Review Of MCR In Oslo, Norway & Stockholm

By Teyana Kent
MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE OSLO MARCH 16TH 2011 REVIEW
The day I had been waiting for for so long had finally arrived! I was so happy, sad,
scared, nervous and anxious at the same time. And just for a concert! I left home a
little before 8 am (I had to leave with the school bus, or else my mom would’ve
figured out that I skipped school) and I was by the venue around 9am. I sat down,
found a couple of people I knew, talked and smoked with them, singing and getting to
know them. When the gals I already knew left, I got to know some other pretty
amazing people in the queue. That’s what I love about Norwegian people – they are
amazing when you’re in the queue for a show or something similar.
About five hours into the waiting, the secuirity guys moved the three smaller queues
to one large one, using only one enterance. Thanks to the awesome people walking
around and giving people numbers so the people being there first gets to stay first
no matter what happens, we managed to get to the front again after getting pushed
back. Hours went by, I was interviewd three times – one on TV (people were spamming
my Facebook when they saw it), one on the radio (people kept trying to call me to
tell me they were listening) and one on some music website (no response yet).
After hours upon hours of waiting, they finally opened the doors. I checked my
ticket before running down really steep stairs (I almost fell on my face several
times), and up to the stage. I ended up on the second row, because people who had
won the meet & greet got to get in first and stood on the first row. I was in the
middle, but more on Ray Toro’s side than Frank Iero’s. The first thing I did was
grab the barrier so I wouldn’t get pushed backwards and then the waiting began.
LostAlone was the support band. I had talked to people who had seen them before, and
they all said that LostAlone was boring on stage, had boring songs and were bad
entertainers, so I didn’t have high expectations. However, as soon as Steven got on
stage I knew I loved them. He was like a mini Frank Iero from 2004-2005: happy,
jumping, rolling around, screaming and just having a blast. It was awesome to watch,
and he just gave me a really bubbly feeling. Alan was also amazing on stage, and my
friend got to the conclusion that his legs were worth gold. I loved the music as
well, and I had already listed LostAlone as one of my top 10 bands after their short
set.
When the lights went out and we wpuld hear Dr. D, people went wild. I was already
crying like a little baby; I couldn’t believe I would actually be able to see MCR..
I mean.. wow. “Na Na Na” started and people went wild. The temperature in the crowd
was rising, but it didn’t matter. “Thank You For The Venom” followed, and as soon as
the amazing Revenge song was over, Gerard made sure that everybody was ok. I thought
it was a hint to “I’m Not Okay” coming as the next song, but when “Planetary”
started, I realized that it’s Gerard Way we’re talking about. He actually cares
about his fans.
The show was incredible – a lifelong memory. In the middle, people were throwing up
Norwegian flags and hats… Mikey Way picked up a flag and started to wave it back
and forth before putting it in the “Good Luck” helmet. He then put on a Norwegian
flag -printed hat and played some awesome bass-notes. Ray Toro got a viking hat and
played with that on.
Hearing “Cancer” live was surreal for me. I’d seen it on YouTube, I’d heard the
record and I’d prepared myself to hear it, but no matter how much I tried, a new,
bigger flood of tears ran down my face. The pure rawnes.. It was just Gerard
standing in front of his mic singing, and James playing the keyboard…. I can’t get
over it.
The band ended the show with an amazing encore: “Vampires Will Never Hurt You” and
“Bulletproof Heart”. It was increadible hearing Gerard’s screaming during Vampires,
and my love for the band grew even more.
The show was amazing. Even the word ‘amazing’ isn’t big enough to describe it. . I
loved the moment where Gerard unofficially announced them coming back to Norway this
summer. And the fact that both Mikey and Ray put on Norwegian hats. And James
getting Skittles! “Taste the rainbow, James!”. Let’s just say I laughed at his face
when the bag flew up there.
The band didn’t come out to sign, but it didn’t even matter. We had already gotten
the show of our lives
I’M NOT OKAY: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i4lvMa9bys
FAMOUS LAST WORDS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrawljPTp5g
HELENA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziipMZ0bgrY
CANCER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovpHXYJ8UGI
VAMPIRES: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VUqdff4XWo
BULLETPROOF HEART: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKmmdgjO_ko
UNOFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT + NORWEGIAN PRIDE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDlpsPMH_eM
MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE STOCKHOLM MARCH 18TH 2011 REVIEW
After flying to Sweden on thursday and going to bed early, my friend Becca and I
were getting up at 4:30 am to get to the venue early… Let’s just say we failed,
because we weren’t there before 8 am. We met two nice girls and sat down in the
queue with them. We got out numbers, and Becca and me left the queue to look around.
It was a huge building – there were three of four venues in the same building. MCR
got the smallest one, because of a hockey game in the larger one.
After walking throught the mall anf buying coffee, Becca and me ended up on the
wrong side of the building – the opposite of the queue. The semitrailers were there
and local crew were putting up the stage. There were two huge doors open, so Becca
and I got a clear view to the stage. We started talking to one of the local
secuirity guys who’s job was standing outside and making sure fans wouldn’t walk in.
We ended up standing on the wrong side the whole day. After they had loaded all of
the equipment into the building, they closed the doors, but people were still
walking in and out of the building. We kept talking to the onw secuirity guy always
standing outside and becaume quite good friends with him. His name was Nocket and he
was awesome
Every now and then MCR crew came out for a cigarette break. They were all wearing
matching “Danger Days – The Wolds Contamination Tour” sweatshirts, so we quickly got
to know who were local and who were a part of MCR. We got talking to two amazing
crewmembers both named Dave; one of them were SuperDave and the other was
GuitarTechDave. SuperDave came out more often than GuitarTechDave, so we mostly
talked to him.
