"... The role of direct support on this leg of the tour is filled by My Chemical Romance. Had we gotten the UNBELIEVABLE Canadian line-up with Rancid and Against Me!, I would have been reduced to a gelatinous pile of incoherent shrieking, but alas, it was not to be. I’ve seen My Chemical Romance a few times in the past, pre-fame and once post-fame opening for Green Day. I like the fact that these guys are seemingly able to sluff off any labels that get attached to them by snarky media outlets and bitchy music savants, and the live presence makes me respect them even more. Following the scandalous departure of drummer Michael Pedicone, I feel no one would have blamed the band for bailing on the tour or putting on a subpar performance. While the band’s setlist seemed rather limited by which hits could be learned in a timely manner, the performance was up to those expectations. The band’s set focused largely on material from Danger Days, and I must admit that the live interpretations of the songs made me rethink my ambivalent position on the album. They stuck to the standouts (“Na Na Na”, “The Kids From Yesterday”) for the hardest hitters, but also managed to get a comparatively large response for “Planetary (Go!)”. In my experiences, “Mainstream” crowds in Des Moines are notoriously dead crowds, even for headliners. The fact that My Chemical Romance got the half of the floor jumping and dancing to such a divisive song may be pathetic in larger markets, but I assure you, this is a moral victory. The band was hobbled by poor sound, with guitars and lead man Gerard Way drowning out everything except the snare and bass drum. Still, the band gave one hell of a performance in the face of all the adversity they’ve seen over the past few weeks. Gerard Way remains a magnetic presence on stage and has never sounded better, especially during the set ending duo of “Welcome to the Black Parade” and a stripped down version of TBP standout “Cancer”. A seemingly frustrated MCR left the stage with a simple “Goodnight, Motherfuckers!”, and we were left to wait for Blink 182."
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