When you are young and exploring all the magic that rock and roll offers, wearing a shirt of your favorite band feels like an act of defiance. You want everyone to know who you support, even if the shirt doesn't fit right or it's faded. We remember a time when kids were getting suspended from school or having to serve detention for wearing Pantera and Marilyn Manson shirts. Or when you would come back to school the day after a big night of concerts and could tell where everyone went.
Rocks Off remembers the night in 2000 Blink-182 played the Woodlands with Bad Religion opening. Everyone came back to school the next day either wearing this garish yellow Blink shirt or the sacrilegious marked-out-cross shirt from Graffin and the crew. The Blink group obviously outnumbered us in the Bad Religion camp. In 2001, we were lost in a dank sea of Creed shirts wearing our brand-new Dropkick Murphys tour shirt.
Sunday afternoon at House of Blues (2-9 p.m.), you can take advantage of Texas' tax-free weekend and load up on all your favorite band merch at the venue's first-ever "The Great Rock 'N' Roll Sample Sale" in the music hall. From what we have seen, it should be a pretty wallet-lightening afternoon, with up to 60 percent off merch-booth prices - or even beyond - and no pesky sales tax.
Rocks Off collected the most iconic rock and roll shirts we could think of, but is pretty sure we forgot a few. Which ones?