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I was looking for a workout T-shirt today, and ran across the oldest concert t-shirt I own. When I put it on for these pictures, I was so concerned about it falling apart that I put it on over another t-shirt just to avoid getting deodorant on it. It’s from the 1988 Monsters of Rock tour and was a knockoff that I bought in the parking lot after the show because I didn’t have the money for an official one.
The three things that I can remember about the concert were:
- It was the first time that my teenage metal ears heard Metallica, and I was completely blown away.
- I got asked to go by my next door neighbor a few hours before the show because she got stuck with two extra tickets. I ended up playing tonsil hockey with a rather heavy young woman in the third row instead of paying attention to Van Hagar who played not more than ten feet away. Hey, for a pimply, four-eyed teenager with a mullet, it seemed like the right decision.
- It was the source of the infamous, but partially incorrect mantra, “YOU SUCK, DAN DOKKEN!“.
Now, what’s your oldest T + three? Post a picture of your oldest concert T and give three things that you can remember about the show. If you can beat anything older than 1988, I will personally join you in a tall glass of Metamucil. Can anyone top 1988?
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September 3rd, 2008 at 8:25 am
My 1984 Dio – Last In Line tour tshirt went missing recently so it doesn’t really count but still..
1) it was my first and only show at the Worcester Centrum
2) first time seeing someone smoking pot
3) I realized that Twisted Sister wasn’t very metal
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:16 am
My oldest concert T is Metallica, I think it’s an …And Justice shirt. It’s collecting dust in my mom’s basement now, and probably really holey.
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:56 am
Rockin with Dokken! Nice. And no more lies. You weren’t a pimplely faced kid. You were bad-ass. I know. I have seen it. Remember the time we were at the L7 concert in Boston and that chick bit you in the back and drew blood? When you were in the pit? Of course, I think she was a big rug muncher that was in love with the lead singer and was coming at you with nails. By the way. I still have pictures from that evening. Let me know if you want to see them.
I think mine is 1988 as well. It was the Pink Floyd “Learning to Fly” tour. Giant stadium with one of my druggie friends. (Mine is a bootleg as well).
1) I intentionally bought drugs before the concert with the explicit intention of using them all at the concert.
2) My druggie buddy was buying every drug in site and smoking them or downing them immediately (reminded me of a article on Jim Morrison).
3) During the break a guy broke into the floor section of the concert. Security was chasing him, but one guy in the crowd caught him first and started beating the crap out of him.
4) Another one of the guys I was with starting pissing on the radiators of all the surrounding cars after the concert.
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:49 am
I don’t have my oldest concert T-shirt anymore, but it would’ve been Joan Jett, when I saw her play with The Police at Comisky Park in 1983.
What I remember:
1. I totally did my hair all Flock of Seagulls style (they were also on the bill) and thought I was just sooo cool.
2. I remember the video for “Mexican Radio” being played between bands. Now every time I hear that song I think of sitting in the stands, watching the guy’s face popping out of a bowl of Spanish rice on the TV monitors. Sweet.
3. Leaving early after the Police did “Roxanne.” My dad was a bigger fan of not getting stuck in the parking lot than he was of Sting, I guess.
September 4th, 2008 at 6:26 am
@M: 1984, Prime Time Dio. If you only still had that shirt…
@K: But you still have it?
@Pablo: In the 80′s I can guarantee that I was a pimply faced kid in the 80′s. I thin you met the results of being a pimply faced, four eyed kid.
@Sarah: I totally forgot about the face in the beans. What’s the oldest one you still have?
September 4th, 2008 at 9:40 am
@Jon:
Not to suck out on the participation, but I pretty much left behind everything I owned when I moved to Canada (minus my CD collection, guitars, and uh, personal items). Disqualified…there goes my tall drink of Metamucil!
September 4th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Sorry, at the prime age of 44 I had to give up wearing/owning/admitting to any of those old concert T shirts. I don’t however remember much about my first concerts …. except that I smoked and drank too much. My very first concert was to see Bob Seger, and in weird twist of fate, just saw him again last year!
September 4th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
My first concert? I proudly boast that was, in fact, The Osmonds. This was, I think, 1975-ish. Sadly, I did not get a t-shirt.
The oldest concert t-shirt I currently own is an Iron Maiden “Somewhere In Time” shirt from 1985. You can practically read a newspaper through the thin black fabric. I did not actually attend that concert, however, and therefore cannot remember it.
I don’t believe I still have any shirts left from the time when I bought shirts at concerts (the 1980′s). Most everything I owned from that time is long gone.
I did buy a Motorhead Hammered Tour shirt about 5 (?) years ago when they opened up for Dio & Maiden. It may well be the only t-shirt I own that I personally bought at a Rock And Roll Concert. I screamed along to every Motorhead song, was amazed at the length of the drum solo they inserted into their tragically brief 35 minute time-slot, and went to the bar for the whole of Ronnie James’s set. I watched a bit of Maiden, but with the lights and motorcycles and smoke and giant demon puppets and Eddie and all the stagecraft thy throw into a show, it really mostly made me wish Lemmy had had a longer set. Maiden were good, sure, but I’m just not into all the “showmanship” stuff I guess.
September 5th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Darn.. I ran upstairs and tried to find my Rush shirt from 1978!!!!.. COULDN’T FIND IT!!! hope the Missus didn’t throw it out!!!
September 6th, 2008 at 11:09 am
@sarah: When you’re on the lamb, touch choices have to be made…
@Joyce: It will be a cold day in hell when I accept an “I’m too old” answer from you.
@Xtopher: I lost my judas priest t’s in a fire, so most of the 80′s t’s are just a memory. That was the only one I had left.
@Sarge: NOOOOOooooo… 1978?? That’s 30 years! I hope you still have it.
September 7th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I think the oldest t-shirt I have is from the last Grateful Dead show before Jerry died…wasn’t my first concert, but it’s the one I still have a t-shirt from.
1. I learned that getting high, sucking some nitrous, and drinking copious amounts of beer in the sweltering sun of Soldier Field is NOT a good idea
2. The only song I remember from the entire concert is Shakedown Street
3. I was my 7th Dead show that spring/summer
October 15th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
I have a huge storage bin full of concert shirts. The oldest would have to be Def Leppard from the Pyromania tour in 1983. Three memorable bits:
1. First concert with friends only (no parents!); I was 15
2. Friend smuggled his bong into the Capital Center
3. Could not find our car after show and circled the ENTIRE ARENA PARKING LOT
P.S. Last month I dug out my 1991 Kix shirt for a reunion show, and it still fits!
November 8th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
I thought that i was the only person on earth that still has that same shirt.
December 29th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
WHERE CAN I PURCHASE THIS TSHIRT