The OG Masquerade Shirt

Heaven upstairs. Hell downstairs. Purgatory in between.

A line around the block for a band nobody's older sister had heard of yet. Hand stamps, wonky floor boards, sweating through your shirt before the opener finished. Losing your friends somewhere between Hell and Purgatory and figuring you'd find them eventually.

If you had a first real show in Atlanta, there's a decent chance it happened here.

The original Masquerade opened in 1989 inside the DuPre Excelsior Mill at 695 North Avenue, a brick industrial building from the 1890s that once made wood shavings for packing fragile goods. Basically pre-war era bubble wrap. For 27 years, we packed ourselves in there instead.

Nirvana played there. So did Fugazi, Green Day and Coldplay. And thousands of bands whose names you've forgotten but whose lyrics you could probably still scream if someone put on the right song.

The Masquerade is still open, but not the same. The mill eventually came down. But did your hearing ever fully recover?

Halftone print with orange overlay on an ivory Comfort Colors heavyweight tee.

Designed and screenprinted in Atlanta.