Defunkd

[waxandthreads]

Why are Nirvana tour shirts so rare? They were a large band from an era that we commonly see see tour shirts from. Noticed that all the ones I have seen aren't licensed like most of the non-tour shirts from the era. Maybe they never officially sold shirts with dates at the shows and the ones we see with dates were parking lot bootlegs? That might explain their rarity and the fact that they're never licensed (at least from what I've seen). Also, the print on the tour shirts looks a little cheaper too. Anyone see them live and remember their merch or know what the deal is?

[Inmind]

When I was younger I was pretty obsessed with nirvana for a few years. I’m not remotely old enough to have seen them but here is my take on it all.

I think they go for a lot of money due to the their overwhelming popularity. I’d venture to say they are the biggest band since The Beatles and no other band has come close to either of them in terms of popularity. Though Nirvana’s popularity seems to have picked up even more after in the last 20 years.

I could be wrong, but don’t think I’ve ever seen an “official” Nirvana tour shirt with dates, and by Official I mean a licensed shirt or with the copy write date and Nirvana next to it which many of the shirts that were licensed also seem to come in this flavor official, as opposed to only being licensed.

Now I speculate there are a couple of reasons why Nirvana wouldn’t want shirts with tour dates printed on them. Nirvana took a lot of cues when it comes to ethos from bands Like Sonic Youth and Black Flag. Bands who I’m fairly sure neither of which printed official tour shirts. Though Nirvana could sell out stadiums, they couldn’t sell out on their punk ideologies and SO many 80’s Hair metal bands have tour shirts with dates listed so it wasn’t considered a cool thing to do. (on a total side, tour shirts with dates totally remind me of a Henry Rollins spoken word track off Think Tank which he describes not being in the kind of band that says things like "FUCK YEAH, LETS ROCK OUT DETROIT!”)

I’ve never thought of this before, but Honestly being that i’ve done a bit of touring with my instrumental “post rock” band combined seeing a hundreds of bands over the last decade, some that can sell out 1000 person venues has led me to conclude most band subscribe to these ethos when it comes to tour shirts, though not all.