For the past two years, My Chemical Romance has traveled the globe, taking their fans on a journey revisiting their hit album “The Black Parade.” Unlike most anniversary tours, though, the Long Live Tour has becomes something not only nostalgic, but brand new. The band has pulled out all the stops as they’ve expanded the album’s lore, pulling fans into the newly fabricated, fictional country of Draag, where the band, known as The Black Parade, performs for the country’s fascist regime and their beloved Grand Immortal Dictator.
Over the duration of the tour, the band has painted a vivid picture of their experience working under the Draag government, and have done, in essence, two variations of the performance – one that is known as the “Long Live” style show, and one that is known as the “MOAT” show. During the Long Live show, the band is performing for the dictator, and at the end of the show, everyone dies. What happens in between is a mystery, and there are constantly new pieces of lore being tied in. Vampires, blood drinking, new characters, cast and crew roles changing, fights, battles, military involvement. It evolves. The second variation, the MOAT show, is focused on the band being brainwashed in a government “reconditioning facility” and monitored by a conniving nurse and a group of psychiatric hospital staff members.
For their first night at the Hollywood Bowl, however, the band was marching to a different tune entirely. For this one, the plot has thickened, the setting has shifted, and fans have been introduced to a new chapter of the story.
Wednesday night, after a sopping wet, rainy and cold afternoon, the Hollywood Bowl was absolutely packed to the brim with fans celebrating the fictional country of Draag’s invasion and domination of the United States.
At the introduction of the show, the crowd is first met by a “here’s what you missed” video recap of the tour up unto this point, and then met with a live “newscast” by Draag’s news network, explaining what’s going on. Immediately following this, a troupe of actors take the stage to act out the ongoing war between the two neighboring countries of Gubrick and Draagred, explaining the history of the empire, and then the show begins.
One of the first striking differences from the previous concerts of the tour and this one (aside from the fact that the United States is being acknowledged as the location), is that when Marianne, the band’s opera singer and “daughter” of the Grand Immortal Dictator takes the stage to sing the anthem, she is not singing the Draag National Anthem, but a more somber variation of the United States’ National Anthem. At the tail end of the anthem, the edges of the Bowl light up red, white, and blue, and a firework show fit for the Fourth of July lights up the sky. In unison with this, a reimagined American flag, complete with Draag symbolism in place of stars, comes down onstage, the stage set rotates to reveal the band, and two long flags roll down on either side, also set to match the new Draag American flag. It becomes very clear very quickly that this performance, as the rest have been, will weigh in with strong political commentary, presumably referencing the present day United States itself. No one knows the extent of this commentary, though, until the show continues onward.
During the first song of the night, the band is joined by a group of USO Rockette WWII uniformed dancers, doing a kick-line across the stage and saluting in perfect unison.
At the next intermission, the Black Parade’s leader (vocalist Gerard Way), makes his way out from the stage to the exterior edge of the orchestra pit, where he addresses the audience and thanks everyone for their attendance, before sharing with a PowerPoint presentation that explains the endless “improvements” that Draag has made to the United States after conquering them. “It was easy – all it took was some autographs!” he exclaims, implying something about the Grand Immortal Dictator’s celebrity status, a strong parallel to the U.S.’s current sitting president. In the PowerPoint, the band takes jabs at the remodeling of the White House (now the “Gray House” – a brutalist piece of architecture that looks suited to Eastern Europe in the Cold War), a new Lincoln Monument (“a gift to [Gerard] in honor of my friend [the puppet used in previous shows]. They killed my friend”), and even a re-carved Mount Rushmore (now four Grand Immortal Dictators – perhaps a reference to this past summer when the President suggested he belongs there). In lighter humor, Way discusses that they’ve completely gotten rid of money, “we’ve got Barter World! Trade some shit. Trade your broken TV,” and instated a new restaurant (in an old Pizza Hut building) called Gluten Hut (in honor of Draag’s fields of wheat) “-hope you don’t have a Gluten allergy!” Following the endless chuckling of the crowd, Way wishes a happy birthday to His Grand Immortal (who is seated in the Garden boxes with his secretary, Veronika), and then giggles a bit, saying “oh he’s so famous!” The show continues onward.
