By Adam Graham
For detnews.com
My Chemical Romance makes music for and about teenagers. They sing about life and death with an urgency and fatalism only teens can truly understand. Heck, one of their biggest singles is called “Teenagers.”None of that bothers me, however. Although my teenage years are ancient history, I love My Chemical Romance.
OK, admitting a My Chemical Romance crush isn’t as embarrassing as saying I’m a 29-year-old Jonas Brothers fan. (I’m not, by the way.)
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My Chem’s 2006 album “The Black Parade” — a relentlessly thrilling rock opera about, you guessed it, life and death — was one of that year’s most acclaimed releases, and in its wake, plenty of rock critics stepped up to the plate and branded My Chem the real deal.
But there’s still something about the band — playing Saturday and Sunday at the Fillmore Detroit — that makes me feel like I have to apologize for liking them. Maybe it’s their over-the-top theatrics, the layers of make-up they wear onstage or the sheer pompousness of frontman Gerard Way’s wild-eyed delivery. Whatever it is, there’s something that says responsible married men such as myself should not have a childish obsession with this band.
I’m done apologizing, however, and I’m not ashamed. My Chemical Romance rocks my world.
It wasn’t always this way. When MCR first emerged, I wrote them off as another in the long line of disposable screamo bands that were emerging at the time. Taking Back Sunday, the Used, My Chemical Romance — whatever; life’s too short to study the intricacies of dozens of faceless, interchangeable bands.
Then I saw the video for “I’m Not Okay (I Promise).”
Cut to look like the trailer for a coming-of-age teen comedy, it was sharp, cutting and clever — and the song wasn’t bad either. A slice of ramped up, slap-you-in-the-face pop-punk, it was served with copious attitude from Way, who frothed, “but you really need to listen to me, because I’m telling you the truth, I mean this, I’m okay!” The next line? “I’m not okay.”
“I’m Not Okay” was followed by “Helena,” the “TRL” staple which cemented them as anti-teen idol teen idols. Set at a funeral and featuring a full chorus of dancers, it nailed everything My Chem was about: Black-clad and death-obsessed but hopeful and celebratory about life.
Both tracks came from the group’s second album, “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge,” which was a cut above the works of their peers but still fully emerged in the muddy waters of emo. But on “The Black Parade,” the band blew away their contemporaries by becoming bigger than life, and incorporating pieces of Kiss, Queen and the Green Day into their repertoire.
The album’s first single “Welcome to the Black Parade” is a rock opera unto itself — it’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” for the MySpace generation. It’s so epic in scope it transcends mere age demographics, and it one day deserves a spot on classic rock radio.
I’ve listened to “The Black Parade” more than any other album in the last year — when my iPod went kaput in December, I repurchased the album so I wouldn’t be without it — and it stands as one of my favorite albums of the decade.
I’ve never worn eyeliner; I’m not from New Jersey; and aside from my fanfare of horror movies, I don’t think about death more than anyone else. But I know good music when I hear it, and My Chemical Romance gives me a reaction like none other.
My Chemical Romance are among the acts attempting to make a big difference this Earth Day – by donating items for a huge music memorabilia auction.
As well as selling off merchandise and personal items, Linkin Park and Panic At The Disco will be offering VIP concert tickets and the chance to meet the bands.
The acts were all asked to donate items that would be dumped or placed in storage to aid Music For Relief and Unite The United in their ongoing environmental and disaster relief efforts.
Earth Day falls on 22 April this year. The auction will take place on eBay.com.
YAY FOR DOING GOOD DEEDS!
Plant a tree for earth day! They are cheap! Help the world! Do good things!
By Sarah
posted here
So after staying up until 4 in the morning like the retards we are, Mikey and I got about 3 hours of sleep before getting up at 7 to get ready to head to Denver. We made it to the line at about 10 and there were already about 25 people in front of us. We were directly after this really cool mother/daughter pair who had come from Cheyenne, Wyoming, and in front of this lady who we at first thought was going to suck a lot but eventually turned out to be awesome. She was a 45 year old Def Leppard fan with a fondness for leopard print who really, really liked Gerard. She made us laugh for days and made the day go so much faster. She also stole our notebook containing RP plottage and read it, then added some smutty stuff of her own involving Gerard as a creamcicle (or cream cycle as she wrote it).
