As Grand As Macy’s Day Parade

May 22nd, 2007 posted by robb

My Chemical Romance
Air Canada Centre – 05.11.07
Rating: 7.5/10

Let me please explain myself. I was given free tickets, front row, and $400 dollars cash to attend this concert. Ok, so the cash part was false, but in all honesty, I must say that My Chemical Romance was not bad. In fact, if I were only 10 years younger, when I was actually impressionable and untainted by social pressures to stay musically credible, I would have considered MCR a must see. It is unfortunate that age, self-consciousness and my phase of emo-appreciation has passed.

Right when the lights dimmed, I knew I was at an MCR concert. Why? Girls and prepubescent boys were shrieking at a decibel that could have caused every window in Toronto to explode. It was so loud that the first two songs could not be heard over the screaming fans. In usual MCR fashion, they pulled out theatrics pretentious enough to make the biggest of metal hair performance look like open mic show. The first pinnacle moment of the night was during their first single “Welcome to the Black Parade”. Not only was the drum set rotating, but during the climax four confetti canons were shot from every corner of the stadium. Hell, I would have climaxed myself after experiencing such a grand and elaborate production worthy of presidential campaigns. You name it – pyro machines, sparkling curtains, fog machines, spotlights – this concert had it, and then some.

From beginning to end, MCR performed the entire Black Parade album with little to no breaks. Lead singer Gerard Way would occasionally yell positive profanity like “We fucking love fucking Toronto” to keep the kids stirred. Decked in the same costumes as their music video, the band kept their energy consistently high throughout all 14 Black Parade songs. Although the concept of a concept album show has been saturating the market, MCR have reinvented the formula by pretending to be “The Black Parade”, then following up with an actual MCR show. Brilliant. Or foolishly cost efficient, since they can now save costs by cutting one opening act.

By the time MCR came on as MCR, it was evident that the novelty of their theatrics was beginning to wear thin, and the music platform wasn’t much to stand on. There were two notable clichés during the second set of the night. First, a massive background curtain that spelled “Revenge”, surrounded by several pistols in clock-dial motion. Besides the moderate reference to their last album “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge”, were the pistols really necessary? Second, was Gerard Way’s plead to the audience to not kill themselves, nor resort to violence when depressed. Emo has officially reached a new extreme since my Weezer and Dashboard days in high school.

To top off the night, MCR played “Helena” that was oh so suitable for the audience and band alike. A tragic single that echoed the grandiose and cheesiness of the band — “So long and goodnight, so long and goodnight” – It couldn’t have been any more appropriate.

REVIEWED BY: PHIL LEUNG

Section: Uncategorized