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Archive for the ‘My Chemical Romance’ Category

My Chemical Romance (MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ, August 9, 2025)

Posted in Death Cab For Cutie, East Rutherford, NJ, MetLife Stadium, My Chemical Romance, Set in New Jersey!, Thursday on August 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 9, 2025] My Chemical Romance

My son, his friend and I saw My Chemical Romance in 2022 for their reunion tour.  It was super fun and it was especially fun that we were in the band’s home state.

The Black Parade has always been my favorite MCR record, so when they announced this tour of The Black Parade, I was psyched and so was the rest of my family.  So I bought five tickets.  Sadly, I had to buy five individual seats–all in the same section, but each one a row behind the other.  But that didn’t matter once the show started.

They opened with a tape of 76 Trombones which was fun and weird and then a drummer came out playing a martial beat while the anthem from Draag was played.  Now I hadn’t read any reviews of the show at all, so I had no idea that they were going to play the album in this way.  And I was absolutely blown away by the creative genius of the MCR team.  They took a concept album/rock opera which already had a story and superimposed an entirely new story with videos and other performers on stage.

It was amazing.  And there’s no way I can do it justice.

I can’t possibly explain the new story.  Summarized: The country of Draag is run by a dictator.  There were videos of Draag as well as warnings and alerts in Draagian and English (Do not throw hair).  The dictator was introduced and on the big screens around the stadium, we could see the dictators hands as he gently clapped or ate noodles.

The band were dressed in their Black Parade outfits and then launched into the album.  When we saw them play in 2022, they played three songs from the album, so it was wonderful to hear the entire thing.  And they had backing singers and strings added to the show. It was really a huge sound.  Ray Toro on guitar was shredding like a maniac and the smile on his face was contagious. (more…)

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Death Cab for Cutie (Met Life Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ, August 9, 2025) [MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE]

Posted in Death Cab For Cutie, East Rutherford, NJ, MetLife Stadium, My Chemical Romance, Set in New Jersey!, Thursday on August 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 9, 2025] Death Cab for Cutie

When these MCR shows were announced, we had the choice of going to MetLife (which I haven’t been to in decades, before this new stadium in fact) or Wells Fargo in Philly, which I have grown to like a little more in the last year.

But then there was the choice of opening acts–Death Cab for Cutie in NJ or …Alice Cooper [?!] in Philly.  That made the decision so much easier, because there’s no way I would pass up DCFC for Alice Cooper [althouh having seen a recent setlist by Alice, his set is probably fun).

DCFC seems like an odd choice as an opening band.  They’re not bigger than MCR I wouldn’t think, but they sell out their own huge shows pretty easily.  It turns out though that DCFC are on tour and were playing four nights in Brooklyn right around this show.  So, heck, why not play this massive show?  And the crowd seemed really really into them.

My wife and I have seen Death Cab for Cutie four times now.  Their shows are always good–great music, great frontman, and a lot of fun.  This show proved to be something of a greatest hits set, at least greatest for me.  (more…)

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Thursday (Met Life Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ, August 9, 2025) [MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE]

Posted in My Chemical Romance, Newark, NJ, Prudential Center, Set in New Jersey!, The Homeless Gospel Choir, Thursday on August 9, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 20, 2022] Thursday [rescheduled from September 22, 2020 and September 21, 2021]

This was my first show at this stadium since I saw The Cure back in 1989 (my only time there aside from some football games) when it was a different building called Giants Stadium (since demolished).

Online recommendations said to park at Redd’s a restaurant nearby in Carlstadt that offered parking and shuttle service for a reasonable price.  So we did that.  Despite leaving plenty early (I assumed), the traffic and the shuttle (which was great) plopped us down with a little time to spare.  By the time we got to our floor, Thursday had already started.

The super nice folks at the arena encouraged me to get handicapped seating (once they saw the cane) and while it took a few minutes to coordinate, it turned out to be a great option–folding chairs on a open platform instead of squeezing into seats a few rows back.

But by the time we got settled, Thursday was about half way through the set.

Thursday had opened for MCR back in 2022 when we saw them.  It was the first time I’d heard of them.  Since that show I saw singer Geoff Rickly solo at Underground Arts and grew more appreciative of Thursday.  So I was a little bummed to be unfocused during their set.

