Your first concert shirt

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You finally talked Mom into letting you go to a rock concert, and you bought the shirt... what was the first shirt? How much did you pay? Do you still own it? What's the oldest "rock" shirt you own, then?

― Andy in Oakland, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Cure sometime in 1988-1990. Can't remember exactly. Giants Stadium, featuring the Pixies, Love & Rockets, and the not to be missed Shellyann Orphan. The shirt commememorated the show itself, it was a fake. Purchased in the parking lot after the show. Badly silkscreened Robert on a cheap white t. Some blurry writing. Had it for years, because it washed up so well and fit perfectly. T-shirts that really fit are so hard to find...

― Rufus King, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Buzzcocks t-shirt.

― cuba libre (nathalie), Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hall and Oates, 1984 -- perfect for my 13-year-old self as I was. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I remember seeing some shady looking dudes selling bootleg shirts in the parking lot of a Replacements show... just a cheesy print on the front and then on the back "LIVE CONCERT TOUR" in puffy flocked letters, for like $6. I didn't buy one.

― Andy, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hall and Oates, 1984

You don't get to taunt me about anything ever again.

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

First one I bought was Lollapalooza 2 (actually, that was the first show I ever went to) at Shoreline. It was probably like 25 or 30 bucks! I don't still own it, I think I lost it somewhere in Europe. The oldest one I still own is a homemade (not by me) Screamers shirt. I also have an Angry Samoans shirt I got from Metal Mike through ebay and a Hellacopters shirt. That's about it.

― Kris, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The first concert shirt I owned was a Metallica shirt from the And Justice For All era. I didn't go to the show, though. I bought it at the mall. The first shirt I ever got at a show was from The Cult's Sonic Temple tour. I don't have either one anymore.

I think the oldest shirt I currently still own is a Versus shirt from about the time of the Secret Swingers tour. I threw out a lot of my t-shirts when I got a job and had to make space for "real" clothes.

― paul, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You don't get to taunt me about anything ever again.

Don't give me that. I've already said my first ever concert was .38 Special with Night Ranger opening -- something which the Staind fan in you would approve of, I'm sure. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

A black Devo shirt (simply emblazoned with the four letters on the front) purchased at Radio City Music Hall on Halloween of 1981. They were on the "New Traditionalists" tour. I have no earthly idea how much I payed for it (and also bought a shiny red energy dome). Still have the energy dome, but the shirt is long gone (outgrew it, alas).

The oldest rock shirt I currently own, however, is a yellow Circle Jerks shirt that dates back to `82 or so that once belonged to a friend of mine. The design is Shawn Kerri's illustration of a moshpit. It's wafer thin now, unfortunately, and waaaayyyy too form fitting to actully wear anymore.

― Alex in NYC, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ned has nothing to feel guilty about... unless that was the GE Smith era of H&O.

― Andy K, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Might have been, I remember some yank-'em-crank-'em guitarist.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It was The soup dragons at Blackburn King Georges hall in early 86. I've still got the T-shirt (£6.50 i think) The ticket stub and tragically, the bootleg tape.

I also have a Groove farm "I know its only indie pop but I like it" T shirt from a gig a few weeks later which I must have worn 1000 times and it still hasn't faded.

I've also got a Chesterfields T-shirt which was swapped from a member of Thrilled skinny for 3 pints of Guinness.

This doesn't really count but I've got a long sleeved sweatshirt with pictures of vegetables on it and the words "Vegetables understand" which was signed by Mark E Smith, Craig Scanlon and the man who designed it, Edward Barton who was a sort of face around town in Manchester in the late 80's.

Kris.

― Kris England, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The first one I actually bought at a show was a Husker Du shirt, for $12... that seemed like a fortune! It was at the Fillmore. But I just saw some pictures of a very dour-looking 15 year old me at Disneyland, in black phonays, wearing a black Joy Divison shirt that was way too small. I don't think I'd ever heard them, it was just one of those "rock shirts" they used to package like LP's, and you could buy for $5.99 or something.

― Andy, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I bought my first and only one like 8 months ago, at a Mouse on Mars show. I think it was $10. I left it at a friend's house & now it's gone. Concert Tees just weren't in the cards for me.

― Mark, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

jackson 5 reunion tour in 1985 !!!

― chaki, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Roxy Music "The High Road" tour shirt, I believe it was 1983; it's a small back when smalls were small... it looks killer on me today, but only wear it occaisionally since it's getting threadbare.

― Sean, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Depeche Mode, from the Black Celebration tour, '85 or '86. It's a little small for me now.

The earliest one I still wear all the time is the Cure, from the Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me tour, '87.

― Douglas, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mine was a Lilith Fair babydoll tee shirt.... laugh away. ; )

― lyra in seattle, Thursday, 16 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Who. Bootleg shirt from the "Farewell Tour" (The first one.) Shrinks when you wash it - all faded & shit.

