March 12, 2023

My Chemical Romance Caught In The Act at The Outer fields at Western Springs (Concert Review)

My Chemical Romance – The Gods of Emo return triumphant, entrancing the black parade of tattoos, eyeliner, face-covering fringes and neon hair that filled The Outer fields at Western Springs Saturday night. Emo is far from dead!

The show opened with three NZ favourites.

Lips

Adorned in colourful boiler suits, Lips delivered a fun set to a crowd who, honestly, were much more interested on grabbing a good possie for MCR. Not a problem for Steph Brown and her new line-up, who delivered a delightfully sunny (and very un-Emo) set.

Miss June

13^th Floor favourites, Miss June seized the moment and crushed their fierce punk rock set. So great to see them back on the scene, wreaking a bit of havoc. The crowd approved.

Goodnight Nurse

Like no time had moved at all, the band that many of us adored in our early teens takes the stage. Performing an intimate show earlier this week, I had no doubt in my mind that the band we loved so much growing up would be in absolute form. Fronted by Joel Little now of slightly different fame (Lorde, Taylor Swift et al) it was almost comical how humble he was to be on the stage for this one-off performance.

They opened with My Only and playing all their hits including a new release timed for this show, All Hail The Serpent Queen Part 3 of 3 along with parts 1 and 2. Ending with their cover of Kelis’s Milkshake and We Are The Night fans were left wanting more.

My Chemical Romance

The decibel of screams at a certain teen heartthrob’s show earlier this week was nothing compared to the roars from the hoards of 30-year-olds seeing their beloved New Jersey born and bred My Chemical Romance. With pretty much the same line-up since inception; lead singer Gerard Way, lead guitarist Ray Toro, rhythm guitarist Frank Iero, and bassist Mikey Way, the band knew what they were there to do.

Sparing no time, they built the crowd’s anticipation with their new single The Foundations of Decay and went straight into I’m Not Okay (I Promise). Lead singer Gerard Way was as idiosyncratic and enigmatic as one would imagine, blurting arbitrary comments and emitting mystifying noises. When he wasn’t singing, he became entirely introverted – all part of the performance. And so little time wasted talking to the crowd. Their hearts and souls belonged to the music.

More than a few tears were shed as they played across their entire discography, with a lesser focus on their first album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, which they unfortunately only played Our Lady Sorrows.

Needless to say, each and every song off their iconic album, The Black Parade, had the crown singing along, hanging on every word, especially Famous Last Words, and Teenagers the musical summation of all the teenage angst, past and present, in the stadium.

Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge had a strong five songs played off it, including a very emotional rendition of The Ghost Of You.

The encore was the long-awaited Welcome to the Black Parade – the young crowd, the 30-somethings, hanging on to their emo-kid days with their last claw, all clinging to every word. Rapture. Emo lives!

Bridie Chetwin-Kelly

13th Floor’s award-winning photographer David Watson was there! Along with My Chemical Romance we have for you photos of opening acts Goodnight Nurse and Miss June. Enjoy!