LEGENDS, MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, BRING TOUR TO BOSTON
September 7th, 2022 started the first of two sold out nights in Boston featuring the legendary alternative rock band, My Chemical Romance. The tour, which had previously been postponed for two years, finally was able to land in Boston where the streets surrounding TD Garden were filled with pedestrians clad in wardrobes reminiscent of circa 2010's. The show was nostalgic, entertaining, and nothing like I've quite ever seen before.
Bad Flower
Leading the night was Los Angeles based rock band, Bad Flower. They opened the night with their song “Don’t Hate Me” on their Album This Is How The World Ends which came out just last year. The band had also played their songs “Stalker”, “Ghost” and ending their set was “30”.
Thursday
Following up Bad Flower was Thursday, a post-hardcore punk band from New Brunswick, New Jersey. Right off the bat they opened their high energy set with the song “The Other Side of the Crash/Over and Out (of Control)” off their album A City by the Light Divided. The band’s frontman, Geoff Rickly, brought the much needed energy and excitement to lead into the night. They played majority of their songs off their hit 2003 album War All The Time, which included the self titled song “War All The Time”, “Signals Over the Air” and “This Song Brought to You by a Falling Bomb”.
My Chemical Romance
If you lived the majority of your teenage years nestled behind a computer screen, specifically one that reflected back “Myspace”, you know who My Chemical Romance is. You don’t just know who they are though, you lived the era and they were absolutely the most influential band of the mid 2000’s when it came to the emo genre, so chances are you probably lived, breathed, did everything while Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge played.
Gerard Way took the stage completely dressed in a tight black zentai suit, but instead of his face covered he had pure white face paint and makeup that was black swan-esque. If you had known anything about the tour, it’s that A) Gerard Way’s outfits have been absolutely iconic and B) The nuttier the outfit, the more insane the show is going to be. This was the case. Starting off the night they played their newest song, “The Foundations of Decay”. This song was dropped earlier this year in May with absolutely no warning from the band, and it surely did not disappoint. Just right at 6 minutes long, the song is the perfect spark to ignite the flame that gets the rest of the show going.
The shows are incredibly unique because the set list is going to always be different. I honestly wish more bands did this because it gives the shows a memorable feeling when you experience them. On the first night of the Boston shows, we had the luxury of hearing songs such as “Thank You for the Venom”, “House of Wolves”, and “The Ghost of You”. Compared to the second night, we definitely got more songs off the Black Parade, which is the album that was my bible during high school so no complaints there!
My Chemical Romance currently consists of lead singer Gerard Way, Rhythm Guitar and back up vocalist Frank Iero, Bassist Mikey Way, and Drummer Jarrod Alexander. The chemistry that the band has with one another is part of the reason that the shows are so much fun to begin with. We were in for a treat as My Chemical Romance played two encores, which were “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid” and “Helena”. “Helena”, which was one of the most iconic emo songs of the mid 2000’s, had the crowd in an uproar of excitement as they bellowed back the words to the band.
This tour was one that I had been personally waiting a very, very, long time for. The excitement that the crowd expressed was reciprocated, and it was one of the most memorable shows I had the chance to attend. I can not wait for My Chemical Romance to make their rounds back to the Boston area, as I will for sure not miss it!