"Black Concert T-Shirt" by Chem Dyne, Cincinnati 1985:
"I went to a concert
at the coliseum
Black Concert T-Shirts
Man you should've seen 'em

Well my friend bought one
I said, "How much did it cost man?"
He said, "Fourteen-fifty"
I said, "You're real smart, pal"

He bought a black concert T Shirt
He bought a black concert T Shirt
It was Black
It was from a concert
It was a T Shirt
He bought a black concert T Shirt

Metallica
Dokken
Black Concert T Shirts
There's one for every band!

Well you get your size
But it never fits
And it shrinks when you wash it
All faded n shit

Well it's a black concert T Shirt
Well it's a black concert T Shirt
It's Black
It's from a concert
It's a T Shirt
Well it's a black concert T Shirt

BLACK. CONCERT. T SHIRT.
BLACK CONCERT T SHIRT T shirt shirt irt irt rt t
It's black.

― Dave225, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

b52's cosmic planet tour, 1990.

― Geoff, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ZZ Top - 1984, I went with my father. T-Shirt had the car on it.

― Chris, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I bought a Melvins shirt when I saw them the first time. It was a black long sleeved t-shirt with the Eggnog bunnies on it. It was $15-20. It eventually shrunk and at some point became the prized possession of an ex. I bought a Stereolab shirt at some point, but that's also in the hands of an clothes borrowing ex. I currently own no "rock" shirts. *sobs*

― Alex in SF, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

fIREHOSE, 1991, the _flyin' the flannel_ tour. My first club show! Went with three friends, and two of us were underage and had to plead with the bouncer to let us in. I saw George Hurley looking out from a window above the club, eating what looked like a Goo Goo Cluster. They played in front of a large picture of Madonna. I think I lost the t-shirt. $10. The oldest rock shirt I still own is a "Bela Lugosi's Dead" Bauhaus shirt, which has been washed so many times that it is like a sheer piece of lingerie. There was an Onion article about this same t-shirt, something like "Deteriorating Bauhaus Shirt Signifies End of Era". The Onion hits too close to home, sometimes.

I live in Tennessee and am of Korean descent. Many years ago, I wore a Half Japanese t-shirt to my miserable data entry temp summer job, and a co-worker looked at it and asked me "Oh, so you're Japanese?". Sigh.

― Ernest Paik, Friday, 17 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Jam, from the "Gift" tour, c.1981, $10. Fear me! Regretfully, I no longer own it.

The oldest rawk shirt I own is a black Clash shirt but I only bought recently it all pre-fancied up with rhinestones so it doesn't count (mark s. do not read if you hate me).

― felicity, Saturday, 18 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

four years pass...

I just went to my first rock concert (Echo & the Bunnymen) last night = I am not ILM material

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 21 June 2006 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

Electric Light Orchestra, 1977, Pontiac Silverdome...

it was a yellow shirt, with the Out Of The Blue spaceship on it, with the words "The Big Night" beneath it...

this was my first legit concert shirt...my first bootleg shirt was:

Jethro Tull, 1978, Olympia Stadium...

black shirt w/ white sleeves, both front and back had glitter mixed in the paint...the shirt lasted for about 3 wash cycles...

― hank (hank s), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 16:20 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.jiggy.com/cat-images-sm/jy0001t-sm.jpg
and
http://www.jiggy.com/cat-images-sm/pi0001t-sm.jpg

― Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 16:30 (nineteen years ago)

First three (or a perfect transition into teenagedom)
1989 - Billy Joel "Storm Front" tour
1990 - Paul Simon - "Rhythm of the Saints" tour
1991 - Mighty Mighty Bosstones shirt
Oddly enough, when I would have bought the last of the three shirts, I was already pretty embarrassed about having the first two (or having liked them at all). Now I'd be more embarrassed about the last one.

― Jacobo Rock (jacobo rock), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 16:59 (nineteen years ago)

I think it was a Red Hot Chilli Peppers shirt circa Mother's Milk

― Matt Olken (Moodles), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 17:05 (nineteen years ago)

ha ha, my first t shirt was a Paul Simon Rhythm of the Saints shirt as well! It had a big picture of Paul's mug and the words "Born At The Right Time" on the back. I was 11.

― Tyler W (tylerw), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 17:12 (nineteen years ago)

my first concert t-shirt was a motorhead 'ace up your sleeve' tour t-shirt from the 'ace of spades' tour in november 1980. i couldn't afford an official one so bought one outside the concert which disintegrated after about three washes.

― stirmonster (stirmonster), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 17:15 (nineteen years ago)

an aerosmith shirt from the permanent vacation 87-88 tour

― M@tt He1geson, Rendolent Ding-Dong (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 18:10 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.substance-store.com/pix/covers/22441.jpg

Made it to age 23 before I finally succombed and bought this, one of only two I've ever purchased. (Motorhead being the other.) The green bits glow in the dark!

