Black Parade? More like black magic! My Chemical Romance’s dystopian extravaganza is a masterful exercise in world-building that delights the nerds, freaks and theatre kids alike…
My Chemical Romance start building a world as soon as fans get through the turnstiles. Before the emo hordes even take their seats they’re given a piece of paper reading ‘YEA’ on one side and ‘NAY’ on the other, and for what purpose, they have no clue. This is Draag, a grey totalitarian land both lightyears away but chillingly close to our own, governed by nonsense rules which flash up on screen as the stadium fills. ‘Never abstain from an orderly line’ is one such rule. ‘Avoid all areas where neutrality is enforced’ is another. Occasionally, there’s one that offers a cold jolt when it hits too close to home: ‘All “jokes” must be cleared by the Ministry of Distractions.”
In this world, which seems to react to and laugh at our own approaching dystopia, My Chem are the 52nd Regiment of the Black Parade. They’re supported by the Draag National Auxiliary Band who remain impressively stony-faced as they march through their third album in full for its 20th anniversary celebrationn. Judging by the crowd’s deafening roar, this nightmarish theatre is the window dressing on the stuff of dreams. Decked out in merch and costumes spanning black shirts, red ties and Black Parade jackets, the fans skew young, likely seeing these legit titans for the first time.
It’s everything they could want and more. The reaction to every song is feverish from the beginning of the album to the end, even though the singles – particularly Welcome To The Black Parade – are bound to raise the temperature even higher. Every deep cut is beloved, but they all very much pull their own weight, from the soul-stirring The End to the velveteen drama of Sleep, while Cancer feels like an existential Bohemian Rhapsody. The song that arguably flourishes most in this theatrical realm, of course, is Mama, a wicked slice of dark yet bonkers vaudeville that’s unafraid to take things way over the top.
And yet this is one small cog in a massive, whirring theatrical machine. There’s a sense of deep devotion behind this world, and though it’s detailed, nothing gets lost even in a space this big. Before I Don’t Love You, the crowd hold up their ‘YEA’ and ‘NAY’ cards to vote on whether to execute a group of people, and when they choose ‘YEA’, those people on the B-stage are shot by a firing squad in an explosion of pyro. At the conclusion, following a reprise of The End, a character called the Clerk returns as a Pierrot and stabs Gerard in the throat. He dances about in celebration to hidden track Blood, before unveiling a bomb vest and detonating it.
The second half of the show is simpler, in which My Chem jam through some of their other hits over on the B-stage. This is more of a traditional stadium show, but playing in the round lends it a unique intimacy, almost as if everyone here’s watching a garage rehearsal through a huge window, with Gerard sporting his Steven Gerrard Liverpool shirt.
They give the fans their money’s worth with 10 extra songs, among them anthems like I’m Not Okay, Na Na Na Na and Helena that spark meter-breaking excitement, but there’s plenty of space for more deep cuts. There’s Black Parade B-side Heaven Help Us and Danger Days-era album track Save Yourself, I’ll Hold Them Back, and a rollback to 2004 with some drool-worthy Three Cheers choices in the form of Thank You For The Venom and Cemetery Drive. Meanwhile, The Kids From Yesterday is the skyscraping finale it was always destined to be, a ribbon tied on a show that’s been dark, strange, and bonkers, yet acts as the sort of enrapturing, life-affirming experience that temporarily heals any and every open wound.
The Black Parade’s lore famously goes that death comes to a person in the form of their happiest memory. And judging by tonight, there will be tens of thousands of people who, whenever they touch the pearly gates, will think of this show.
My Chemical Romance's UK tour continues into Glasgow and London from June 4 – 11.
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