It’s Saturday evening in New Jersey and My Chemical Romance have set the MetLife stage on fireplace — actually. Flames engulf the stage ground and vibrant orange flares shoot up in bursts round lead singer Gerard Method, bassist Mikey Method, and guitarists Frank Iero and Ray Toro because the band delivers an electrifying efficiency of “Well-known Final Phrases” worthy of the blaze that surrounds them.
On this second, with a jam-packed stadium of followers screaming the music’s emotional bridge again to My Chemical Romance, they’re undoubtedly the saviors of the damaged, the overwhelmed, and the damned. Gerard sings the ultimate line, “Nothing you may say can cease me from going residence” and of their hometown stadium, the lyrics couldn’t ring extra true.
Saturday evening marked My Chemical Romance’s sixth cease on the Long Live the Black Parade Tour, which kicked off final month in Seattle. At every cease, the band has performed their seminal 2006 album, The Black Parade, in full. Previous to their 2024 set at emo nostalgia pageant When We Were Young, My Chemical Romance hadn’t performed the whole lot of the album stay since wrapping the challenge’s authentic tour in 2008.
Followers have been already excited to listen to My Chemical Romance’s magnum opus stay, however the feeling was compounded by the band’s homecoming to New Jersey within the state’s largest venue. The truth is, Courtney and Mike, two followers from Japanese Canada who arrived at midday on Saturday in an effort to safe their spots on the barricade, have been adamant about getting tickets to the band’s MetLife present. “It’s their residence,” Mike mentioned.
My Chemical Romance’s present at MetLife marked the band’s headlining debut there, and almost each minute of their two-and-a-half hour set made positive to commemorate that actual fact. The Backyard State delight was felt earlier than MCR even took the stage, when openers Thursday kicked off the evening. Again within the day, when the Method brothers attended reveals on the Jersey basement circuit, Geoff Rickly was a serious inspiration for the longer term rockers. It was solely proper to offer Rickly, and the remainder of Thursday, their due and have them be part of My Chemical Romance’s headlining debut at MetLife.
Whereas not Jersey Boys, the extra particular visitors at MetLife have been none apart from indie staple, Demise Cab for Cutie. It was a lineup fabricated from early-aughts emo desires. The present was coursing with Jersey power until the very finish, when My Chemical Romance closed out with an surprising, and explosive cowl of Bon Jovi’s “Residing on a Prayer,” or what Method known as, “the New Jersey state anthem.”
Earlier within the evening, earlier than they launched into their hit music “Welcome to the Black Parade,” the band was granted a ceremonial key to town of Belleville, the place Gerard, Mikey and Iero have been raised. “By no means as soon as within the historical past of Belleville, have we ever handed a key to town,” Belleville mayor Michael Melham mentioned. “It’s lengthy overdue and so they deserve it,” Melham added.
By this level, My Chemical Romance have been dressed as their alter-ego band the Black Parade, and Gerard refused to interrupt character, even to obtain the important thing. As a substitute, he gifted Mayor Melham wheat and a faux fish from the fictional metropolis of Draag, which has performed a job in all the tour’s storyline. (Afterwards, on the B stage, Gerard did thank the mayor for being a superb sport by all of the theatrics.) Funnily sufficient, moments after receiving the important thing, Gerard briefly broke character when he yelped, “Oh wait! We acquired another factor to do. Let’s fucking kill some folks,” in a full North Jersey lilt.
That brings us to the theatrical portion of the Lengthy Dwell the Black Parade Tour, which has gone viral online for its darkish, intensely political components just like the faux execution. (At one level within the present, a mock election was held the place attendees have been compelled to vote with “Yea/Nay” reversible indicators on whether or not or not they imagine folks ought to be executed. Whatever the precise vote, the folks have been nonetheless killed.)