We had found a little alcove against a brick wall, and while we were sitting there a car pulled up and someone started to get out right next to us. Mikey was like, “Is that Alicia?” and I was like “OMG YES!” After she wrangled her luggage out of the car, Mikey said hi to her and she turned around and gave us a big smile and said hi. She then proceeded to schlep her own luggage down the sidewalk past all of the fangirls and back to the buses, which I thought was pretty brave tbh. Either nobody else recognized her or they just ignored her, though, because we didn’t see anyone else talk to her. But OMG SHE LOOKED SO PRETTY. Her new tattoo is gorgeous and she was so nice. 
It was ridiculously sunny and hot, so we all got fried to a crisp. Mikey got her period and period shits, and we all had gastrointestinal distress. Mikey’s was much worse, however, and she actually had to wipe her ass with a napkin in the parking lot. It was epic. The line grew ridiculously fast, and by the time we made our last trip to the car at 4 or 4:30, it was several city blocks long. Then there was some drama with a bunch of jerkoffs rushing the line and line-cutting way up at the front, and everyone who’d been there all day got jostled out of line. We still managed to get barricade, but we didn’t see if everyone who was in front of us in line managed to pull it off too or not.
So YAY we got barricade stage Frank, and almost immediately the heat and time spent in the sun started affecting the audience. People were being pulled out before Drive By even came out, and from then on it was a steady stream of people coming out. I started to worry a lot at first because between the altitude, the heat, and the time we’d spent in the sun, I was really to get dehydrated and wasn’t sweating. I was afraid if I didn’t start sweating I was going to get sick, but luckily security was amazing and did an awesome job getting water to us. I still had to save my breath a lot, especially during Billy Talent, but by that point I think it was less dehydration and more just the altitude.
Drive By were excellent, which was a pleasant surprise. Most of the reviews I’ve read were pretty negative towards them, so I was really happy to discover that I actually liked them a lot. We’d seen them earlier in the day at Wendy’s and when they came out we were like HEY WE SAW THEM! After the show, even though we were desperate to just get water and get out, not even stopping for merch, we made a point to stop by their table and tell them how much we liked them. They really seemed to appreciate it, and were super friendly.
By the time Billy Talent came out I was really uncomfortable and feeling a little sick-ish, so even though they were pretty good live I kind of rode through it on autopilot. They’re not a band I’m super fond of because I think their songs all kind of sound the same and his voice tends to grate on me after a while, but they did put on a good show and they played the couple of songs I do like. I felt like their set was too long, though, but maybe that’s because we were all dying at that point.
SO THEN OMFG MCR. They came out to Sleep and were just so amazing omfg. Frank has shaved and looked adorable, even though he wasn’t particularly active last night. I am assuming due to the altitude, because Mikey noticed that he didn’t even do a lot of the backing vocals. He rolled around on the floor a little at the beginning of the show, but after that he mellowed some. Ray also didn’t seem to be as active as usual, although Mikey Fuckin Way was the most active I’ve ever seen him. Which is to say that he smiled a few times, thrust his hips, and shook his hair around a lot. Bob looked like he had possibly tamed his viking woman hair with a slight trim, but it’s still epically long and hawt tbh. Gerard was having a little trouble because of the altitude and had to stop a couple of times to suck down some oxygen, but they all sounded and looked amazing. Aside from the douchebaggery re: the line, the crowd was actually really good and really into it, and he commented on it a lot and it was just seriously not only the best MCR show I’ve ever seen, but the best show I’ve seen ever. PERIOD.
We kept ourselves awake on the way home remembering the set list (although we are pretty sketchy on order) and all of the funny/interesting things that happened. I’m just going to post them in bullet point.
- During Give ‘Em Hell, Kid, Mikey and I were rocking out so hard that Gerard totally looked over at us and we made eye contact. He was probably concerned tbh.
