My First Metal Gig For 25 Years! But What The Helloween Should I Wear?

Black leather biker jacket covered in scuffs. Studded wrist band that looks suspiciously like a deadly weapon. A huge wad of thick greasy hair reaching all the way down to some deliberately torn jeans. All very acceptable. Don’t you think?

Inside a notoriously rough Northern Irish biker bar in the 1980s, more commonly known as The Barn, it was all perfectly acceptable attire. In fact, I often worried that a drunk Hell’s Angel might one day smash my head through the jukebox for being slightly underdressed. That’s how rough the place was (Great atmosphere though!)

This was my regular day-to-day look back in the day. It was an important part of who I was and gave me a real sense of belonging. It was a time when all that mattered to me was music, leathers, love and beer. But sadly, due to the social constraints of becoming a boring grown up, those good old days are gone. So now I’m just left with the music, love and beer (I loved those damn leathers!)

Anyway, next Saturday I’m attending my first thrash metal gig since the late 1990’s. But before anyone accuses me of having a mid-life crisis and lusting after leather again, there is a viable reason for my return to the heavy metal underworld. My 22-year-old son Isaac is the keyboard player in a metal band called Metora Cliffs who will be thrashing it out with other contenders in a Battle of The Bands competition. I’m so very proud and I’m going to go and support him.

This is my son Isaac in the image below. It was taken by his incredibly creative girlfriend Emily. I have provided a link if you would like to see more of her amazing artwork. I’m very proud of her too! (I really hope they get married. No Pressure, lol!)

This means I will be trapped inside a music venue called Satan’s Hollow for a number of hours, which no doubt be rammed full of 18- to 25-year-old thrashers. So having spent the last 25 years of my life wearing corduroy trousers and boring shirts I now have a major dilemma. I just don’t know what the fuck to wear! (Sorry, that was the 80s me. I’m much more polite these days, honest.)

At the minute, it’s a toss-up between a ‘Number of the Beast’ T-shirt or Buckethead (if you haven’t heard of him, he’s an incredible guitarist that plays with a KFC bucket on his head to hide his identity) I guess he must be shy, although everyone knows he’s really called Brian Patrick Carroll. You can’t hide anything from the internet these days.

I have considered the idea of wearing leather trousers to the gig. But this may disorientate my sons playing, cost his band a place in the finals and possibly scar him for life. So I guess it will just have to be boring jeans; which I will tear slightly to feel cool, but not so much that it’s noticeable and attracts unwanted attention.

Being in a mosh pit with the youth of today doesn’t worry me too much, however. Many of the thrashers are likely to be woke and alcohol free, so I’m guessing they are more likely to invite me to a protest march, than beat me up for my dress sense. I just hope when I’m headbanging like Ozzy Osbourne's ghost at a Lemmy party, none of them get seriously injured. But I make no guarantees. I am an 80s heavy mettaler after all.

Wish me luck!

Originally published at My First Metal Gig For 25 Years! But What The Helloween Should I Wear? | by Simon Aylward | Never Stop Writing | Aug, 2026 | Medium