POSTED AT 02:48 PM
[This is going to be a long one. You have been warned.]
Proof of Fangirlyness
Lately it seems that I only write about things that I am desperately passionate about. This happens to be one of them.
My Chemical Romance, a band originating from New Jersey, is composed of six dorks with instruments. They are outcasts. Comic book geeks and band freaks. Each member has his own history of being bullied, ridiculed, ignored and heartbroken in varying degrees. All that in mind, it is no wonder their first two albums are teeming with angst.
And even as their fame grows they remain just that: weirdoes who have a passion for music and just happened to be really fucking good at it.
I am a fan of My Chemical Romance. Well duh. I will entertain no comments on them being goth, emo, gay, sellouts and whatnot. I simply don’t care, even if they really are all that.
I know all their songs from Bullets, to Revenge to Black Parade and even all the B-sides and covers. I’ve listened to all the interviews I could find, and watched all their television appearances and guestings. I know the history of each band member, what music and movies they like and so many other useless trivia about them. I think I know more about this damned band than I know my subjects in college. I watched them go through the emo-goth phase and was delighted to find that they’ve evolved into rock-opera-punk. Their music grew up and so did they.
And finally, finally, after years of wishing that they come to the Philippines, I saw My Chemical Romance perform live.
Prelude
I didn’t even believe it when I first found out about it and brushed it off as another rumor. Thankfully I got confirmation on the concert on time and managed to get tickets with good seats. Heh. Each of the damn tickets cost a whopping 3,465 pesos. A little too steep for someone who holds onto every penny with a tight fist, but I’ll be damned if I let the chance to see them live slip. I was determined to see them and would not settle for okay seats. (Actually, when we got there, it the Gold and VIP crowd were kind of disappointing. Half of them didn’t even look like they’re enjoying the show.)
What good seats they were too. Well, actually, our seats were somewhere in the middle of the Gold section, which is farther from the stage than I would’ve preferred. We stayed there for the opening act by a Malaysian band whose name and song titles I could hardly understand. (They were really good though, despite the language barrier.) Slapshock’s lead singer even made an appearance to sing with them.
But then when it was time for the main act, my ingenious cousin Czarina suggested that we leave our designated seats and find a better location. She dragged us off and luckily, there was still free space in the front of the section, right near the division of the VIP and Gold sections. Nearby empty seats served as our elevation. There in an open field; I stood on my plastic Mono-Bloc, in heeled boots no less, and jumped and danced with reckless abandon along with everybody else, not caring that I might topple over and break my neck, screaming myself hoarse. My right hand is this close to getting a contracture in the shape of a permanent rock-on gesture. I’ve got tinnitus up until now because of the booming basses, wailing guitar cries and screaming people.
The Main Act
They. Were. AWESOME.
Did I stress that enough? I don’t think I did. If they were good on the records, they are even better live. I’ve seen live performances on Youtube and such of course but nothing compares to the feeling I got when the stagelights died and the intro for This Is How I Disappear began to play. I felt shivers, I was shaking and unable to believe that I can actually see them.
They’re basically the same songs, but the energy, passion and emotion that the songs were made to convey will only be given justice when they are performed on stage, in front of the millions of insane fans. MCR did all that and more.
Ray Toro shredded that guitar so incredibly that I found myself closing my eyes to savor the music whenever he plays a solo. Frank Iero played with his whole heart, soul and body, and you can see it in the manic way he performed. Mikey Way actually moves now. Sure, all he does is that head-shaking-lean-back thing, but for someone who was usually so quiet and mysterious, any sign of movement is good. Bob Bryar, my personal favorite, absolutely transformed from a goofy-looking, bouncer-type dude to a devil on drums. So what if his hair looks stupid in that length and he looks like a ponkan in his orange shirt (everyone else opted to wear, surprise, black.)? He still knew how to handle those drumsticks.
Frontman Gerard Way (yes I think he deserves a separate paragraph), performed with his usual sailor’s mouth, rambunctious antics and laughable yet oddly sexy dance moves. His voice is not quite at par with vocalists such as Brandon Boyd, but he had a style that is all his own and he’s improved so much. Gone was the boy who screamed at random intervals to angry lyrics and in his place was someone who knew he made mistakes and learned from them. He knew how to work a crowd too, that’s for sure. Comments like the “We’re My Chemical fucking Romance!” and “This is the shit we're going to remember when we're fucking old men...which is in about...four years.” were enough to get the audience hyped up. Of course, it also helped that he’s dead gorgeous.
They started off with This Is How I Disappear from their latest album The Black Parade: a good choice for opening number in my opinion. Following that was a mix of songs from all three albums plus a couple of B-side songs and some new songs that are probably going to be in the next album. They even began Cancer with a cover of the Queen classic "Flash". I would’ve liked to hear Thank You for the Venom and Disenchanted live though, but whatever. It was a good combination of old and new.
The Set
Their set of songs includes the following:
From The Black Parade: Dead!, The Sharpest Lives, Welcome to the Black Parade, House of Wolves, I Don’t Love You, Cancer(“I actually can’t fucking hear you.”), Mama (“It’s never gonna heal….unless…you put some penicillin on it…”), Sleep, Teenagers
From Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge: Helena, Give ‘Em Hell Kid, I’m Not Okay, Cemetery Drive, You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison
B-side: Kill All Your Friends ("You guys know what a B-side is? It's a sone we didn't put on the record. Not because it's not totally fucking awesome. Just that we didn't have enough room for it."), Desert Song
(I can’t remember the titles of the new songs and I can’t remember which song from Bullets they sang, though. I think it was Drowning Lessons…or Skylines and Turnstiles. If anyone cares to refresh my memory, please do so.)
And of course, Famous Last Words was just the song to conclude the night of heavy rocking. I have videos of the event, but I wouldn’t bother uploading them, because you probably wouldn’t see anything clearly. A load of times I forgot I was holding the camera and swayed my hands just because Gerard told us to, so the videos are all kind of a blur.
Closing
After the concert we tried to find ways to get autographs and stuff, even tried to catch the band in their hotel. However, a group of stupid kids who got there earlier had actually gone up to the band’s hotel rooms and knocked on the doors, sending the manager and head of security into hissy fits and wanted the rest of the fans to leave. So, no autographs for us. We got to meet some of the crew and the keyboardist though. That’s about as close to them as we could get. Sayang. It would’ve been so freakin’ awesome if we got to meet them. But hey, I can always say I was in the same building as MCR.
And with that, my MCR experience drew to a close. Three thousand four hundred fifty pesos gone, and yet it was worth every peso. I can’t wait for them to return.
(Note to self: find out which hotel their staying at and when the press con is going to happen next time.:D)
