Whenever I plan a trip to New York, I always hope something interesting is going on, so I can do something besides shop for handbags. I had heard about the Manhattan Vintage Clothing Show, on the Bravo Show Dukes of Melrose, so I was excited to see that it was taking place while I was in New York last week.
We ended up going to the show for a few hours on Saturday afternoon, but it really wasn’t worth the admission cost of $15 each. There were a few outrageous outfits, a lot of overpriced trinkets, and lots and lots of old, vintage clothing. I think I even saw some items that my Mother owned, back in the day!
Something amusing happened at the show though, that makes this story worth telling.
I wore black jeans and a black T-shirt to the show (big surprise) but the T-shirt I had on wasn’t one of my favorites. I don’t even remember where I got it, and I only wear it occasionally because the side seams stretch in a weird way. Anyhow, the T-shirt has a distressed graphic of a motorcycle with the words “Love and Rockets” above and below the graphic. I had absolutely no idea what “Love and Rockets” meant, or what the words had to do with the motorcycle, but it didn’t really look like a “biker” shirt, so I ended up buying it.
As I was wandering the booths at the show, I vaguely heard someone say something about “Love and Rockets”, but I was daydreaming and not really paying attention to what was going on around me. I snapped back to reality when I heard this guy say: “Listen – I’m not letting you leave this booth until you talk to me about your Love and Rockets T-shirt!”
I whipped around and asked: “Are you talking to me?!”
He asked me where in the world I had gotten this great Love and Rockets T-shirt, because he had really loved that band.
I was really confused and said: “Love and Rockets were a band?”
Turns out this guy was a DJ of sorts, loves music from the 80’s, and also loves vintage T-shirts. He proceeded to sing the band’s most popular song which was So Alive, which of course I remembered, once he started singing it!
I was incredulous that I had no idea I was wearing a shirt that had a band name on it and also surprised that I didn’t know or recognize the band’s name. After I went back to my hotel and listened to So Alive on YouTube, I realized that I always had thought that T-Rex did that song, which is odder still, since T-Rex wasn’t around in the 80’s! This could quite possibly be an early onset of Alzheimers!
We chatted with this guy about T-shirts, bands and music for awhile and then started roaming the show again. In less than 10 minutes, we entered another vendor’s booth, where the owner got all excited about my Love and Rockets T-shirt again! I told her the story about just meeting the other vendor, and having the same conversation, and told her I was planning on listening to their song, later on that day, to refresh my memory. She then told me that Love and Rockets had also redone the classic Ball of Confusion by The Temptations. Again, I was surprised because of course I remembered the original version of that song, but had never heard the remake of it. This vendor, and her next door neighbor then started singing Ball of Confusion, which was quite hilarious indeed.
While the Vintage Clothing Show itself wasn’t that thrilling, we did end up having fun and I did enjoy meeting a few members of the Love and Rockets fan club.
I also plan on wearing my T-shirt more often now, in homage to the band!
