When I arrived at the 9:30 club on Tuesday night, I could hardly believe my eyes. It was about fifteen minutes until the 7pm door time, and the line was outrageous! It looked to be at least four people wide or more, and stretched almost three full blocks! When I joined the end of the massive line I began to feel a little bit out of place. From a glance it seemed that, oh, maybe 90% of the people in line were teens or tweens. And most of the rest looked to be the parents of said teens. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised. The thing is I’d never been to a My Chemical Romance show before, though I’ve been listening to them (and ok I admit it loving them- does this count as a guilty pleasure?) since the release of their second album “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge” in 2004. Anyway, once the massive line snaked its way inside the club the darkness helped equalize everyone, so it didn’t matter if I was one of the few adults without kids in tow. (More to come later about the pros & cons of a teen audience.*)
I don’t have much to say about the first two bands of the evening. I
guess I can thank the opening band Architects for giving me time to eat
my Nachos of Ulysses without worrying about what was going on onstage.
As for Thursday- I will admit that I am not familiar with their music.
They may be a talented band, but the first thing I could think when they
started their set was that at least half of the guys in the band must
own their own straightening-irons, and the lead singer must practice in
front of a mirror. They felt a little too affected- there was a lot of
hair flipping going on. I found the singer too whiny, and like he was
posing for the audience more than just letting go and singing. That
being said, I probably would have eaten them up with a spoon if I was
15. However, there were moments that rocked enough to make me
momentarily overlook the hair flipping and other antics. Jet Black New
Year, from their EP “Five Stories Falling” made me think maybe they’re
worth another listen.When My Chemical Romance finally took the stage the audience was ready, and surged forward in a wave of energy and excitement. MCR started off their set with the bouncy Na Na Na off of their latest album “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys”. While I’m not yet a fan of this album, the song started their set off on a high-energy kick, and immediately got the crowd jumping and singing along as singer Gerard Way bounced across the stage frenetically. They cranked the energy up even more for their next song Thank You for the Venom, off of their second album “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge”, working the audience even further into a frenzy. At this point I saw a sight I haven’t seen in years- crowd-surfing. It was fun to watch, since none of them were close enough to land on my head, and brought back memories of the Lollapaloozas of my teen years.
While the stage show didn’t have many bells and whistles, just some cool lighting and lots of flashing strobes, it didn’t feel lacking. The music and energy of the band was enough entertainment to keep the audience entranced. Way is a supremely charismatic front-man, engaging the audience throughout, and guitarist Ray Toro provided virtuosic metal guitar flourishes like cherries on top of a delicious rock sundae.
The other highlights of the night for me came in the thrashy House of
Wolves, the super-catchy sing-along anthem I’m Not Okay (I Promise) and
rowdy Teenagers. They ended their main set with a goose-bump-inducing
rendition of their early hit Helena. At this point the band retreated,
except for the touring keyboardist, and Way came back out to sing a
stripped down piano and vocal version of Cancer, belting out the
farewell to the audience ” ‘Cause the hardest part of this is leaving
you.”The band came back out for a two song encore- one of their earliest songs Our Lady of Sorrows, and one of their newest Bulletproof Heart. They left the stage finally, amidst wild cheers, leaving behind their adoring fans to bask in the afterglow of the fun-filled evening.
CREDIT: welovedc.com
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