Rickly was a great frontman–singing his heart out and being wonderfully vulnerable (his solo set showed off just how much he’s been through).  His best joke of the night was saying that they got to play MetLife stadium before MCR did!  The bands go way back together and last time Gerard Way sang a song with them (not this time though). (more…)

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L.S. Dunes (Santander Arena, Reading, PA, November 25, 2023) [PIERCE THE VEIL]

Posted in Coheed & Cambria, Dayseeker, Destroy Boys, L.S. Dunes, My Chemical Romance, Pierce the Veil, Thursday on November 28, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 25, 2023] L.S. Dunes

L.S. Dunes is like an emo supergroup.  The five guys in the band are each from at least one other well-known band.

Frank Iero (guitar) is from My Chemical Romance.  Travis Stever (guitar) is from Coheed & Cambria.  Tim Payne (bass) and Tucker Rule (drums) are from Thursday and singer Anthony Green is from Circa: Survive and a bunch of other bands.  Circa Survive is the only band I didn’t know, so I had a sense of what they sounded like–but not their vocalist.  Actually, I heard him sing a song with Thursday when we saw them open for MCR, but I don’t remember it.

This band started during the pandemic, with the various guys sending tapes back and forth to each other.  They’re all from roughly the east coast, (NJ, NY, PA) which is kind of cool for those of us on the east coast.

When the band came out they sounded so much bigger than Dayseeker.  I don’t know if it’s because the opening bands played via a less sophisticated sound system or what, but L.S. Dunes’ music filled  the arena in a way that Dayseeker didn’t.

The music was interesting and complex.  And singer Green hit high notes and growled alternately.

When I was at the merch table, the guy selling L.S. Dunes merch said sometimes the best first exposure to a band is live.  I agree with that sentiment although I think this particular first exposure wasn’t ideal because we were so far away and the lights weren’t great and, despite me saying how full the sound was, it still sounded a little rough (too loud maybe?)

Regardless, I really enjoyed the set and look forward to seeing them again in a smaller venue where I can really appreciate what they’re doing.

  1. Permanent Rebellion ♠
  2. Bombsquad ♠
  3. Like Forever ♠
  4. Grey Veins ♠
  5. Benadryl Subreddit ∇
  6. It Takes Time ♠
  7. Grifter ♠
  8. Past Lives ♠
  9. 2022 ♠
  10. Old Wounds ∇

∇ single (2023)
♠ Past Lives (2022)

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My Chemical Romance: MCRXX (Prudential Center, Newark, NJ, September 20, 2022) [rescheduled date, rescheduled again]

Posted in My Chemical Romance, Newark, NJ, Prudential Center, Set in New Jersey! on September 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[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. (more…)

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Thursday (Prudential Center, Newark, NJ, September 20, 2022) [MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE] [rescheduled date, rescheduled again]

Posted in My Chemical Romance, Newark, NJ, Prudential Center, Set in New Jersey!, The Homeless Gospel Choir, Thursday on September 20, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 20, 2022] Thursday [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).

There were two opening bands, but our parking nightmares (oh Newark) made us miss The Homeless Gospel Choir, a folk/punk band from Pittsburgh who I was interested in checking out.

For our show (a second show was later added with a different opening band) Thursday opened.  Thursday is a band from New Brunswick, NJ.  They are an emo band that predates My Chemical Romance and somehow I had never heard of them.

I’m surprised I’d never heard of them.  Turns out they broke up in 2012.  They got back together in 2016 and toured a bunch then.  They started touring again after COVID.

It was interesting hearing their earlier stuff is far more emo.  “Cross Out the Eyes” had a soaring emo chorus and also some screamed backing vocals. (more…)

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My Chemical Romance: 2020 MCRXX (Prudential Center, Newark, NJ, September 21, 2021) [rescheduled]

Posted in My Chemical Romance, Newark, NJ, Postponed, Prudential Center on September 21, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: September 21, 2021] My Chemical Romance [rescheduled from September 22, 2020; moved to September 20, 2022]

indexOn April 16th, My Chemical Romance decided to postpone their tour once again.  And I’m glad they postponed and didn’t cancel because I have great seats.  But I realized that my son was a freshman when I ordered these tickets and he will be a senior when the show actually goes on!

