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Photos: The Glorious Vintage Band Tees Of Desert Trip
You guys like The Rolling Stones or something? (Photo by Annie Lesser/LAist)
Everyone knows the #1 rule of band shirts is that you can't wear the shirt of the band you're about to see. Totally uncool.Well, at Desert Trip, where the average age of the main performer is 72, all pretenses of being cool were thrown out. When everyone's there for six of the most popular and well-regarded rock acts of all time, no one is impressing anyone else with their taste. Everyone there likes the same stuff!
If anything, the T-shirts on display at the Empire Polo Club that weekend could be used to show off the tours you'd attended in the past. Ask someone about their Rolling Stones tour tee from 1981, and they will definitely tell you which stadium it was at and which drugs they took.
With all due respect to dads, the style at Desert Trip was Very Dad. Lots of tacky fonts, tie-dye and corny designs (we're looking at you, Pink Floyd). But it's 2016, and what's uncool is cool again. If La Croix can get away with their can design, then Grateful Dead shirts will be stylish again.
It's time to make way for Bill Walton chic, because it's coming soon to Coachella and FYF Fest. And in the interest of full disclosure, this writer broke the very rule of band shirts by wearing a Who shirt on Sunday. I never said I was cool.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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