Fans came together on Wednesday and Thursday night last week for the long-awaited and drawn-out return of My Chemical Romance to Boston. After two years of pandemic-driven delays and the tour being expanded to add a second Boston date, it’s no surprise that the energy in TD Garden was hard to contain.
Openers Badflower and Thursday benefitted from an early arriving and engaged crowd, both receiving a warm reception as fans eagerly awaited the night’s main act. Before My Chemical Romance took the stage, the arena generally felt like it was filled with a group of old friends; old, excited friends chatting about which songs they would love to hear that night. Red lights that, outside of an MCR show would be deeply unsettling, began pulsing. And finally, swathed in layers of fog and the embrace of the crowd, My Chemical Romance took the stage and hurdled into “Foundations of Decay”; their first new release in almost a decade.
Everyone from middle schoolers to people who started listening to My Chemical Romance in middle school to people who have middle school aged kids at home found common musical ground as the setlist sweetly spanned the band’s discography; choice cuts such as “You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us in Prison” and “Cemetery Drive” landing squarely in the category of ‘songs you thought you might never hear live again’.
Singer Gerard Way spoke familiarly with the crowd throughout the set, joking with bandmates and dedicating several songs to longtime friends of the band. But while both guitars and singer scream in songs like “It’s Not A Fashion Statement, It’s a Fucking Deathwish” the atmosphere of Thursday night’s show might be categorized as pretty damn playful.
Band members smiled and threw hearts to their toddlers in the front row. They asked the crowd to take a few steps back several times and, surprisingly, it did. Security guards gave out water. Phone flashlights flagged down help for those who needed it. And as the show thundered on, the crowd maintained a type of community fostered by the musicians on stage. Joy, community, and trust might not be words that come to mind when you think of a My Chemical Romance show, but maybe they should be. And it’s a good thing, too – because a My Chemical Romance show is not a spectator sport.
Setlist here.
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