Darren DeVivo: Miles Ahead

Are your band T-shirts a part of your pandemic work/weekend/constant wardrobe? In our new "Concert TBTee" series every Thursday, we're asking the FUV airstaff to dig through their drawers for the concert and band T-shirts that mean the most to them and why. Darren DeVivo, FUV's late night host, fondly recalls the one and only time he saw Miles Davis play.

I've been attending concerts since I was 16 years old and the collector in me has always enjoyed purchasing mementos from most of the shows I've been to. In most instances, T-shirts and programs have been the souvenirs of choice, but I also have a healthy collection of hats, buttons, stickers, key chains and mugs.

After nearly 40 years of shows, saying I have a sizable collection of concert memorabilia is an understatement. In fact, anyone who knows me, knows I am like a walking billboard for the artists I have seen in concert.

In 1990, I had the opportunity to see one of my music idols, Miles Davis, in concert at Southampton College (which has since been absorbed into Stony Brook University), on Long Island. I had become a passionate fan of Miles's music only five years earlier, so getting the chance to see him perform, at such a unique venue, was something I could not pass up.

Naturally, I stopped at the merchandise table and bought a tour shirt featuring a painting done by Miles. That show would prove to be the only opportunity I would get to see Miles live, because he died just one year later, on September 28, 1991.

Unfortunately, that Miles Davis World Tour 1990 shirt hasn't fit me in quite some time and the years that have gone by have seen the shirt become stained and discolored. But earlier this year, while scrolling around eBay, I was shocked to stumble upon someone selling a replica of that same exact shirt! Owning that shirt again, and being able to wear it 30 years after seeing Miles on that special evening, was an opportunity I could not pass up!