Nine days ago, I posted a eulogy for my favorite t-shirt, a Saint Vitus tour shirt purchased at their Spring 2011 run on the Metalliance Tour with Crowbar, Helmet, Howl, Kylesa and The Atlas Moth. I caught the tour in Manhattan at Irving Plaza. Great show and an even better shirt. I was sorry to lose it after four years of regular wearing, and knew that even if I bought another Vitus shirt — as I have done in the intervening years — it wouldn’t ever be the same.

By my count, that post was up for 18 minutes before Lisa Hass, a venerated constituent of the NYC heavy rock faithful and all-around swell lady, left a comment that not only was she at the same show, but she also purchased the same shirt, in the same size, hardly ever wore it and was ready and willing to let it go to a good home, i.e. mine. Well shit. I just about fell off the couch. I informed Ms. Hass that, hell yes, I would be glad to adopt her Vitus shirt as a replacement for my own, and it came in the mail today.

The photo above doesn’t really do justice to how beat my old shirt (on the left) looks in comparison to Lisa‘s much-less-worn-by-me-for-four-years one (on the right), but trust me, there’s a difference. My old one is more or less gray. No holes in the new one — yet. If you’re wondering, yes, I tried it on. Of course it hasn’t had the intervening time to become acclimated to the shape of my gut, but I looked down at the sleeves and they just about covered my elbows and I knew the potential was there. They were just right. As for wearing in the rest? There’s plenty of time.

I’m not sure I can properly convey to you, let alone to Lisa, how deep my gratitude runs for this gesture, or how amazed I am by the generosity — my question about paying either for the shirt or the shipping was laughed off — and the selflessness. Needless to say, I’m going to wear the living crap out of this shirt, but when I do, I won’t just be thinking about how good that show was, or how lucky I was to see it. I’ll think about how lucky I am to know such wonderful people and to be a part of something so supportive and considerate.

Thanks to Lisa and to everyone else who took the time to comment or send condolences. I didn’t expect this story to have a happy ending, but I couldn’t be more thrilled with how it turned out.

 

Tags: Awesome shit, Saint Vitus

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2015 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.