My Chemical Romance SING it for Glasgow's Teenagers

[ofyourdeath.livejournal.com]

Review: With their black hearts on their sleeves, New Jersey's My Chemical Romance return to the live scene, bringing their angst-ridden rebellion to Glasgow's SECC.

Regardless of the band's migration from the "We're not emo" (but oh boy! they were) image onto a more traditional punk edge, tonight's audience was definitely still proudly part of The Black Parade. The SECC is like a scene from a Tim Burton movie with the odd appearance of The Crow.

Bringing their World Contamination Tour to town, the power punk professionals have stood the test of time (and recurring on-stage bottlings), their popularity high a decade after they appeared with their tales of woe and eye-liner to rival Ms Winehouse.

Striking hard tonight with a chaotic rendition of most recent single, Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na), it's evident early on that this is a dramatic show. Frontman Gerard Way is a natural story-teller, exuberant in facial expression and hand gestures, as theatrical as Lady GaGa's latest egg-scapade. From the safety of the parental perimeter the passion of fans is clear to see whilst cries of "Killjoys make some noise" from the stage are answered in an instant (much to the annoyance of wearily nagging parents).

Performing as a six-piece, the stage show is old school rock 'n' roll, with energy in excess replacing compelling visuals or an adventurous stage setup, aside from an odd image or bold statement on two large screens. This works, though the sound quality is a wall of noise with little clarity. Something is regained in quieter sections (which are few and far between), but in general tracks bleed into one another with any vocal dominance only happening during Way's most nasal warblings. Regardless, this doesn't stop the dedicated crowd chanting every word whilst dancing their angst away.

The show runs seamlessly with electronics and samples interspersed between tracks for delivery of the set as a complete package. During tracks like SING and Planetary (Go!), which for a brief second could fool you into thinking The Prodigy are about to hijack the stage, it doesn't matter how riotous the band are (or how glittery their guitars are for that matter), the focal point is snatched by Way. Performing on bended knees and addressing the crowd between vocals, he is the element which keeps the show interesting amongst the noise cloud.

Nearing the end of the set, the Queen influenced Welcome To The Black Parade causes widespread chaos before the rebellious guitar licks of Teenagers are dedicated to the fans, the 33 year old vocalist declaring, "This song isn't about us, it's about you." Thank goodness for that for, if it was any other way, he really would be kidding himself.

With diversity lost in tonight's performance, I get momentarily excited during pre-encore chants of "MC Hammer" only to realise that what I am actually hearing is "M-C-R." A rendition of Cancer, however, backed only by piano, is a pleasant surprise allowing an emotional delivery of the tortured ballad.

My Chemical Romance prove they're not simply a phase and provide a refreshing rock'n'roll ethic amongst a pop-saturated culture. With fury and mayhem at it's core though and an army of young fans I wonder just how long this rebellion will last.

Source

Comments

[iamsupernova.livejournal.com]

Wow, two hateful, misspelled whinebag reviews of a My Chem show in a week. Honestly, you'd thing the emo trend arose in the ranks of bitter music reviewers, not emotional, angsty teenagers.

[(Anonymous)]

With fury and mayhem at it's core though and an army of young fans I wonder just how long this rebellion will last.

...the reviewer does know the band has been around for 10 years, right? With a very solid, consistent fanbase?

What a bizarre review.

[bebunny.livejournal.com]

seconded...bizarre is one word for it...

[sweetreverie.livejournal.com]

Yes the review is hateful and odd. Almost like the NME in that it tries to stick in as many insults while admitting that they are actually a good band. Also I am not a teenager and not many people around me were either (oh and I was down the front).
The only thing she got right is the sound was a bit dodgy at some points earlier in the set imo.
STV are hardly a good source though.

[patentpending.livejournal.com]

Oh look, a "review" riddled with unnecassary underhanded comments that really pertain nothing to the show at all that makes the writer come off as one of those, "I am bitter I have to review this band that I secretly enjoy but am too cool to admit to anything of the sort." And lol @ calling the crowd "angsty" when she clearly expresses they are dancing and enjoying themselves. I can't believe people still do this.

[lokte.livejournal.com]

The SECC venue in Glasgow is notorious for poor sound. It wasn't the best but I have definitely heard worse there and I certainly don't think that was the fault of the band.

[sweetreverie.livejournal.com]

Yes I meant to put this in my comment above. The sound there is always hit or miss tbh. I am becoming to hate the secc and their random rules and nazi security too. But that would be a whole other story.

[sweetreverie.livejournal.com]

MTE!

[rosalui.livejournal.com]

I will never for the fucking life of me understand why people talk about sad songs as if they are a bad thing. There are a lot of motherfucking sad people in the world. Sometimes when we go through shit, we need sad songs. And if they're really fucking well-written, who gives a shit?

My Chemical Romance prove they're not simply a phase and provide a refreshing rock'n'roll ethic amongst a pop-saturated culture. With fury and mayhem at it's core though and an army of young fans I wonder just how long this rebellion will last.

And lo, they did contradict themselves.

[flamewarrior.livejournal.com]

I was at that gig, and a good 1/3 of the audience were over 35 - and most of them weren't just there to look after their kids.