My Chemical Freak: My Chemical Romance All The Time

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.