I do not like My Chemical Romance. It’s December 2006 and I’m holding a Christmas present from my brother. As I start to open the CD-case shaped gift, he jumps into an explanation of something I only partially pay any attention to. I tune him in when I get the paper off of an album called “The Black Parade”. At this point he’s informing me that I do not like My Chemical Romance. I look up from the My Chemical Romance disc and wait for the punch line. It doesn’t come. It’s not a joke. He has spent time, money, and thought getting me the latest release from a band neither of us like.
He tells me I’ll like it. He tells me he’d been skeptical but that he likes it. He tells me about strong reviews, radio coverage, a cool music video on the internet. He tells me a lot of things. Then he tells me to play the CD.
By the third song I was smiling. After a full run through, intro to hidden track, I was a fan. After rolling the album over twice I was totally hooked. At this point, the Brothers Webb decided that we needed to see these guys live, and if they found Cal on their next tour, we would be there, no question.
My Chemical Romance arrived in Calgary three days after we left. “We would be there, no question…” There was a question, and the answer was “no MCR if we are in Europa”. Terrible timing. And just like that, the Black Parade had marched by. We were punished for being BandWagon jumpers.
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“Look alive, Sunshine…”There hadn’t been a note of music yet, but this was the official announcement from the stage that MCR was in the queue.
“109 in the sky but the pigs won’t quit
You’re here with me, Dr. Death Defying
I’ll be your surgeon, your proctor, your helicopter
Pumpin’ out the slaughtermatic sounds to keep you alive
A system failure for the masses, empty matter for the master plan
Louder than God’s revolver and twice as shiny
This one’s for all of you rock’n’rollers
All you crash queens and motor babies
Listen up!
The future is bulletproof!
The aftermath is secondary!
It’s time to do it now and do it loud!
Killjoys, make some noise!”
People actually ran, dangerously. Nothing as dramatic as pushing or
shoving, but I saw one person spin-out and bail, and a number of others ditching nearly full adult beverages in order to trade Beer-Gardens for Front-Stage – sacrificing stimulus for stimulus. It was the same intro poetry that shot through my speakers the first time I fired up “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys” – an adventurous title for an album of equal quality.
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The Fabulous Killjoys was to their fourth studio album what the Black Parade had been to their third. This was something I really liked about My Chemical Romance, the band was as Method as Brando, the band dug Alter Egos. During their time as the Black Parade, the group performed as characters from the album, costumed in black marching uniforms, giving us MCR but with a personality twist.
Representing the lead singer Gerard Way’s belief that death comes for a person in the form of their fondest memory, to don the black uniforms was to become part of the album’s rock opera – the story of “The Patient” and his passage out of life, through the afterlife, and into reflection of his existence. It’s not as dark as you think. It is definitely as unique as it sounds though. It is a near perfect album that wavers between beauty and sadness, and along the way clutches you with power, contemplation, and humor. It’s a Rock Opera, and Rock Operas will do that to you.
The Killjoys are night and day to the Parade, or rather day and night. Not in the way that the groups are detached, but rather in their related difference – opposition in perfect connection. Standing apart as Vibrant to Pale, Action to Death, Speed to Strength, the two Day and Night editions of The Romance are that mix of consistency and unknown that give substance to both volumes; the first and the sequel.
On stage as on CD cover, the Fabulous Killjoys are colour charged with fast outfits and loud personas that energize MCR’s 4th chapter. Their bios are a story of outlaws, carrying aliases picked up off their designer guns, driven to fight comic-book evil and save fairy-tale girls. It’s almost Shakespearean it’s so rooted in Classic. For some reason lead-singer Gerard Way’s red hair works. Matched with their holstered guns and bright biker jackets, the group screams Business and creates a post-apocalyptic warrior vibe. Like the Black Parade this MCR quartette is raw, unified, and like nothing else out there. The Killjoys are cool, the Killjoys have that Be-Like-Mike effect on you, the Killjoys are a strangely comfortable mix of Tarantino’s ‘the Bride’ and Marvel’s ‘Biker Mice from Mars’. And meanwhile, they also rock a mic with the best of them.
