My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade Is Dead! Review

Posted by Daniel Wilcox on 07.07.2008

The Black Parade Is Dead! showcases two very different MCR live performances, and if The Black Parade is dead, at least they went out with a bang.

When My Chemical Romance’s I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought me Your Love, their debut, dropped in 2002, the band garnered a pretty big underground following as an alternative rock band. The release of Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge saw My Chem’s image change drastically as they gained massive mainstream attention. Their new emo fan base angered a lot of their original fans who said they had “sold out” but in doing so the band were on their way to becoming one of the biggest rock bands in the world.

The Black Parade, released in 2006, would see the band change creative direction again, now representing more of a classic 70s rock sound. The Black Parade dispelled any preconceptions most critics had of this band, going a long way to prove that these are in fact a group of very talented musicians and writers as well as every teen’s favourite emo darlings. With influences like Queen and Pink Floyd’s The Wall, their third album is a rock opera that chronicles the death of a character named The Patient; the album presents his death and his reflection on his life among other things. Such themes have not helped MCR to shrug the emo label – on the contrary, depending on what newspapers you read “The Black Parade” is now a nirvana for teens that are fans of the band, and they all want to kill themselves to get there. But The Black Parade is more than just an album title; it’s the persona that My Chem take up when they take to the stage, dressed in their trademark black and gold costumes. And now, the Black Parade is dead.

Gerard Way in full Black Parade costume

To go with such a mammoth concept and stylistic album, the band’s live performances since the release of The Black Parade have been equally elaborate, ambitious and breathtaking.

This CD/DVD set captures the band’s final performance as The Black Parade, a sold out show in the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City, Mexico, as well as an intimate MCR performance in their hometown of Hoboken, New Jersey. As one chapter of the My Chemical Romance journey ends, another begins, and that is very much captured in The Black Parade Is Dead!


It’s only fitting that My Chemical Romance’s final performance as The Black Parade take place in Mexico City, the capitol of the country where the worst examples of anti-emo violence have taken place. Vocalist Gerard Way has been very vocal regarding the matter despite his claims that the entire emo movement is “bullshit.” Still, it’s nice to hear a guy who so many young people look up to speak out against this type of thing. The only time Way really takes a moment to address the crowd during this show is to inform them that “this is the last performance of The Black Parade, forever! And we wanted to come down here, to Mexico, to properly kill them off!”

And kill them off they do, with unrealistic venom. Anyone who has been to a MCR show where they have performed as The Black Parade will be familiar with Gerard Way’s entrance, being wheeled onstage on a gurney before slowly sitting up and segueing into The End. The crowd go crazy for it every time and it’s merely a sign of the theatrics to come. The band’s greatest ballad, Cancer, sees all the light on stage dimmed bar one, a solitary spotlight beamed down on Way who stands as a silhouette and delivers one of the better vocal performances of his live, taking a long pause for completing the final line, “’cause the hardest part of this, is leaving… you.” The performance makes for a fantastic visual and is one of the highlights of the set.

As usual, the band simply play through the The Black Parade track by track, in order, without looking into their past discography and I guess for a concept album such as this, that is the way it should be done. From “The End” the band move flawlessly into Dead!, beginning with an elongated scream of “Mexico!” and climaxing with a solo by Ray Toro, guitarist. Dead! Is one of the best tracks on the album and the band no doubt do it justice here, and Way leads the crowd into a frenzy for the solo and then seconds later has them singing along to a ravishing closing chant of “la, la, la la la!” and ending with a pondering “if life is just a joke, then why am I dead?” The Palacio de los Deportes is then bathed in darkness until the next song kicks in and the crowd chaos resumes with an anthemic rendition of This Is How I Disappear, the highlight of which would be Way’s maniacal tease of “you wanna see how far down I can sink?”

