm, maybe they think I’m old enough to have seen them live…
Yeah, apparently everybody who was on the standing area in the last three live concerts I’ve been to were “that guy”. People who were standing and bought a shirt would change into it and look for someone in the sitting area who was willing to play shirt-sitter for the other one.
And as for the sports single-logo rule, don’t tell that to any True Blood Fan of the kind of football that’s played with your feet.
I have always thought that this rule is about as stupid as a rule can get, so I was thrilled when I first watched my DVD of the Cream 2005 reunion concerts at Royal Albert Hall. Ginger Baker is clearly wearing a souvenir shirt from those concerts while playing at the concerts. Take that, rule-makers!
Ah, Pittsburgh. Where one can wear a Steelers jersey to a wedding without anyone making a fuss.
Especially if it’s a shirt you got the guy at the mall to make for you before the show:
It’s a good tune, though.
Everything about them says, ‘studio musician’. It’s like their writing a textbook on how not to act when you get your big break on TV. Be sure to stay for the big finish! (thumbs-up!)
You got a problem with dat? 