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Dr. Death Defying’s radio broadcast warmed the air, and gave way to the Killjoys’ colour and rebelled ways.
Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na) [Killjoys]
Venom [3 Cheers]
Planetary (Go!) [Danger Days]
Hang Em High [3 Cheers]
Vampire Money [Danger Days]
Mama [Black Parade]
Only Hope [Danger Days]
House of Wolves [Black Parade]
Summertime [Danger Days]
I’m Not Okay [3 Cheers]
Famous Last Words [Black Parade]
Destorya [Danger Days]
Black Parade [Black Parade]
Teenagers [Black Parade]
Bulletproof Heart [Danger Days]
Helena [3 Cheers]
Cancer [Black Parade]
Kids from Yesterday [Danger Days]
(recorded acoustic version) Sing [Danger Days]
This is how a band, who toys with identity crisis and personality reconstruction, puts together a set list. Brilliance. Slotting tracks from across their discography, MCR stitched together vastly different genres of music, creating a fluid performance. This is also how a band with a fan base carrying everything from real life emo-vampires to 15-year-old pop princesses, thanks the Underground and the Mainstream followings at the same time.
While the Brothers Webb were fluent in the ways and words of “the Parade” and “Danger Days”, MCR’s first two albums had only been briefly explored retrospectively. The beautiful thing about watching the Killjoys cover the stage was that we were thirsty for new favourites like ‘Planetary (Go!)’ and ‘Bulletproof Heart’, longing for retro classics circa 06 a la ‘Mama’ and ‘Famous Last Words’, and excited about unearthing what many long time Chemical Romantics had already loved, lost, and resurrected (the Helena’s and Hang Em High’s of collections 1 and 2). Although it was the same band sending out music and lyric from “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge”, things had changed. They had changed. They were no longer a group peeking out from behind a debut cult disc (“I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love”), walking into the light of the general public for the first time with “3 Cheers”; they were that, the post-Parade, and the comic book Killjoys, all 'Genre Law-Breaking' together.
And I had changed; I liked them. The concert indulged the New Need, reminded the Long Love, educated the Ever Explorer, and satisfied that something that could only be fulfilled playing the Starved Spectator.
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A concert’s music is a restaurant’s menu; it’s the foundation for substance, it’s the creative heart, it’s the outlet of quality, it’s only the beginning. My Chemical Romance introduced an energetic team of Killjoys. Lead singer Gerard Way and his line-up of mates pushed 90minutes of big sound and bigger presence from stage to cheap-seat. They were the foreground to a balanced backdrop that felt large enough to support the group’s anthems, while maintaining a subtlety deserving of any raw Rock. The opening acts took hold of their By-Association but didn’t overstay their welcome. Perhaps seen as a demotion from their Black Parade stadium stay in 2008, Calgary had offered MCR the MacEwan Hall, which housed all the Youth and Rough and Vibrant that alt-rock could want. The crowd had prep’d for a party, the beer gardens roared and swelled with life, the Hall and the lobby and the gardens became one, and the Merch line danced around it all. Everyone sang to the ceiling during ‘Teenagers’, the odd lighter joined the cell screens for ‘Kids from Yesterday’, no one stood still during ‘Na Na Na’, and when the lights announced the curtains close, the crowd burst into review. Sometimes the best part of live music is between the notes and behind the melody – the Brothers Webb barely blinked in order to drink it all in. Even after a post-performance breakdown that stretched out over beverage and a homeward bound walk, we still aren’t done reliving the Live.
MCR was worth the wait, worth the cost of admission, and worth the over-priced scraps from the back of the Merch table that I left with.
