IT WAS NEVER JUST A PHASE: MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE BRING THE BLACK PARADE BACK TO GLASGOW

Picture the scene. It’s 2004, in the midst of teenage angst, the only bit of makeup that matters is eyeliner, and everything – well, at least 90% – of your wardrobe is black and oversized. It feels like the world is against you, and it’s just you, a copy of Kerrang!, and a portable CD player in your bag. Surfing through the music channels, the pale face of Gerard Way singing ‘Helena’ on a church podium pulls you in, and you are drawn into a world that just makes sense.

22 years later, the world has changed, and I like to think that my fashion choices have marginally improved too. But what hasn’t changed is my love and connection to music. There’s something beautiful about putting on a song and being instantly transported to another time. My Chemical Romance have that effect. While they haven’t massively been on my radar in my adult years, they are a band I always come back to, with the songs hitting just as- if not more – powerfully than they did back then.

Stepping into Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park on a wet July evening alongside my own 15-year-old emo teen, I wondered if that magic would still hit? There was no real doubt and standing in a sea of fishnets, damp eyeliner, and thousands of fellow former-scene-kids-turned-functioning-adults, the nostalgia was deep. Marking 20 years of their biggest hit The Black Parade, My Chemical Romance were set to up the ante, making the parade bigger than ever: Long Live The Black Parade has arrived.

As Bellahouston Park became awash with black, a sold-out crowd – plus a gathering on the hill facing the stage – were all ready to be transported to the realm of The Black Parade. The Scottish weather, on the other hand, hit an awkward early technical difficulty. As the big screens were branded in a dystopian Soviet aesthetic and The Carpenters’ ‘Yesterday Once More’ echoed across the park, the anticipation was bubbling. Then it stopped. With the power cut, the crowd were left wondering if this was part of the show. But as the minutes passed, it became apparent it wasn’t. Yet, in the most Scottish way possible, out came a fully tartan-clad bagpiper to keep the momentum going. I have to presume he was there already as part of the show; I can assure you that we don’t have random pipers just cutting about in case of an emergency in the Southside of Glasgow.

When the show finally began, it was as if the delay had never happened. Ripping straight into album opener, ‘The End’ and then letting it all blow up with ‘Dead!’, My Chemical Romance had arrived. Performing The Black Parade in full and in order is always a risky move for a band, with the worry that some fans may flail on the deeper cuts, but not this lot. It’s an album which I never quite devoured the same way as I did their first two, but seeing it played with full theatrics tonight has since sent me down a massive rabbit hole. So bear with me as I try to explain the narrative as best I can…

In a nutshell, the Long Live The Black Parade tour reframes their 2006 rock opera as an Orwellian dystopia where the band, imprisoned years prior by a totalitarian regime called DRAAG, is granted “work release” to perform as forced state propaganda. Monitored by an abusive government Clerk and the Grand Immortal Dictator, the band plays under rigid military surveillance – even coercing the audience to vote on mock executions using handed-out YEA/NAY banners. This forced compliance violently shatters in a chaotic, fiery climax where the characters are killed by the state, allowing the band to shed their costumes, escape the propaganda machine, and transition to their stripped-back true identity as My Chemical Romance.

Are you still following me?

Now, with that part out of the road, lets get back to the show.

Easy highlights of the set were naturally the title track‘Welcome to the Black Parade’, the infectious pogo-bopping ‘Mama’ (featuring “Marianne”) , and the generation-defying rebellion anthem ‘Teenagers’. The theatrics of the show were as impressive as they sound, and the repeated flame pyro was a lovely, cozy touch too, warming up a damp crowd. Gerard Way is a born performer, and watching him lean so heavily into the show’s dark narrative was nothing short of captivating. The grand finale of ‘Famous Last Words’ and the‘Blood’ encore were wrapped in a substantial performance which saw the stage engulfed in flames and the band “executed” before a menacing clown detonated an explosive vest, leaving the stage a cloud of smoke in its wake.

As the smog drifts over Bellahouston Park and the rain drizzles on the ground, there’s a shared sense of community among those who feel they have collectively witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime sort of event. And after a breather, the set was cleared and My Chemical Romance returned to the podium, this time stripped back and ready to rock.

Phased in by the beautiful sounds of celebrated cellist Clarice Jenson, Act 2 is where I felt the show really began. A sort of ‘best of’ set combined with some deeper fan cuts – including the live debut of ‘AMBULANCE’ – the second half of the show brought a connection that no amount of theatrics could ever deliver.

From Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, we got ‘It’s Not A Fashion Statement, It’s A Fucking Deathwish’, ‘The Ghost of You’, ‘I’m Not Okay (I Promise)‘,‘Hang ‘Em High’, and the penultimate ‘Helena’. I suddenly found myself thrown straight back to those Kerrang! days, probably embarrassing my teen in the process. The nostalgia was like a wet fish to the face, and it felt so good. The banter was great too; some reference to “spice bags” was probably wasted on me, but it was refreshing to hear the band ease into the crowd. Gerard Way talks a lot about his love of Scotland (he did marry a Scottish woman after all), reminiscing about the early days where they played the iconic King Tut’s and the Barrowlands “back in the day.”

“This is the first time we’ve ever played this song live,” declares Way. “This song is called AMBULANCE.” A very deep cut from 2012’s Conventional Weapons – a record which many MCR fans deem one of their finest efforts – the show instantly goes from just another gig to one of the best of their revival.

Personal highlights, though, fall within the two tracks they played from their debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love – my favourite of their discography, which stands the test of time against its much more theatrical peers. ‘Our Lady of Sorrows’ confirms that I’m not the only one who adores that debut. Then, following an epic rendition of ‘Helena’ which felt like a natural conclusion, the band admit that it’s not all over.

Closing in on 11pm, there’s no time for messing about. Sharing a story of their time in Glasgow over 20 years ago where a fan asked them to sign their vampire stake, Way introduces the next track as his own favourite My Chemical Romance song, ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’. Coincidentally my emo teen’s favourite too, and one from my favourite of their albums, the evening’s late conclusion felt fittingly right.

Whether we’ll all still be here in another 20 years is a question worth asking, but tonight, none of that mattered. Tonight was about being entirely present. My Chemical Romance solidified that it was never just a phase – and Glasgow, we belong.

All photographs by Nora Toth and shared with permission.

My Chemical Romance: Long Live The Black Parade Tour comes to Wembley Stadium this week – 8, 10, 11th July – with remaining tickets on sale here.

Summer Sessions concerts continue in Edinburgh next month with shows from The Cure, Biffy Clyro, Lorde, Florence and The Machine, Deftones, The Prodigy and Heather On The Hill day fest. For the full line up and remaining tickets CLICK HERE.

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Anne Kelly

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