My Chemical Freak: My Chemical Romance All The Time

On Friday night at In The Venue in Salt Lake City, the New Jersey-bred rock band signaled that they were going back to basics, ready to reclaim their status as one of the most dynamic rock bands in North America.

Read more and see more photos from Utah News here…

Gerard Way – the frontman for My Chemical Romance – has gone through many changes. Changes in his music, his hair and his life. He matured. He got married. And biggest change? He had a kid.

Read more here…

Gerard Way is older than he seems. He has boyish looks and hair dyed as red as horror-movie blood. The New Jersey native fronts punk band My Chemical Romance. He created a successful comic-book franchise, the Umbrella Academy. In the videos promoting his band’s latest, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, MCR sports superhero alter egos and ray guns. Surprisingly, Way turns 34 on Saturday 9. He has settled in L.A. with wife Lindsey and their two-year-old daughter, Bandit. It’s a remarkable lifestyle change for someone who says he once subscribed to the notion of “live fast, die young.”

Read more from Time Out Chicago.

Photo by Jon T. Cruz

Over the course of ten years, My Chemical Romance has been making music that speaks directly to the hearts of our disenfranchised youth.  These Jersey boys have maintained their status as “saviors of the broken, the beaten and the damned.” After one look around at the sold-out Roseland crowd of adolescents on Friday night, you saw that each one had found a haven of expression and acceptance, even if it is just for a few hours. There were also a fair number of “Gleeks” in attendance, having heard the cast perform the MCR hit “SING” on the February 15th episode.

Read more from Oregan Music News.

Spin magazine has made a list of the best 25 Spring Tours.  MCR has made the list!

Read more here…

CTV’s reviewed MCR’s April 2 show at the Center in Vancouver for Performing Arts in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The reviews up to this point (this one included) have been neutral at best. Here’s an excerpt:

This isn’t to say you have to or even should like My Chemical Romance. Just don’t criticise them for being something they’re not. They’re not metal. Or punk. Or emo. They’re a super tight band that put on an honest, noisy and fun rock and roll show.
—Robert Collins

CLICK HERE to read the whole interview.

Photo by Anil Sharma

The Georgia Straight published its review of MCR’s April 2 show at the Center in Vancouver for Performing Arts in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada today. Here’s an excerpt:

To be a true My Chemical Romance fan apparently means cutting the band a lot of slack. … Many who prefer their inner torment delivered with a lot of chugging guitars and pained howling found themselves felt betrayed when MCR went all rock-operatic for 2006’s The Black Parade. Well, sorry, emo kids, but at least you have the first two albums to console you when all you want to do is barricade yourself in your bedroom, light black candles, and practice making disconsolate faces in the mirror.
—John Lucas

CLICK HERE to read the whole review.

Photo by Rebecca Blissett

Spin magazine reviewed MCR’s March 31 show at the Fox Theater in Oakland, CA.  And don’t worry, it’s much better than the review that appeared in the Oakland Tribute:

Walking onstage without fanfare, marching band uniforms, or fancy staging, the My Chemical Romance that kicked off the North American leg of its World Contamination Tour is far more straightforward than the prog-glam behemoth that brought us The Black Parade. Now a four-piece joined on this tour by drummer Michael Pedicone and keyboardist James Dewees, the Jersey-bred ensemble (currently residing, mostly, in Los Angeles) has morphed back into a polished punk-pop band, one that’s scaled down its theatrics considerably.
—Barry Walters

CLICK HERE to read the whole review and check out some photos.

Photo by Misha Vladimirskiy

MCR’s first U.S. show at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California last night was not well reviewed by Jim Harrington of the Oakland Tribune: “The 90-minute concert was never spectacular, rarely bad, but lacking the thing that this group had in spades in 2006-’07: excitement.”

CLICK HERE to read the full review.

This was the first show of the band’s North American tour and a lot more (hopefully positive) reviews will be coming up.

Remember: If you go to any of the upcoming shows, e-mail us your review and we will publish it on the site!

Since releasing their epic Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys in November, My Chemical Romance have spent the bulk of their time touring Europe and Asia. But the pop-punk heroes are finally bringing their live circus to the States for 33 dates that kick off tonight in Oakland, CA — and they’re promising to deliver a colorful spectacle at some of the most intimate venues they’ve played in years.

“We have an incredible light show,” guitarist Ray Toro tells SPIN. “Before we used to use a smaller palette of color, but now we’ve got all these neons and purples and pinks and reds and yellows. It’s just really bright and bold.”

Read more from the SPIN article here…