I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 20, 2022] My Chemical Romance [rescheduled from September 22, 2020 and September 21, 2021]

I bought tickets to this show for myself, my son and his friend on January 31, 2020,  The boys were freshmen at the time.  Now, after two rescheduled shows, the boys are seniors and were still excited about this reunion.  (Even though they were too young to know about them the last time MCR played in NJ).

The crowd was super excited and buzzing,  We had floor seats right after the pit–wish they were closer, but the boys didn’t want to be in the standing section.

It seemed to take forever to get the show going.  They started playing some loud static, which lit the room. And afte ra few minutes, the static slowly morphed into the new MCR song “The Foundations of Decay.”  We all agreed we weren’t going to see what songs they were playing, but it became clear talking to other people that every show was different but every one opened with this song.

I don’t really know the song, but that’s okay because it was an excellent warmup for the next song, the fantastic “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” which had the whole crowd singing along.

Turns out that this song is from Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, their second album (and the first that sounds like MCR really sounds.  It’s also the album I know the least. And its the one they played the most songs from.

They added a second show the following night (I’m not sure when this was added, but I feel like we might have wanted to go to both shows if I’d really thought about it).  And that second show played a lot more songs from the albums I know better.  So I think this first night was for the old-school die-hards.

Apparently singer Gerard Way wore a different outfit every night.  For out show he wore a black skin-tight bodysuit with bat wings and sunglasses.  And the stage was a giant post-apocalyptical backdrop of decayed and destroyed buildings.

They played three more songs from Three Cheers and I was getting a little nervous that I wasn’t going to know very much at this show (the boys were pretty thrilled, except for the absurdly tall guy in front of us).  This fear got worse when they played two songs from their debut album which I don’t really know at all.  For “This is the Best Day Ever” he brought out Geoff Rickly, singer of Thursday saying: “Come out and do this fucking song with us that you taught me how to sing in the studio because I didn’t know anything about dynamics.”

We were on the side of Ray Toro who was a maniac on the guitar–very impressive work and a big pile of hair.  Bassist Mikey Way, Gerard’s brother, bounded across the stage throughout the night with a big smile on his face wearing a Mikey Fucking Way shirt (available for sale at the merch booths).

They played “Vampires Will Never Hurt You” from their debut which I sort of recognized.  And I appreciated “Thank You for the Venom” because they were selling tote bags that looked like a white plastic Thank You bag, but which had that phrase on it.  Plus it is super catchy.

Then, as if taking a break from the rocking, they slowed things down and cell phones lit up for “The World is Ugly.”  And this seemed to signal a shift into songs that I knew as well.

Because after that it was a lot of songs from The Black Parade (but I was sure that Danger Days would get a lot more airplay).

When The Black Parade came out I bought it without knowing much about My Chemical Romance.  I really liked the album and played it a lot.  So it’s kind of crazy that fifteen years later my son and his friends would be huge fans of the band.  Although he prefers Danger Days (which I have seriously gotten into).

When the big chorus of “Famous Last Words” hit it was a fun moment of recognition for me.  But even moreso was the absolutely fantastic anthem “Teenagers.”  Then they really surprised me by playing the quirky “Mama.”  And the crowd went berserk for it.

I also realized that i didn’t know what any of these guys looked like really, so it took me awhile to find Frank Iero who my son likes and who played a number of solo shows during the MCR hiatus.

After sticking in one more song from the Conventional Weapons compilation (Boy Division), they followed up with the catchiest song in the entire world (with the greatest title in musical history: Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na).  Two songs later they played another song from Danger Days (“Vampire Money”) and then they surprised me by starting the piano introduction of “Welcome to the Black Parade.”  Everyone went berserk.  And when the song shifted into the rocking, heavy, dancey part, the whole place erupted.

I didn’t even know if they’d play it.  Or if they did, surely it would be the encore.  Or something.  Having it near the end of the set was a fun surprise.

They ended the set with “Helena” which I didn’t know until the chorus reminded me that of course i knew this song.  And then they left the stage.  A few minutes later they came back and played a song that they haven’t played since 2004–a deep cut for the die-hards that I didn’t know.  But they ended the show with a surprise (to my son)–a song from Danger Days–the poppy “The Kids from Yesterday.”

I think everyone there had a great time–a big celebratory night of fun in New Jersey with a New Jersey band.

1. The Foundations of Decay [single]
2. I’m Not Okay (I Promise) ∴
3. Give ‘Em Hell, Kid ∴
4. I Never Told You What I Do for a Living (first time played since 2008) ∴
5. Cemetery Drive ∴
6. This Is the Best Day Ever ♥
7. Vampires Will Never Hurt You ♥
8. Thank You for the Venom ∴
9. The World Is Ugly ©
10. Famous Last Words ¶
11. Teenagers ¶
12. Mama ¶
13. Boy Division ©
14. Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na) §
15. The Ghost of You ∴
16. Vampire Money §
17. Welcome to the Black Parade ¶
18. Helena ∴

    Encore:

19. Demolition Lovers (first performance since 2004) ♥
20. The Kids From Yesterday §