Vocally, The Sharpest Lives is clearly a song that’s not easy to do live and it shows here as this is probably the lowest point of the performance, Way losing it in parts and a crowd seemingly waiting for the next big song. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad performance of the track but after the last two kick-ass anthems, this is a half-hearted performance from Gerard and the crowd, as they have to be asked twice to “scream!” Lucky they’ve got the fireworks then, as the song climaxes, a quick blast of pyro sending the fans into one more big mosh before they all get ready to sing along to Welcome to the Black Parade. As soon as that first note on the keyboard (James Dewees, touring member) kicks in, they’re off again. Way leads the fans through the emotional first minute of the song as Bob Bryar’s brilliant drum work kicks in and the show descends into “fists in the air” and Way singing himself into a camp little fit, and not for the last time tonight. Of course, many great performers have had ridden the camp wave to the top, none more so than Way’s biggest influence, Freddie Mercury. And as a frontman, Way does a great job of whoring himself out to get the reaction he desires from his adoring fans. No matter how many times Way sings “I’m just a boy, I’m not a hero,” these fans would likely disagree; Way is their idol tonight. As Welcome to the Black Parade draws towards its end, Toro busts out some more fantastic axe work and Bob Bryar kills it on drums.

This leads into what I consider the performance of the show, a killer presentation of I Don’t Love You. It’s a simplistic song and makes for a tremendous change of pace after the riotous opening of the show. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a piss break, the fans are still there and loving it; it’s simply a chilled out moment with a better vocal performance and a nice moment for the fans as they lead the line of “I don’t love you, like I loved you, yester-” before way caps the line of with a scorching, harrowing end. A strange piano intro leads us into another highlight performance. House of Wolves is dominated by more top quality drumming by Bryar and manic guitar work from Toro and Frank Iero. Way implores “tell me I’m an angel, take this to my grave!” during the chorus of a hectic layering of great instrumental work that makes for an excellent live track, the icing on an already delicious cake being another lengthy guitar solo by Toro. Another piano interlude leads into the aforementioned theatrics of Cancer, and as soon as the audience recognize that first note the band are once again greeted with the high-pitched screams of thousands of adoring teens. And they sing along to every word.


Turn away,
If you could get me a drink
Of water 'cause my lips are chapped and faded
Call my aunt Marie
Help her gather all my things
And bury me in all my favorite colors,
My sisters and my brothers, still,
I will not kiss you,
'Cause the hardest part of this is leaving you.

Now turn away,
'Cause I'm awful just to see
'Cause all my hairs abandoned all my body,
Oh, my agony,
Know that I will never marry,
Baby, I'm just soggy from the chemo
But counting down the days to go
It just ain't living
And I just hope you know

That if you say (if you say)
Goodbye today (goodbye today)
I'd ask you to be true (cause I'd ask you to be true)

'Cause the hardest part of this is leaving you
'Cause the hardest part of this is leaving you
The performance has by now probably peaked but by no means are they done. An edited performance of Mama has “everybody in the whole place” jumping up and down as Way leads his minions, bouncing, fist-pumping and screaming. Way closes out the song with ridiculously camp cries of “a surprise party? For me? You shouldn’t have,” and it seems like no one has any idea what he’s on about, but they lap it up all the same. He asks “are you tired?” before the band bust out another solid performance, this time of Sleep. But once again it seems as though the audience are impatient, awaiting the next song, the marvellous Teenagers. Sleep ends with a long piano outro that allows the audience to once again rile themselves up and once that first riff starts, they’re on fire again. Way gets through the first verse, the bass drum kicks in and they soon hit the first chorus and the scene in the crowd is insane. Musically, there’s not much to the song but they nail it and the crowd are thankful for it. One more Toro solo mid-song leads into a fan-lead bridge and finally one last frenzied chorus. That’s definitely in the top three performances of the gig.

This is where Way addresses the crowd and announces that this is the final Black Parade show, and the Mexico fans seem ridiculously pleased to be a part of it. Way introduces the next song as being “all about dreams.” Disenchanted is My Chem at their best, gradually building to soaring choruses and leading a crowd with ease. Way’s vocals are as good here as they’ve been all night, which is surprising considering the effort he’s put in throughout the performance and the late stage of the game. The band then lead into their final song of the night, the mammoth Famous Last Words. Way begs to know “where’s your heart?” as Toro spurs through one more astounding riff. They hit the chorus, the fans go wild and Way revels in the atmosphere singing, “I am not afraid to keep on living, honey, if you stay I’ll be forgiven.” His mannerisms peak here, insanely camp and yet strangely heroic. Sure, his vocals are on the way out here, but it at least makes for a fun fan-lead line of “I see you lying next to me, with words I thought I’d never speak, awake and unafraid, asleep or dead!” As the song draws to a close, Way announces that yes, indeed, “The Black Parade is Dead!”

