Concert Review—

   Falling Hard For My Chemical Romance, Future Stadium Superstars

By John Voket

When I think about some of the long-established bands that have graduated over the years from clubs and small venues to arenas and stadiums, while continuing to hold tremendous appeal over a young demographic of music consumers, I think of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Green Day. But after a recent double dose of My Chemical Romance, I believe I’ve seen the pioneers of America’s next generation of stadium superstars who until just a few months ago were relegated to small halls and opening act sets.

In fact, it was only about 18 months ago I was checking out MCR when they opened for the aforementioned Green Day as that band rolled out what many in the music business have since called the tour of the year in support of American Idiot. The crazy thing about MCR is that in the space of one album, they’ve morphed from an ambitious club act to a stadium draw that is bringing in entire families dressed down in band T-shirts and singing along with many of the band’s new and established material.

And that body of established material is pretty concise, considering they only have three previous albums before the current release The Black Parade. Heck, it took the Chili Peppers and Green Day more than a decade to reach this level of popularity, and each of those bands had lots and lots more material to draw from before they became masters of their domain.

It was that fateful day, September 11, 2001, when New Jersey comic book artist Gerard Way witnessed the attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center. He reacted by penning a song in tribute to those lost called “Skylines and Turnstiles,” and decided to start a band.

Joined by guitarist Ray Toro, Way started mixing demo tapes in the attic of his former drummer’s home. As the story goes, Gerard’s younger brother Mikey was so taken with the material that he insisted on being part of the band and joined in playing bass.

Shortly after shopping two early singles around, My Chemical Romance was signed to an independent label and their first record, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, was released. During a gig promoting the debut, the Way brothers made the acquaintance of guitarist Frank Iero and quickly drafted him as a second player backing up Toro.

After signing with the more established Reprise label, original drummer Matt Pelissier departed at the height of the band’s 2004 tour supporting their second album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, and was replaced by Bob Bryar and the current lineup was cemented. 

At that point, two significant occurrences helped propel MCR into the crosshairs of mainstream American rock audiences: they headlined the first-ever Taste of Chaos Tour, coming off the road only briefly before being invited to open for Green Day on the monstrous American Idiot tour.

According to a close associate of the band, who spoke to The Bee following MCR’s opening US tour stop in Manchester, N.H., , Gerard Way became fast friends with Green Day’s Billy Joe Armstrong who apparently taught Way a thing or two about scripting more accessible songs and satisfying larger concert audiences.

Soon after, My Chemical Romance launched its first headline tour playing showcase clubs and small theaters to rave reviews. The magic bullet, a DVD/CD release titled Life on the Murder Scene hit the shelves in 2006, helping to further connect audiences with the band, and leaving them hungry for more.

This paved the way for The Black Parade, which along with several highly accessible radio singles, produced three concurrent high budget concept videos which promptly rose to the top of numerous video program play lists. These singles, the power ballad “I Don’t Love You,” the bombastic anthem “The Black Parade,” and an acoustic guitar flavored “Famous Last Words,” anchored the bands opening set on the new US tour, which opened February 22 in Manchester and played the Dodge Music Theater in Hartford two days later.

The Hartford show, in the warmth of the enclosed amphitheater setting, was a near sellout with the highly enthusiastic audience pumping their fists and chiming in with sing-along accompaniment on several other Black Parade cuts including “Dead,” which provided a powerful level of hard-edged cabaret fun, “This is How I Disappear,” and the campy polka-themed “Cancer.”

Other highpoints of the opening portion of the show included show opener “The End,” “Teenagers,” with a snappy two-step beat that had the whole building jumping, and the trippy power-chord crunch of “House of Wolves.”

After a break, during which the new album’s hidden track, “Blood,” chimed from the sound system, MCR returned, having traded their drum major costumes for more comfortable black jeans and leather, and ripping through what became an extended encore featuring some of the band’s other hits and favorites.

They delivered “I’m Not OK (I Promise),” “Thank You for the Venom,” a stirring and highly emotional version of “The Ghost of You,” and their biggest hit to date, “Helena,” before the lights went on and The Black Parade marched on to points west.