My Chemical Romance @ Globe Life Field, Arlington, TX

Special contribution by Daniel Martinez

My Chemical Romance marched into Texas resurrecting The Black Parade from its nearly 20 year slumber, with 40,000 seats filled at the Globe Life Filed in Arlington on a hot summer Saturday night. Elder emos and some young waited patiently and when the lights dimmed and “Tonight You Belong to Me” setting the dark mood which it transitioned into “Over Fields,” the national anthem of My Chemical Romance’s fictional nation, Draag.

The lights cut through the smoke revealing the band as they welcome us to the show. MCR tore through The Black Parade in its entirety, performing anthems like “Welcome to the Black Parade,” “Teenagers,” and “Famous Last Words,” each met with roar of cheers from a crowd reliving their teen days in real life. One of the highlights of the night was during “I Don’t Love You,” the crowd turned on their flashlights illuminating the closed-roof stadium. Frontman Gerard Way took notice and acknowledged by saying “It’s like we’re outside, look at those stars.” Later during the encore, Way mentioned that despite it felt endless traveling through Texas due to its size, his favorite part was stargazing the Texas skies.

The night’s grand finale came with a reprise of “The End.” A clown ambled onto the stage, plunging a dagger into Gerard Way while the rest of the band were being kidnapped with blindfold over their faces and stormed off the stage, ending the odyssey that was the rock opera of The Black Parade.

For the encore My Chemical Romance ditched The Black Parade uniforms, stepping out of character, and back into their New Jersey roots as they welcomed everyone to a smaller stage for an intimate performance. Fan favorites like “Na, Na, Na,” “I’m Not Okay,” “Thank You for the Vemon,” and “Helena” were present and a cover of The Smashing Pumpkins' hit, “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” was also performed.

The setlist threw a couple of curveballs with the tour debut of “Planetary (Go),” the resurrection of “Killing All Your Friends” from The Black Parade b-sides, and “The World is Ugly,” a track written after The Black Parade that didn’t make the cut for Danger Days, but later became part of the Conventional Weapons EP. The night ended with the unreleased “War Beneath the Rain” from the rumored album, The Paper Kingdom, sending the thousands of Killjoys in attendance home with their ears ringing, and goosebumps that you experience when nostalgia hits like a freight train.

Photos of the show are below: