My Chemical Romance review – emo’s elder statesmen march into new era
Emo never dies: the fourth wave of the angsty rock subgenre began a decade ago and you could argue that now, with all the fretful pop-punk in the charts, we’re on to a fifth. So My Chemical Romance could not have timed their comeback better, making a new generation of fans as their original teenage audience ages into stadium rock. The band split after 12 years in March 2013, but remained beloved by the MySpace generation; tickets to a one-off reunion show in December 2019 sold out in minutes. Now, after several pandemic-related delays, MCR’s world tour gets under way in St Austell, Cornwall.
The band have nearly a year on the road ahead of them, playing to stadiums of tens of thousands, so these two relatively intimate dates at the 6,500-capacity Eden Project allow them to ease into it. Fans are rapturous at the mere fact of a reunion, and any initial trepidation over how MCR might sound in 2022 seems to come from the stage: the band are somewhat stiff through the sombre opener The Foundations of Decay, which was released only days before the show. That choice seems too preemptive, given their well-loved back catalogue – a warning against expecting exactly the same band you loved back in 2004.
But then they launch into Helena – emo’s ceremonial standard, and a defining video of millennials’ MTV – and the years melt away, with frontman Gerard Way’s swooping, heartfelt chorus echoed by the crowd. Though endearingly awkward with the audience, fretting about his overgrown fringe and asking the spotlight to be turned off him (“It makes me self-conscious”), Way is in command of the mic: spidery-fingered and snake-hipped, his emo scream is at full throttle.
The setlist is split between their Queen-esque melodrama and fun thrash-y punk, with rowdy singalongs to Teenagers and Na Na Na, and ventures into camp on Mama and Vampire Money. Against a backdrop of an apocalyptic cityscape (and the Eden Project’s red-lit biomes), MCR fully commit to the world-building and sardonic humour that has seen their music age much better than many of their contemporaries.
Predictably, the greatest enthusiasm from the crowd was reserved for songs from Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and their beloved 2006 concept album The Black Parade, with Way seeming struck by the reverent response to Famous Last Words. MCR might now be elder statesmen of emo, but the inclusion of later material, plus the hint of a new project titled Swarm on the merchandise table, reiterate that this is not a legacy act cashing in on nostalgia, but a much-loved band re-entering the fray.
Even Way seems surprised by the youthfulness of the crowd – this will have been the first gig for many pandemic-age teenagers. As the uplifting final call-and-response to I’m Not Okay (I Promise) affirms in the encore, The Black Parade marches on with new recruits.