The play on the coronary heart of the present is ready in Draag, which is below the dictatorship rule of the Nice Immortal Dictator. The timing of the Lengthy Dwell the Black Parade Tour and political satire on the coronary heart of the present is particularly poignant and feels intentional, given the political turmoil within the U.S. The world-building of Draag has been in play since final fall, when My Chemical Romance started teasing the tour on social media with cryptic Instagram posts and imagery that felt much like Nazi Germany. In a long caption, the band revealed that alter-ego band the Black Parade has had their “work privilege ceremoniously reinstated” as “His Grand Immortal Dictator’s Nationwide Band.”
From the primary second My Chemical Romance graced the stage of their the Black Parade marching band fits, the world of Draag was entrance and heart with the newly-shared instrumental observe “Over Fields” (Draag’s Nationwide Anthem) and a rotation of World Battle II impressed characters taking part in a job within the theatrics. The band took every thing to the intense. There’s a clown that blows himself up, and at one level, Gerard makes use of his one final gasping breath after being stabbed to launch a nuclear conflict. The band even tapped director Claire Marie Vogel to assist create intricate tour visuals that match the tour narrative. All of it an astounding quantity of inventive output that makes for a stellar present.
Whether or not or not attendees have been in a position to grasp all the main points and the story being advised in between The Black Parade songs or simply went alongside for the trip, it was one hell of a dramatization. It’s clear My Chemical Romance needed to outdo themselves. In any case, the huge affect of The Black Parade demanded it; they wanted to up the ante, particularly almost 20 years after the album’s preliminary launch.
The devoted My Chemical Romance followers beloved each second of the present, and welcomed their hometown heroes with their huge open arms. Swaths of attendees have been wearing outfits impressed by the Draag world and previous MCR eras. Throughout “I Don’t Love You” and “Most cancers,” the slower songs on the setlist, followers confirmed their appreciation for the band after they lit all the stadium up with purple and white lights utilizing their telephones and coloured paper.
Whilst My Chemical Romance performed out because the rock gods they’ve grow to be on the principle stage, their star energy was really underlined throughout the latter half of the present. From a B stage located close to the middle of the stadium, My Chemical Romance commanded their hometown stadium with songs from the remainder of their catalog and a uncooked, effusive power that was contagious. Gone have been the marching band uniforms and outsized manufacturing; as a substitute, the band stood as New Jersey-bred rockers taking within the preternatural full-moon that hung above them. “It seems so faux, that’s how massive it’s right here,” Gerard remarked.
The band delivered loads of insane deep-cuts like “Skylines and Turnstiles” and “Vampires Will By no means Harm You” from their debut LP I Introduced You My Bullets, You Introduced Me Your Love. My Chemical Romance even performed a raucous rendition of “Boy Division,” a observe from their scrapped materials assortment Standard Weapons, which was launched shortly earlier than the band broke up in 2013.
“It’s really fucking wild that we’re up right here,” Gerard mentioned whereas on the B stage. In a method, he was proper. For a band that got here up in New Jersey basements and have become the most important act from the emo period of the 2000s, rocking out sold-out stadiums appeared like a far-fetched dream. However this was actuality and My Chemical Romance reveled within the career-high. With every riff, Mikey, Toro, and Iero couldn’t assist however smile from ear-to-ear whereas Gerard continued to fling his physique round and command huge singalongs. There was headbanging, screamo singing, and high-voltage power that reached each nook of the stadium earlier than My Chemical Romance exploded into fan-favorite “Helena.” For the ultimate refrain of the observe, Gerard belted the notes together with all the sold-out crowd whereas he was down on his knees. “I felt that one in my bones,” he mentioned.
Set Record
“The Finish.”
“Useless!”
“This Is How I Disappear”
“The Sharpest Lives”
“Welcome to the Black Parade”
“I Don’t Love You”
“Home of Wolves”
“Most cancers”
“Mama”
“Sleep”
“Youngsters”
“Disenchanted”
“Well-known Final Phrases”
“The Finish.(Reprise)”
“Skylines and Turnstiles”
“Our Girl of Sorrows”
“I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”
“The Ghost of You”
“Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)”
“It’s Not a Vogue Assertion, It’s a Fucking Deathwish”
“Boy Division”
“Vampires Will By no means Harm You”
“Helena”
“Livin’ on a Prayer”
From Rolling Stone US.