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Since the concert, the band has taken hold of my stereo and now grips me with a new allure. The Post-DangerDays version of myself has changed, yet again; He (being ‘I’) is hearing the Black Parade again but for the first time; He has found in the Killjoys a personality and charm that had lacked when the songs were just ‘tracks’; He craves more from My Chemical Romance, anything, everything, all ways, always. This rejuvenation is a clear sign of true live music – a concert should open the group up and offer you new depth, depth that gives the band more character, depth that layers your love of them. I am now a true My Chemical Romantic.
I’m not the only one…
I have no need for keeping secrets of the MCR kind. While casually getting debriefed by a co-worker, the Night-Before story turned into a show and tell, resulting in a trade: Killjoys for a little John Prine. Like any good Texan, said co-worker loved that Prine-style folk, and had ranted and raved in turn about his ability to woo an audience. I had an incline that Prine’s wooing was mildly different from the Chem’s wooing, but John Prine didn’t concern me, I can dig the Country/Folk, it was handing a member of the Prine Pride something like Danger Days that felt bold. I opened for the band with some Wiki facts, and described their music like I were a connoisseur of abstract art – nothing is more entertaining when it comes to the business of translating music than teaming odd adjectives together. I told him MCR spent more time as Alternative than Hard Rock, I told him of my hate-love
relationship with them, I told him the group’s groove was Poetic and Colourfully Aggressive. I love My Chem, recommend the Chem, vouch for the Chem, promote the Chem, but I had no hope for the building of bonds between Team Prine and the Killjoys. I should have. I was wrong. Mr. Texas Folk powered through Danger Days twice without coming up for a air. He imported the tracks on to his computer, and when he finally pulled the phones off his ears, asked if I had another dose for him.
Along with many other stories of MCR pimpery, the Danger Days Tour transformation that I have undergone has re-fueled my drive to discover. I now want more of that feeling. It’s a Greed that can’t be tamed by one band, and so I search. It’s great to find passion, and to love music is to love the excitement of Life. So I say: Listen to My Chemical Romance. I say: move off the Dial’s pre-sets. I say: Shazam all of it. I say: YouTube is your friend. I say: Make music part of your life. And if you need a nudge, I say let Hi-Jacked! highjack your player.
And if it all makes sense, and you miss the confusion, listen to the rhythm and rhyme of Dr Death Defying and just go with the flow:
Bad news from the zones tumbleweeds
It looks like Jet-Star and the Kobra Kid
Had a clap with an exterminator that went all Costa Rica
And uh got themselves ghosted, dusted out on route Guano
So it’s time to hit the red-line and up thrust the volume out there
Keep your boots tight, keep your guns close
And die with your mask on if you’ve got to
Here, is the traffic
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Get to know MCR – more than a Band, more than music:
- “Vampire Money” was written in response to an offer made by the producers of Twilight – they wanted MCR to write music for the movies, MCR thought the movies sucked, MCR never wrote a song for Twilight, MCR wrote “Vampire Money”, “Vampire Money” makes fun of Twilight.
- The Band refers to their music as Violent-Pop.
- Gerard Way worked as an Animator and Comic Book Artist before becoming the face of MCR.
- At the age of 15, Gerard Way was held at gun point. Gerard’s brother and MCR member has also been held at gun point.
- At the age of 15, Mikey Way was bootlegging Disney Movies and auctioning them off on E-Bay. Mikey was caught by authorities.
- The younger of the Way brothers, Mikey was working in a book store and had picked up Irvine Welsh’s book “Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance”. Mikey thought ‘Chemical Romance’ had a cool ring to it. Mikey also thought that adding a ‘My’ in front of it sounded even better.
- The first song written by Gerard Way, and the subsequent start of My Chemical Romance, was “Skylines and Turnstiles” – the song draws inspiration from the effect the September 11the attacks had on Way.
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And now, as Live and Raw as the performance, Footage from a Fan - iPhone Art:
