Alternative rock behemoth My Chemical Romance stopped in Boston on Sunday, September 7 to celebrate their beloved album The Black Parade. The band, comprised of Gerard Way (lead vocalist), Mikey Way (bass), Frank Iero (guitar), and Ray Toro (guitar), conquered a sold-out Fenway Park. The show marked the second-to-last date of the “Long Live” The Black Parade North American Stadium Tour, and fans were buzzing with excitement. A full moon shone over the city as a sea of red and black outfits flooded into Fenway.
When the lights finally dimmed, the eerie track “Tonight You Belong to Me” by Patience and Prudence played on the speakers, ushering Boston into a night of mayhem and musicality. Fans cheered as the sound of military drums played on a group of soldiers and clerks dressed in suits who set up a time-card check-in table. The band strutted on stage and clocked in for their shifts in ‘Draag,’ a fictional world they crafted when they released The Black Parade album almost 20 years ago. They wore black and white military marching band jackets and white makeup, with three defined scratches on Gerard’s right cheek.
They started their set with the eclectic track “The End.” Gerard thrusted the mic into the air and smiled as fans emphatically sang along, headbanged, and crowdsurfed. The band bounced energy off of each other, thrashing to the beat and scaling the stage during each song. They proceeded to perform the entire album in order from start to finish, a fitting celebration for a piece of music that shaped the lives of many fans in the audience. During the second song, “Dead!,” Toro shredded its featured guitar riff live for the first time since 2011, foreshadowing the euphoric and special night ahead. Then a podium appeared on stage before the hit track “Welcome to the Black Parade.” Gerard stepped up to the mic as the iconic piano opening notes lit the crowd up with cheers. His powerful vocals reverberated around the venue, filling it with a bright and raw energy that mesmerized Fenway during emotional tracks like “Cancer” and energizing tracks like “Famous Last Words.”
During the first half of each show, My Chemical Romance has been acting out scenes as characters from the fictional band, ‘The Black Parade.’ Especially dedicated fans have been keeping track of these stories and theorizing the meanings behind them. Some believe the band is stuck in a ‘time loop,’ making Boston one of the most important and theatrical shows of the tour due to the new characters and storylines. They introduced a new clerk dedicated to monitoring the original clerk and a new opera singer named Sylvia, who performed the “Dagger” outro after “Mama.” They also infused humor and horror into the set. Instead of one of the clerks slapping Gerard like usual, Mikey caught his hand. After playing through the album, the audio of the bonus track “Blood” played, accompanied by a clown character marionetteing Gerard’s ‘corpse,’ shocking fans.
After completing the album playthrough, they transitioned to a B-Stage toward the middle of the field. They opted for more casual outfits like Gereard’s camouflage-patterned jacket, and dove into hits and deep cuts from their expansive discography. As mentioned earlier, it happened to be a total lunar eclipse also known as a “blood moon,” inspiring the band to make the tour debut of fan favorite track “Vampire Money” and the “double vampire” treat of performing “Vampires Will Never Hurt You” as the show closer. Pyrotechnics, elaborate costumes, and deliciously dramatic performances transported Boston to the Draag Regime and made Sunday a spectacle to behold. While the “Long Live” The Black Parade North American Stadium Tour may have come to a close on September 13, stay tuned with the band here so you don’t miss their next electric live performance.
Check out all of Samantha’s photos from the show below.