A song later, the band announces they’ve got a “special surprise” for His Grand Immortal Dictator – which turns out to be an assassination, complete with a bullet going straight through the man and through his birthday cake, as well.
The show proceeds, and a few songs later, the band does something no one expects – they bring out the same dancers from earlier in the show, this time dressed in garb that mimics the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders uniforms. For the song “Teenagers,” which is one of the band’s most successful singles, the cheerleaders dance across the stage, all sex-appeal and entertainment for the masses (make note that the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are one of the most widely-known USO entertainment groups of the modern day)… It is also not-so-subtle of a coincidence that the dancers are dressed as a group also known as America’s Sweethearts, are an entertainment group from the big old state of Texas, known for its conservative values (including second amendment rights, even in light of youth gun violence, another topic referenced in “Teenagers”).
As the performance continues, more plot elements are tied in – one of the Draag government clerks is strapped to a rocket, Gerard gets in a knife fight with the Dictator’s secretary, and what appears to be the S.W.A.T. team makes an appearance. The band learns during “Famous Last Words” that there are some dire consequences for their actions in murdering the Dictator when said S.W.A.T. team style group takes the stage, armed to the teeth with large guns, preparing to snipe the entire band, surrounding them. As the the song continues, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders make their way back out onto the stage, also wielding large guns, and begin a shoot-out with the S.W.A.T. team – giving the band a chance to escape.
Where does this leave the Black Parade following the performance? No one knows, but tonight’s concert may give fans a look at where the story goes from here.
It’s also worth noting though that outside of the story and plot, the band also does an amazing job of performing a twenty-year-old album with all of the zeal they had twenty years ago. During “House of Wolves,” guitarist Ray Toro shreds on his guitar, playing some of his most infamous riffs of all time absolutely wonderfully. Mikey Way (bassist) is climbing up the stage risers and jumping off of them with his bass, and guitarist Frank Iero even incorporates what appears to be new chord progressions during “Sleep,” which is already absolutely entrancing under its ongoing flicker of red and blue lights. And of course, Gerard, the king of theatrics, is absolutely giving it his all – even joining the USO dancers in their kick line.
Following the Black Parade’s set is a fantastic encore of fan-favorites, as well. A set that changes from night to night, this set is like russian roulette with a setlist. And the fans go wild for it every night. Wednesday night, it included a bit of every album (Bullets’ selection included “Honey, This Mirror,”, Danger Days’ fans got a taste with “Na Na Na”, and the Three Cheers lovers scored the most, with “Deathwish,” “To The End,” and “Helena,” among others), as well as a very rare and well-known cover of “Jack the Ripper” by Morrissey, and one of the band’s most well-loved demos, “Bury Me in Black.”
It’s worth mentioning that due to the inclement weather, the band did have to start 45 minutes late, meaning they had to condense the show down by a bit. “We did have to trim it down, but we’re really happy with how it came out,” [Gerard] Way said, during the encore set. He also mentioned how much the band appreciates when the crowd does fan projects (most nights, fans will pass out colored-paper and tell everyone to cover their phone flashlights with said paper during a specific song to light up the crowd a certain color for the band to see). “Usually it’s during the Black Parade set, which like – we can’t say anything about it then. We’re The Black Parade, we don’t know what that shit is,” he explains, before smiling and laughing, letting the audience know how much it means to the band, and how much they love it.
All in all, this is a band that cares about their fans. They care about the experience, the performance they’re giving, the story they’re telling, and all of it shows. There is no band on earth putting on a performance like My Chemical Romance, and it is an absolutely incredible performance to witness, every single time.
Photos courtesy of Bryce Hall and Jesse DeFlorio (each photo in gallery titled with respective photographer).