My Chemical Romance is postponing our 2021 touring plans until 2022.  We are deeply sad, but those emotions are only a fraction of the depth of feeling we have all experienced watching the suffering and loss of the past year.  We just want to be as sure as we can be that everyone is safe.  Refunds will be offered to anyone who wants them.  We are sorry if this is disappointing, and we REALLY can’t wait to see you in 2022

I enjoyed My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade album quite a lot, although I haven’t listened to all that much beyond it.

I wasn’t really aware that they’d broken up because my son and his friends like them and listen to them on trips (sometimes).  When this tour was announced, I thought it would be so much fun to go to see this massive spectacle (which I assume it will be).

I bought a ticket for me, my son and his friend and the seats were great!  I was really excited about the show and was hoping that it wouldn’t get postponed–end of September seemed like maybe we’d be out of lockdown.

Then on June 16th, it was announced that the tour would be pushed back to next year.  I am getting rather concerned that rescheduled dates are going to be on the same night.  Turns out this sow is the day after the Pet Shop Boys show.  But since I had great seats, I’m glad we get to keep them.

One more year just builds up more anticipation.

 

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My Chemical Romance: 2020 MCRXX (Prudential Center, Newark, NJ, September 22, 2020) [POSTPONED]

Posted in My Chemical Romance, Newark, NJ, Postponed, Prudential Center on September 21, 2020| 1 Comment »

[POSTPONED: September 22, 2020] My Chemical Romance [moved to September 21, 2021]

indexI enjoyed My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade album quite a lot, although I haven’t listened to all that much beyond it.

I wasn’t really aware that they’d broken up because my son and his friends like them and listen to them on trips (sometimes).  When this tour was announced, I thought it would be so much fun to go to see this massive spectacle (which I assume it will be).

I bought a ticket for me, my son and his friend and the seats were great!  I was really excited about the show and was hoping that it wouldn’t get postponed–end of September seemed like maybe we’d be out of lockdown.

Then on June 16th, it was announced that the tour would be pushed back to next year.  I am getting rather concerned that rescheduled dates are going to be on the same night.  Turns out this sow is the day after the Pet Shop Boys show.  But since I had great seats, I’m glad we get to keep them.

One more year just builds up more anticipation.

 

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Terry Pratchett–The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld (2007)

Posted in Adventure, Coheed & Cambria, Dip-in Books, Discworld, Dream Theater, End of the World, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), My Chemical Romance, Ozzy Osbourne, Pink Floyd, Queensrÿche, Rush, Terry Pratchett on March 5, 2008| 2 Comments »

terry.jpgSOUNDTRACK: COHEED & CAMBRIA-Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV, Vol. 1: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness (2005).

coheed.jpgFor reasons I’m unclear about, I had the completely wrong perception of what this band would be like. I had read a few things and heard from a few people some differing stories. I decided to check them out based on this input, and I decided, against my anal retentivity, to get Part IV of their five part collection. (This is because it was really cheap on Amazon).

So, given this, I don’t know what C&C sounds like on the first records, and maybe they sounded more like what I assumed they would sound like. And, frankly, given the images that the album comes with, coheed2.jpg one would tend to think that deep dark heavy metal is contained within. In fact, I was pretty sure that I was in for a heavier sort of Dream Theater. The imagery of this collection is very dark/scary/spooky, and I was told many times that the band was quite prog-rockish, often sounding like Rush. Oh, and the singer sounds like a woman.

Imagine my surprise then to play the CD and (ignoring the opening string intro which doesn’t signify anything anymore) hear a whole bunch of relatively short, really pretty, uncomplicated songs. There are a number of tracks on this that could be huge hits. As I listened some more, I realized what I thought the band sounded like…they sounded like Queensryche. In fact, they sound like any number of 80s metal bands. It was really weird and unsettling to have my expectations totally blown.

The first 11 songs are, for the most part, short, uncomplicated songs. They have beautiful melodies, and yet often have very disturbingly violent lyrics. (In what practically sounds like a lullaby–“I’ll do anything for you; kill anyone for you.”) There’s an awful lot of killing and threatening and the like going on here. And, yes, the singer can sound like a woman. Evidently this killing and violence is rampant through the sequence of discs, and there is some kind of “story” that explains it. But I didn’t really read closely enough to decipher it.

