My Chemical Freak: My Chemical Romance All The Time

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*