Residing in an old milk crate in the back corner of my bedroom closet is stack of worn out, or long-since-retired rock n roll t-shirts. These shirts have somehow escaped being tossed in the trash or repurposed. Old rock concert t-shirts should never suffer the fate of being used to check the oil in my lawn mower; that would just be wrong. The crate has been there for a long time. I moved into my current house in 2002 and the crate was established soon thereafter. So, I decided to pull them out, take a few photos, and write about some that I have a fond memory of. I guess there were about 25 shirts in the crate. What follows are some memories that have been jogged by a few pretty cool t-shirts. (By the way, I hope everyone got the Watershed reference in the title of this piece…)
1. A Couple of Metal Shirts
In the late ‘80’s and early ’90’s, the metal scene took off. I went to an awful lot of shows at small clubs in those early days before a bunch of the bands from that time period ended up playing in arenas. I have quite a few shirts from those days. I had forgotten that the shirts were usually printed on both the front and the back. They don’t seem to make too many of them that way anymore.
First up, Little Caesar and Faster Pussycat. I saw Little Caesar in Charlotte, NC sometime in 1990 at a club called 13-13. I lived in Charlotte briefly in 1990-’91. During the time we were there, my girlfriend (now wife) and I went to every possible show we could at Club 13-13, The Milestone, The Pterodactyl, and other clubs. Most of the metal was at 13-13 while The Pterodactyl had more alternative bands, including The Neighborhoods, who we saw the night before we moved back to Virginia. Anyway, the Little Caesar shirt brought back a flood of Charlotte, NC memories.
The Faster Pussycat shirt came from a show at The Bayou in Georgetown (D.C.). Faster Pussycat remains one of my favorite bands from the era, and The Bayou was one of my favorite D.C. clubs. I saw two of my favorites-- Kix and Enuff Z’Nuff -- at The Bayou as well. The Bayou hosted some great punk shows too. We used to sneak in our own beers to save money.
Front of Shirts: Little Caesar & Faster Pussycat
Back of Shirts: Little Caesar & Faster Pussycat
2. More Metal
Next up, we have L.A. Guns and Junkyard. These are two bands that are still active and in my opinion are both still great. I saw the L.A. Guns so many times in so many different places that I can’t tell you where I got this shirt. It makes me smile though, because my wife used to wear it with a bright red miniskirt. She looked amazing in it and was way hotter than all the leather-clad metal chicks at the shows.
Junkyard in particular transcends the metal label and is equal parts metal and punk rock. They were definitely amongst the best to emerge from that Hollywood scene. The Junkyard shirt came from another show at The Bayou. It was notable because the opening band was The Black Crowes, in support of their record Shake Your Money Maker. Junkyard featured D.C.’s own Brian Baker on guitar, who had played in the seminal hardcore punk band Minor Threat. Again, the front and back graphics are pretty cool.
Front of Shirts: L.A. Guns & Junkyard
Back of Shirts: L.A. Guns & Junkyard
3. The Godfathers
I saw The Godfathers any time that they toured in the U.S. I know I saw them at The Bayou on the Birth School Work Death tour. The shirt below was obviously from the “aka Orange” tour, which I saw at the old 9:30 Club. There was one or two other times I saw them as well. I love The Godfathers. You can read about my Godfathers album rankings here: 30 Years of Great Records By The Godfathers. This shirt has no graphic on the back.
The Godfathers
4. The Lords of the New Church
I saw The Lords of the New Church on several occasions in different places. The shirt below came from a show at a club called Rockitz in Richmond, VA. I was a rabid fan of the band, and Stiv Bator and Brian James (formerly from The Damned) in particular. I bought posters and this shirt at the Richmond show. What I remember was that I had a leather motorcycle jacket that I had painted the Lords of the New Church logo onto the back of, with the Lords dagger down one sleeve and along the bottom of the back, I had painted “Is Nothing Sacred?” It was beautifully done and it was one bad-ass jacket, if I do say so myself. I got to meet Stiv after the show and he offered me 300 bucks for my jacket. There were a couple of Brian’s guitars sitting there and I said I would trade the jacket for a guitar, but they didn’t bite on that offer. I got autographs and got to hang out a bit though, and it was great. I remember asking Stiv what his favorite song was, and he said at that moment it was “Heaven” by The Psychedelic Furs. I’ve always remembered that because it was an unexpected choice. Based on the shirt, I saw the show on July 2, 1987. I liked the openers that night too, The Lords’ IRS labelmates called American Girls.
Front
Back
5. X
X is one of my favorite punk bands of all time—definitely my favorite coming out of the L.A. punk scene. I have seen X several times, two or three times back in the day and a couple of times more recently. If you haven’t heard their most recent effort called Alphabetland, you need to. Anyway, when X began to play again after a long-time hiatus, they went on a tour playing the Los Angeles record, their debut, in its entirety. They were also screening the excellent documentary about the band called The Unheard Music. I saw them play on that tour at The Birchmere on September 27, 2011. My wife and I enjoyed seeing a strong set of classic material just a few feet from the band. Billy Zoom’s guitar playing, which I love, was as good as ever as he stood to the right of Exene playing that sparkling silver guitar with that ever-present grin on his face. He looks just a bit like Bill Clinton (seriously, he does).
X - Front graphic only
6. WHFS Music Festivals
Once upon a time, one of the country’s best alternative rock stations was WHFS, out of Bethesda, MD. WHFS put on an annual music festival—The HFS-tival—each year for several years at RFK Stadium in D.C. Before the RFK festivals, when the event was still growing, they held them at other locations. My wife and I attended at least two of these. We may have seen others, but I found t-shirts from 1995 and 1996. The 1995 festival included the Ramones, Bush, Hole, P.J. Harvey, Juliana Hatfield, Soul Asylum and tons of other artists, and wrapped up late at night with a performance by Tony Bennett, of all people. The next day I heard a news story in which they reported that overall, the show was fantastic, and that “Tony Bennett showed some class, while Courtney Love showed some ass.” That just about summed it up.
The 1996 festival, as evidenced by the shirt, included bands like Cracker, Garbage, No Doubt, Everclear, Gin Blossoms, Foo Fighters, Guided By Voices and many more. These festivals had main stages and side stages, and often the smaller stages featured some of the best bands. These were great days. Graphics are on only one side of the shirts, and they are not black concert t-shirts, which is truly unfortunate.
Front of shirts: HFS-tivals – 1995 & 1996
I hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane.