My Chemical Romance Hammersmith Review

Definitely Not ‘Dead!’
The Killjoys of the UK made some noise for the comeback of My Chemical Romance in the first of their three UK dates on their ‘sample’ European tour.
Screams erupted from the eager crowd of the Hammersmith Apollo as My Chemical Romance stormed the stage for the first show in the UK for three years; and it could not have come sooner. The band kicked off their ‘mini European tour’ in London, Saturday 23^rd October. Some fans queued outside the venue for a massive thirty-six hours for a chance of being at the barrier of this sell out show.
  

 Controversy surrounded the American band after their 2006 concept album; ‘The Black Parade’ brought negative connotations to their music, MCR being called a ‘Suicide Cult’ by the national newspaper ‘The Daily Mail’, this causing the band to take a break from the whirlwind that had become their lives and reassess what rock meant to them. In an interview with ‘Kerrang!’ lead singer Gerard Way says “There was something in the back of my head asking, ‘Is this going to happen again? Are we done?’.” and thank the Gods of rock they weren’t. The New Jersey rockers hit back with more vengeance than ever, banishing the dark costumes and themes, trading them for new, colourful comic book personas.
   

The support was the Scottish pop punk band, Twin Atlantic, who gave a lively performance and were a great warm up for the main attraction that everyone was waiting for.
   

At 9pm the anticipation of the crowd was at a peak, a few minutes later the house lights went down and the walls of the Apollo shook. My Chemical Romance ran on stage, starting the show with their new single ‘Na Na Na’, which was barely audible through the ear-piercing screeching from the mainly female audience. Gerard Way smiled at the response of the crowd and seemed genuinely humbled. He gave a truly remarkable performance, his electrifying vocals brightened up the entire venue, joined by a chorus of over 4000 fans, as the band punched out old and new tunes. As promised, MCR played songs from all four of their albums (the fourth not yet released). Reeling out favourites such as ‘Our lady of sorrows’, ‘Helena’, ‘I’m not Okay’ and ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’, just some of the nearly 2 hours’ worth of songs performed. For the track ‘Honey, this mirror isn’t big enough for the two of us’, Way asked for a fan to come on stage and assist with the vocals; he was joined by twins who looked as if they had won the lottery with this opportunity, though they were slightly over enthusiastic hugging and grabbing all the members of the band whilst on stage. But what fan wouldn’t?
  

Guitarist, Frank Iero, appeared to have lost his onstage personality from earlier years, as he took a ‘Kurt Cobain’ like stance for the entirety of the set, saying just one word. Still, he was able to shred the guitar riffs he is known for, with Ray Toro blasting the hair raising solos with an avid excitement at the other side of the stage. The amalgamation of the guitars and drums pounding riled up the crowd to form brutal mosh pits to the older tracks played, fans sharing sweat in this energetic frenzy the band had created.
  

During songs Gerard Way flirtatiously played to female audience members by licking his hand several times and blowing kisses, showing the playful side he has always displayed and being a father and husband hasn’t changed. Gerard’s brother, Mikey, took a confident position with his bass next to the singer during the set, he too being a favourite amongst the female fans.
    

Four tracks from the new album were unleashed on the crowd during the gig, two making their world debut, ‘Planetary (go!)’ and ‘The Kids From Yesterday’ were incredibly upbeat but different to what the fans are used to; they were also only the tracks that the audience gave their full attention to as no one knew the lyrics. The other two ‘new tracks’ being the already epic ‘Na Na Na’ and ‘The Only Hope  For Me Is You’, both very diverse from each other, but equally as crowd rousing.

Although the set was long, being approximately an hour and fifty minutes, the band didn’t lose energy for one moment, making the long wait worthwhile. Gerard Way saying “we’ll be back very soon” and “we always come back for more”, during the gig, are promising indications of a bigger tour next year, and some more eccentric shows from the colossal My Chemical Romance.

My Chemical Romance’s fourth album ‘Danger Days: The True Lives of The Fabulous Killjoys’ comes out November 22^nd.
Words and Photographs by Gemma Harling