It was so amazing! He had known the band for seven years and told us so many details
people usually don’t know about the band. Cute and funny details from the weddings,
about the babies, about the guys that people just don’t know. GuitarTechDave brought
guitarpicks for us and a local crewmember from the cateringteam gave me a cork he
had stolen from the champagne the guys had been drinking. They were all pretty
amazing. They talked, told jokes, told us about stuff people don’t know, bummed me
cigarettes, gave us guitarpicks and other stuff… it was increadible.
When LostAlone arrived, we were the only two fans standing there, so of course we
approached them. They were so nice; hugging us, signing stuff and taking pictures
with us, asking how the day had been and which MCR songs we were looking forward to
seeing. They didn’t have that much time though, because they had to do their
soundcheck.
When the bands did their soundchecks, Becca and I got to be the only two fans
listening. It was amazing, and we could hear Gerard being all cute. He was like
“Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaames, oh James.. Jameeees Deweeees”. I had to laugh. They
played “Na Na Na”, “Planetary” and one more song. I honestly can’t remember which
one, but I think it was “Bulletproof Heart”.
After the soundcheck, Becca and I kept staying there and talked to the crewmembers.
That’s when the “jaw-drop” moment started. Someone opened one of the large doors and
I screamed. Right there, in front of me, were GERARD AND MIKEY WAY doing an
interview. I could see the bright red hair and a horrible jacket on the older
brother, and the blonde top of Mikey’s hair. I couldn’t really help but scream
Gerard’s name, causing both of the brothers to smile at me, before yelling that I
loved them. Nocket got pretty pissed, but when a MCR crew member walked out he
smiled and told me that Gerard and Mikey were glad that I had yelled and that they
loved Scandinavian fans. I swear my heart swelled and stayed four sizes bigger than
it had ever been – just like The Grinch.
I also managed to lose my concert ticket while going to the bathroom. I panicked,
ran back and forth and almost started crying. It was an hour until the doors opened,
and it’s never smart to lose your ticket. After looking everywhere, I bought a new
ticket (they had like five left, so I was lucky) and relaxed before walking back to
Nocket to tell him that we were heading back to the queue. SuperDave was there
having a cig, and I told him what had happened. He laughed at my stupidity and
panicking before pulling out his phone (a BlackBerry bold for the people interested)
and asking me what my name was so he could put me on the guestlist. I swear I hit
myself for spending my money on another ticket when I could get in for free instead
of merch. I told him thank you, and then we went back to the queue, met some awesome
people and waited for like half an hour.
The show was amazing. LostAlone did an incredible job (again!) and got everybody
involved in the music. Steven freaked out like a mini Frank Iero again, jumping
around, playing on his back and doing push-ups (!) in the middle of the songs. It
was LostAlone’s last show on the MCR tour, so it was extra special for them which
the crowd felt throughout the whole set.
Gerard hardly talked to the crowd, but there’s one quote that’s stuck in my head. He
said the same thing in Norway, but I couldn’t really hear him because someone got
pulled out right next to me and I helped the secuirity guy with that.
“Stockholm, the world is going to try to clean you up. What are you gonna do about
it? They’re gonna try to fix your face and make you pretty, what are you going to do
about it? You’re gonna say fuck no? (crowd cheering) Right there you said fuck yeah,
you gonna say FUCK NO? (crowd saying fuck no) Here’s what you’re gonna do, you’re
gonna sing about it”.
If I could define a Swedish crowd in one word, it would be “crazy”. People were
passing out before LostAlone hit the stage. Since I was on the first row, people got
pulled out over me all the time throughout the whole show. I could see Gerard being
all concerned when the secirity people pulled out four or five kids at the time.
That might be the reason they didn’t play “Vampires” in Stockholm or the reason he
hardly talked to the crowd at all.
In spite of the crowd going crazy, the band seemed more comfortable in Stockholm.
Frank seemed much more energetic; jumping around and playing his heart out. Ray and
Mikey seemed more energetic as well, and smiled a lot. Gerard even layed down on the
ground and just took a couple of deep breaths in between songs. It was nice watching
them being so comfortable on stage compared to their Oslo show. Don’t get me wrong,
the show in Oslo was amazing, but the show in Stockholm was more personal which made
it just a tad bit better
The band didn’t come out to sign in Stockholm either, but I got a bunch of stuff
from the crew, and I got to meet LostAlone two more times..!
QUOTE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plIzFJrLIts
FAMOUS LAST WORDS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDtKBCgmSyw
The setlist was the same as the Norway show, except for “Vampires”, and it was
incredible. I wish I could have seen a couple of other songs LIVE, but I’m happy
with which songs they played anyways.
SETLIST:
1. Na Na Na
2. Thank You For The Venom
3. Planetary (GO!)
4. Sing
5. Vampire Money
6. Mama
7. The Only Hope For Me Is You
8. House Of Wolves
9. Summertime
10. I’m Not Okay (I Promise)
11. Famous Last Words
12. Destroya
13. Welcome To The Black Parade
14. Teenagers
15. Helena
16. Cancer
*ENCORE*
17. Vampires Will Never Hurt You (not in Sweden)
18. Bulletproof Heart