Rock concert tees

Rock concert tees

Fashion Synopsis

After a summer full of stadium rock concerts and endless evening hours hanging out in the middle of parking lots, reclining on the hood of your Trans-Am while AC/DC blared from the stereo, you couldn’t wait to get back to school. Bear with us on this one—we’ll explain: Your badge of honor was the perfectly worn-in ‘High Voltage’ concert shirt (worn every other day for three months straight) that was going to be your ticket to cooldom.

On that first day, when everyone was new, nervous that they wouldn’t fit in, the concert tee was a flag, a beacon to those who understood you, were like you, would come to you. Why? Because you were like them—your shirt marked you a member of their club, and they wanted you in. And woe be to the poseur who showed up in the REO Speedwagon shirt.

Music has always been a major part of adolescence, but the 70’s took the fan fanaticism to the next level. Music was very territorial, and fans were dedicated. Concert t-shirts, headbands, bandanas, camel hats, belt buckles… a true fan was a walking billboard, and a piece of history.

Your tattered ‘Led Zeppelin I’ shirt from the first tour advertised that you were an original, a true fan, and you knew them back when. The bandana from ‘Houses of the Holy’, and the patch on your denim jacket from ‘The Song Remains the Same’ solidified your loyalty and status as biggest fan ever. The concert shirt separated the men from the boys, the loyalists from the wannabes.

The music changed over the years, but the concert tee remained the same. From Alice Cooper to Journey, from Iron Maiden to Bon Jovi, and from Metallica to Nirvana…if it filled an arena, it belonged on a shirt.

The classic rock concert tees made a brilliant comeback for the turn of the millennium, when a late 70’s and early 80’s revival was revving into gear. These vintage tees were revived and modernized with the help of jewel studs. Now if only we could find the bedazzler, we could make our own.

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