MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE HIT MVP ARENA WITH A NOSTALGIC GIG

When you go see a band you loved in high school, you know you’re either going to be deeply disappointed or delighted. Thankfully, My Chemical Romance fell firmly in the latter. Their reunion tour has been one of the most highly anticipated tours since shows started back up following the industry wide shut down in 2020.

Coming on stage with their newest song “Foundations of Decay” and going right into their classic “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” sent a bolt of electricity through everyone in attendance at the MVP Arena in Albany. The 20 song setlist was truly everything you could have wanted from seeing My Chemical Romance in 2022. With more than half of the the songs coming from The Black Parade and Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, it was down right nostalgic ambrosia for the older millennial and full of the teenage angst we all felt at one point.

My Chemical Romance

The energy in the crowd never ebbed as they fed off of front man Gerard Way’s frenetic movements across the stage as he sang and screamed with us. Frank Iero didn’t move much from his spot on the stage during the whole show, but he was screaming and harmonizing along with Gerard. Mikey Way however could never stop moving, with every time you looked at him he was somewhere else on stage, smiling from ear to ear clearly loving every second of being back out there. Ray Toro was a beast on lead guitar, firing up solos left and right making the crowd go wild. The drums could be felt in your whole body with how Jarrod Alexander was hitting his kit and Jamie Muhoberac’s keyboard work, while not up front in the mix, really filled the sound out.

My Chemical Romance

What’s special about this tour is that the band is constantly changing up the setlist, moving songs around and putting a few lesser played ones in. One can only imagine it’s keeping it fresh for the band and the fans who are traveling to see multiple shows. There were fans from Texas, North Carolina, and even the UK at the show last night and there wasn’t a seated person in the entire arena once MCR hit the stage. This tour is not to be missed if you’ve never seen them before as they are currently firing on all cylinders.

My Chemical Romance

Openers Waterparks put on a non-stop half hour nine song set of pop-punk joy at their first ever arena show, which they mentioned multiple times from the stage as they couldn’t believe it was happening. They are a perfect opener for MCR as they have a similar energy to the band’s younger days. Lead singer Awsten Knight said how the band had seen the Black Parade Tour and were pinching themselves that they had this opportunity. They truly made the most of it and by the set’s end had almost the whole arena cheering them on.