- Gerard asked everybody if we’d watched the season finale of Rock of Love, and then asked if we’d stay in the house and continue to rock his fuckin’ world, at which Frank totally lolled and was playing the Twilight Zone theme.
- Introducing Hang ‘Em High, Gerard asked if we were ready to rock this cowboy style, then let out a few cringe-inducing Yeeeeeeehaw!s. *facepalm*
- Between songs, Gerard gave Mikey a little back rub and then slapped his shoulder before walking away. I died, tbh.
- Gerard mentioned that he’d gotten married in Denver, and talked about Lyn and dedicated My Way Home is Through You to her. N’awwwwwww!
- At some point (I forget which song) Gerard had some pretty epically gay tambourine-playing going on.
- He introduced I’m Not Okay as the number one summer jam. Dorkface.
- At one point, Gerard gave his epic “take care of each other” speech, and then at another point made us turn and hug our neighbor.
- Someone had thrown a bag of handmade scarves on the stage, and (possibly) someone else had tossed up a silk scarf, and Gerard thanked the crowd. He did a gay little scarf dance with the silk scarf and then said he’d definitely be using that. We were like WE BET YOU WILL.
- He had us sing happy birthday to their booking agent, whose birthday was the day before.
- Someone had thrown something that (we’re still contesting this point) was either a princess tiara or a sparkly thong, and Gerard tossed it over at the drum set and said he would definitely not be wearing that. MUAHAHA.
- Gerard said we were going to rock Teenagers Lynyrd Skynyrd style, to which amused Frank shook his head and laughed. A tech came out and played harmonica on it.
- Gerard said Mikeyway had bought a Ouija board and consulted it to decide what songs they should play, and said that explained the unusual set list (OM NOM NOM B-SIDES!)
- Before Prison, Gerard had us all “testify” and then was going on about “here comes the judge” and I was just like, *facepalm*.
- Gerard reached for a set of Bob’s sticks and was like, “Are these for me? Can I give these to the kids?”
- Gerard totally jerked his mic off into his mouth. NNNGH.
- During the encore break, James played and sang November Rain, then finished it by announcing that he thought he’d just gotten hit in the balls. <3
AND NOW. The set list, to the best of our memory. As I said we can’t really remember the order, but I at least tried to put the songs into some semblance of order. The middle is definitely sketchy, but I’m pretty sure the first several songs are right as well as the encore.
Sleep
Give ‘Em Hell, Kid
Dead!
My Way Home is Through You
Welcome to the Black Parade
This is How I Disappear
Hang ‘Em High
I Don’t Love You
Kill All Your Friends
Headfirst For Halos
I’m Not Okay
Teenagers
You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us in Prison
The Sharpest Lives
The Jetset Life is Gonna Kill You
Mama
Famous Last Words
House of Wolves
I Never Told You What I Do for a Living
Cancer
November Rain
Desert Song
Helena
So today we pretty much feel like we’ve been beaten with sticks and can’t breathe/walk/talk/move properly, but I would do it again in a second. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH OMFG. *flail*
MYSPACE DARK HORSE PRESENTS VOLUME 1
By Joss Whedon, Gerard Way, Mike Mignola, Steve Niles, Gilbert Hernandez, Ron Marz, John Arcudi, Bob Fingerman, Fillbach Bros, Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon, Guy Davis and Herb Trimpe.
The first six issues of MySpace Dark Horse Presents includes Joss Whedon’s complete rock’n'roll saga Sugarshock!, a fun-filled story about a quirky girl named Dandelion, and her love of music (and hatred of Vikings); Mike Mignola’s haunting holiday tale, lushly illustrated by Guy Davis, “The Christmas Spirit”; a lost Umbrella Academy chapter written by Gerard Way about our favorite curmudgeon, The Kraken; and a four-part story dedicated to Eric Powell’s The Goon. This volume also includes a wide range of established comics talent, and stories from newcomers who saw their professional debut in MySpace Dark Horse Presents.
176 pages, $19.95, in stores on Sept. 17!
Credit: Comixtreme.com
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