― M. Agony Von Bontee (M. Agony Von Bontee), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 18:51 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.worldinmotion.net/neworder/various/tshirts/1989/Technique.jpg

I still have it, but sadly it's well worn. It was my first concert that I went to on my own (with friends, actually).

from http://www.waterrat.com/nogig.htm :

"15 APR 89 Six Flags Over Georgia
(Southern Star Amphitheater) - Atlanta, Georgia
Fine Time, Dream Attack, Ceremony, Run, Vanishing Point, Your Silent Face, Loveless, Mr. Disco, Round And Round, Bizarre Love Triangle, Temptation, The Perfect Kiss, True Faith

[ "I hadn't seen New Order outside before and I loved it! I was speaking to OZ - their sound engineer earlier in the day and asked him to request an old song for the 2 guys who had come over from the UK. They obliged by playing "Your Silent Face" - the crowd went completely flat at that point but we had a great time dancing on the seats like complete idiots. Much to the amusement of the US kids around us."

fyi... my 2nd was The Prayer Tour shirt from 1989 (where The Cure played Lakewood Ampitheatre with Shelleyan Orphan)

― rentboy (rentboy), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 18:56 (nineteen years ago)

Mine was a Pixies Bossanova tour tee, bought from someone outside for, i think, a fiver. Still got it, but I sure as hell don't fit into it anymore (I was only ten years-old at the time).

― yer mam! (yer mam!), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 18:58 (nineteen years ago)

you went to a pixies show at age 10?
strange

― rentboy (rentboy), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 19:14 (nineteen years ago)

Duran Duran, from the wedding album tour, although it looked like it could have been from the "Seven and The Ragged Tiger" period. I think it was probably not 'official' merchandise as I bought it from a guy who wasn't even on a stand.

― daavid (daavid), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 19:30 (nineteen years ago)

Marillion, Misplaced Childhood tour.

― Half loaf, half pompadour (noodle vague), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 19:34 (nineteen years ago)

Fairly certain it was a Dire Straits Brothers in Arms shirt (baseball sleeves), also went with my father. No idea what happened to it. I do have a couple of mid-90s t-shirts from Stereolab and The Wedding Present in mint condition, though.

― pleased to mitya (mitya), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 19:36 (nineteen years ago)

DIllinger Escape Plan shirt. I actually wore it yesterday.

― Ivan Gallardo (Ivan), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 19:46 (nineteen years ago)

Embodyment - Christian death metal. I was neither a Christian or into metal of any kind, but I knew the bass player.

― milo z (mlp), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 19:49 (nineteen years ago)

I wear my T-shirts to death, so the ones I have tend to only be a few years old. The first one I remember buying was Sick Of It All in 1988 (saw 'em with Gorilla Biscuits and Judge at City Gardens in Trenton, NJ). For years, I had a Pussy Galore 1989 tour shirt ("From The Hate Fuck Capital City Of The World") that started out deep red but wound up the color of a dried ketchup stain. It never fit me very well, but in its stretched condition my wife liked it a lot, and used it as a sleep shirt for several years.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 20:16 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not sure what my first shirt was(lollapalooza?), but I have an almost photographic memory of the most popular rock shirts from grade school/high school, due to staring at them day after day in class. The Gun&Roses shirt with the boy from Raphael's The School of Athens standing on one leg,in blue or orange. The Smashing Pumpkins shirt with scrawly red heart and a paragraph of really prententious ranting on the back (did it start'this is a smashing pumpkins tshirt?'.I must have read it again and again, out of boredom.

― Annabelle Lennox (Arachne), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 20:35 (nineteen years ago)

you went to a pixies show at age 10?
strange
-- rentboy (rentbo...), June 21st, 2006

Yes, I was quite precocious. Plus, I've got two sisters and a brother, the next oldest being nine years older than me and they were all into the Pixies. I wish I could remember more of it than I do, but it's a nice story to tell people nonetheless. I always win when I'm doing the "what was the first gig you went to?" thing with people anyway.

― yer mam! (yer mam!), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 20:40 (nineteen years ago)

My daughter went to see Franz Ferdinand last year whilst still 3.

― Half loaf, half pompadour (noodle vague), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 20:43 (nineteen years ago)

What?

― Aja. (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

That's got mine beat!

― yer mam! (yer mam!), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 20:46 (nineteen years ago)

To be fair she slept thru most of the gig.

― Half loaf, half pompadour (noodle vague), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 20:47 (nineteen years ago)

I remember being right next to a bloody big speaker for most of the gig and cupping my hands over my ears. I don't think I realised just how loud Black Francis could bellow.

― yer mam! (yer mam!), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 20:51 (nineteen years ago)

Not technically a concert shirt, but my first all the same: a black Antone's shirt (the one w/the hands playing a strat) bought on New Year's Eve 1993, when I was 11.

― Chairman Doinel (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 20:51 (nineteen years ago)

OMD, sugar tax tour, 1991, aged 15 or 16.

fucking thing cost me 13 quid - christ alone knows how i afforded it - and got ripped to buggery in the washing machine two days later.

if OMD ever get round to this reformation tour, i'm going to ask for my money back.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 20:57 (nineteen years ago)

1978, at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago: Scorpions with opening act....Sammy Hagar. At the time, Hagar was suffering from a debilitating speed-limit disorder, I believe.

A black Scorpions shirt cost me $5.

― Duke Dubuque (Duke Dubuque), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 20:52 (nineteen years ago)

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