One of these events takes place every year but for the other it’s a one day, once in a lifetime event – My Chemical Romance are in town to perform their seminal album, The Black Parade, in full.
As with all MCR albums it’s a concept piece – frontman Gerard Way was a writer for Cartoon Network before forming the band on the back of 9/11 attacks – but for the 20th anniversary said concept has been revamped.
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Originally telling the tale of a man dying from cancer who sees death come for him in the shape of a marching band, the story now features a band being forced to relive their greatest hits at the behest of the Grand Immortal Dictator, leader of the fictional nation of Draag, a constant and increasingly unimpressed presence throughout the show. Early on Way, in character, describes him as “the 27-time most handsome man in the world”, a line which would not look out of place on Donald Trump’s Truth Social.
The concept itself could not be more meta – are we, the audience watching this 20th anniversary show, the baddies? – but it would fall to pieces without the songs to underpin it. Thankfully they remain untouchable.
Piped on to the bagpipe strains of ‘Scotland the Brave’ – the band’s name comes from an Irvine Welsh collection – My Chemical Romance begin running through the album that made them the zeitgeist, accused by the Daily Mail of being the driving force behind the “sinister cult” of emo.
My Chemical Romance performing at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow (Image: BRYCE HALL)
Twenty years later that narrative looks even more ridiculous than it did when the ‘MCRmy’ picketed the newspaper’s offices – you’d struggle to find a more life-affirming event.
These songs clearly mean everything to the audience, many of whom are too young to remember the aforementioned moral panic, and when the G note hits on the piano to advent ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’ it’s a unifying moment for “all the broken” referenced on the bridge.
The final three tracks of the main set encapsulate My Chemical Romance as a band. ‘Teenagers’ has the crowd jumping and singing, there are more than a few tears during ‘Disenchanted’, and ‘Famous Last Words’ sees the stage ablaze as 40,000 people scream that they’re not afraid to keep on living.
The album ends with what in the days of CDs would be a hidden track called ‘Blood’ and here the bombast is turned up to 11, a Pierrot clown stabbing Way to death, dancing in the gore, then detonating a suicide vest.
That’s the end of the main show, and My Chemical Romance return for what amounts to an extended encore, the grandeur stripped away.
My Chemical Romance performing at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow (Image: BRYCE HALL)
It’s here the only fault can be found, as the band dig into some of the deeper cuts, the tension between post-hardcore and stadium becoming apparent.
There’s a first ever live airing for ‘AMBULANCE’, the diehards are treated to ‘Hang ‘Em High’ and closer ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’ but, great as they are, structurally those songs belong in a sweaty basement rather than an arena and it shows.
By contrast, ‘I’m Not Okay (I Promise)’ may have first been played in a sweaty, low-ceilinged club but was always destined for the arenas and ‘Ghost Of You’ achieves the rare feat of both mass singalong and tears.
Penultimate track ‘Helena’ is the prime example, beginning with a whisper and building to a bridge that must have been heard in Lanarkshire.
So long and goodnight indeed.