It’s not until track 12 the indicatively titled: “Willing Well I: Fuel for the Feeding End” that the prog stuff kicks in. Now we have some seven minute songs, we have some complex riffing going on and an occasional time change. There’s also call backs to earlier sections of the album. This was certainly more of what I was expecting, although, indeed, it’s still not THAT heavy. Some of the tracks so resemble Rush’s proggy heyday. Most unusual for me was that the long meandering guitar solo on the very last song “The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut” sounded like it could have fit perfectly as the long, meandering guitar solo in Pink Floyd’s “Shine on You Crazy Diamond.” Go ahead, listen for it, I’ll give you fifteen minutes.

The first time I listened to this disc, I really didn’t like it because it wasn’t anything like what I expected. On my second and third listens I started to enjoy it a lot more. I started to really groove to the songs. I also subsequently read a description of the album on allmusic to see if I was crazy, and indeed, I was not. They say that the band is very emo in an 80’s metal sort of way. And, I totally agree. They mentioned Queensryche as well (although they say Operation Mindcrime and I say Rage for Order) and as soon as I saw the “emo” tag, I thought about My Chemical Romance as a recent soundalike band.

As for the content of the epic, I have no idea what’s going on. I haven’t been able to read the lyric sheet yet (as I listen in the car) and I know I am coming way in the middle of this whole thing, so I know that I’m missing boatloads of information. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it enough to seek out some other parts just to see what the whole thing is about.

It’s nice when an unexpected surprise turns pleasant.

[DIGRESSION: BACKSTORY:] When I was 12 my sainted Aunt Lil and I used to travel from our little ‘burb of Hawthorne, all the way to the Willowbrook mall in Wayne by bus. A transfer in Paterson was required, and retrospectively, I am amazed that this little old lady traveled all that way, and made an exchange in a fairly “bad” neighborhood all the time. Once in a while I would go with her and we’d make a day of it. My “reward” for going was that I’d get a record or two. (more…)

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Brian Selznick–The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007)

Posted in Brian Selznick, Cancer as plot device, Concept Albums, George Méliès, Graphic Novel, Green Day, Meta, My Chemical Romance on June 19, 2007| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE-The Black Parade (2006).

mcr.jpgI know that Green Day is derivative. It’s obvious that they aren’t the originators of any kind of punk anything, and yet, they seem to have been the catalyst for a new breed of poppy punk bands, and they make an excellent reference point for these snotty young kids who sing catchy choruses with brash guitars. My Chemical Romance follow in a Green Day footstep. I don’t know too much about their previous records, but this one garnered rave reviews, so I thought I’d check it out. It seems to be some kind of concept album.

It seems like every five years or so a “concept” album comes out that seems to strike a chord with the people of the time. Let’s see: Pink Floyd: The Wall (1979); Queensryche: Operation Mindcrime (1988); Nine Inch Nails: The Downward Spiral (1994); Green Day: American Idiot (2004). There are of course many more, but these seemed to really be popular at their time and beyond. So now we have this new post-Green Day concept album. The concept is of “the Patient” who is dying of cancer (which okay, after now two books and this CD, cancer is a bit too prolific on this blog, but I’m not yet ready to add a tag for it [UPDATE: tag added]). I haven’t delved too deeply into the concept of this concept album, but I can say that the songs are overall pretty catchy and singalongy which, aside from being weird for an album about cancer, makes for good listening.

The album may be a little too poppy for my tastes, but “The Teenager” is really an outstanding song (aside from the part that breaks down into only drums and vocals which is a bit too 80s metal for me) but the rest of the song is great. I’ll write an update if I get an opinion of the “concept” of the album at a later date.

[READ: June 19, 2007] The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Speaking of concepts, this book has a great one. It is part novel, part graphic novel and part imagined biography of the classic filmmaker Georges Méliès. The book itself is really beautiful: it is designed to open flat so you can really enjoy the pictures which span two pages. There are some 280 original drawings, interspersed with fictional writing. The drawings themselves are quite astonishing. Selznick’s style is of a very thick pencil line, almost crosshatching style. He conveys realism very well, and the overall feel of the book is one of a cinematic experience, including zooms and fades to black. (more…)

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