My Chemical Romance [Civic Arena, Manchester, NH] 22 Feb 2007
My first My Chemical Romance experience coincided with their first night of their American tour, which was a bit nice. After tooling up the coast to Manchester with Dearest Girl and dealing with mustard disasters of the Burger King proportions and headaches fixed with powders from a local gas station, we got snowed on and then felt-up by the venue staff. Emptied pockets, opened smoke packs, fingers up underneath the hems of my jeans -- the whole nine yards.
Luckily, missed the openers, and managed to get seated all together. Our original seats were not next to each other (but they were free, so I am not going to complain), and there were 16 year olds with asses firmly planted in them. Went two sections closer, and enjoyed four seats to the three of us.
Rumors abounded regarding pyrotechnics and stage craft, and we weren't disappointed. The band opened as "The Black Parade," fully costumed in their soldier garb with face paint. Gerard was thankfully raven-haired again, and came out on a hospital bed. They kicked into the new album, and played it from start to finish. Drum set was set on a revolving platform, and the set-ups were switched off during the show.
Boy from Reggie and the Full Effect who made Darling Girl cry on her birthday two years back was playing keys for the Black Parade, and it took Gerard introducing him for us to believe that it really was him. Lesson learned: Never doubt a lady regarding a boy's moves on stage.
The singalong factor to most of the tracks was insane, and the crowd was packed with crying/screaming/fainting girls. Forgot my ear plugs, as I was in a rush, and ended up stuffing my ears with tissues the girls behind us were so piercing.
The singalong bits were quite nice, though, especially when they got to the "I see you lying next to me, with words I thought I'd never speak, awake and unafraid, asleep or DEEEEAAAAD!" Lights came down after the latest single, and they did a quick change and came out as "My Chemical Romance," with a "REVENGE" backdrop. Opened up a mini-set with "I'm Not Okay," and ended it out with "Helena." During the latter, a wee blonde was pulled from the front, and had to get carried off. At other points, Gerard instigated a pit, and there was just a lot of bizarre behavior from the crowd.
While I'm sure Those Boys never thought that they'd be a "teen idol" band, I do find it strange how uncomfortable they sometimes are with that attention. If you don't want to be huge, don't sign to a major. And if you sign to a major, use your power to say, "Only 18-plus shows, no arenas." It's the money machine, do not get me wrong, but there are ways to be comfortable and get paid. This was an all-ages show, and maybe I'm cranky and old, but I found it off-putting how often Gerard swore to the crowd, calling us all "motherfuckers." I have a really big pet peeve with someone calling me a curse word -- I really don't care about using curse words as expletives, but when you sit there and call me a motherfucker, I kind of want to kick you in the balls, y'know?
We'll see how the Hartford show turns out. Surely the Black Parade set will be the same, but Dearest Girl is holding out for her favorite jam, an old-school ditty called "Vampyre". This time I'll bring ear plugs, though.