This performance alone is probably worth the cost of the set. It showcases all members of the band at their best, Ray Toro’s guitar work is astounding at times and similarly drummer Bob Bryar has a great night. Gerard Way is messiah-like in leading the Mexican crowd through memorable performance after memorable performance and they loved everything he did here. But this set is far from over.

The DVD also has footage of a second performance from the band, this time merely as My Chemical Romance. Playing an intimate gig in their home of New Jersey in front of just a few hundreds fans, this is MCR stripped down and getting the basics right. Way is certainly a lot less animated and that makes for a better vocal performance throughout. The benefit of having this performance included in the set is that you get more than just the tracks from The Black Parade.

The show kicks off with an emphatic presentation of Welcome to the Black Parade before going into Thank You For The Venom, taken from their second album Three Cheers… The camera work here is interesting, ranging from really good close ups of the band to a shot taken from seemingly in amongst the masses of fans which makes for a really good visual. On occasion, we get a black and white shot which just seems unnecessary but I suppose it’s at least a change of pace and keeps the visual fresh. The speed of the camera changes varies with the speed of the performance, which is always a must for any live DVD. There’s not much faulting the production end of the show as it reflects the performance; no frills, nothing fancy and just enough to get by.

Following performances of Dead!, The Sharpest Lives, This Is How I Disappear and Teenagers, the band bring out that anthem, I’m Not Okay (I Promise). It’s another blockbuster performances and one of the highlights of the DVD. Further renditions of You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison and Famous Last Words are equally great, and a rare showcase of one of my personal favourite MCR songs, Give ‘Em Hell, Kid, goes down a treat. House of Wolves, It’s Not A Fashion Statement It’s A Deathwish and I Don’t Love You lead into a track labelled Untitled. After arguing with some fans, Way refuses to name the track, but it’s a nice tease for what is to come on the new album, which the band are currently writing during their hiatus. Since that performance last October, that track is commonly known as Say simply because that word makes up the bulk of the chorus.

The crowd really get into the new song, and I hope it does indeed make the next album. From there, the band hit a homerun with Mama and then proceed to blow the roof off with the ever-awesome Helena, and finish up with another stirring performance of Cancer. Visually, this second show may not be as pleasing as the Mexico gig but it has the benefit of completing the essential MCR live tracks as well as previewing a new track, which is a whole other reason to pick this up. The CD portion of the set is simply an audio-only (obviously) version of the Mexico gig.

My Chemical Romance is: Gerard Way (vocals), Ray Toro (lead guitar), Frank Iero (rhythm guitar), Mikey Way (bassist), Bob Bryar (drums).

The 411: My Chemical Romance's second live set The Black Parade Is Dead! is a testament to the fact that the New Jersey quintet are more than just a flash in the pan, the band that today's youth currently love but will soon forget. The Mexico show proves that they know how to combine brilliant music with fantastic showmanship and make a young audience love it. Gerard Way may come across as a little bit of a pussy, and maybe he is, but he displays great ability in leading a crowd and a band at the same time and as silly as it may seem many people might consider him the closest thing to Freddie Mercury this generation has. Instrumentally, the band are near perfect. I've mentioned him on many occasions, but Ray Toro really does kick ass during this show and is probably one of the more underrated guitarists around, more than likely because of the queer emo band he's in. I'm looking for fault and nothing springs to mind. This is a complete set that chronicles MCR at their very best, both as The Black Parade and as their regular selves. Essentially, this is a must have for all fans of MCR and indeed for anyone else. Leave your preconceptions at the door and you might just enjoy this.

Final Score:  9.2   [  Amazing ]