We arrived at the Palasharp just as the doors were opening, to a sea of black, and although we couldn’t understand the conversations we were overhearing as we filtered through the thrilled, young audience, the excitement was unmistakable. This is a band who is clearly held as dear in every country they visit. In their fans’ eyes, this band can do no wrong. There’s no surprise their UK fans have rather wittily named themselves ‘the MCRMY’. The closest thing you could compare this level of idolism and worship in a fanbase, is to an army. An angry, adolescent, parent and society hating, solitary, sulky army.
Leaving their gothic, militia attire in the dressing room and with the pyrotechnics and explosions cut from the budget, My Chemical Romance were taking a nostalgic step back to a few years ago, before you saw their name scratched on to park benches and scrawled across fake t-shirt stands in Camden, and were just a rock band trying to pick up a following.
So on a tour where they’ve been playing in enormous arenas to thousands of fans, it’s an interesting testament to the band, to see that they can rely on performance alone.
The set was mainly made up of last year’s multi platinum ‘The Black Parade’ and as expected the songs that received the best receptions were the singles from the last two records. ‘I’m Not Okay’, ‘Helena’, ‘Teenagers’ and ‘Welcome To The Black Parade’ all got the Milan youths fired up, infact just as fired up as the AC Milan and Inter Milan derby games we see on television back in the UK (you know, the ones where flares start raining down from all directions, fires are started in the crowd and other displays of general insanity.)
Frontman Gerard Way showed off his usual charisma by high fiving fans, climbing down to the front barriers to meet his faithful and by being sure to never stay in the same spot for more than a second. There’s also the sure thing way of pleasing foreign fans by learning a couple of key phrases in Italian. ‘Bonjourno, viva Milano!’ though so incredibly simple even I understand it without my phrase book, it goes down a treat, to mass applause.
The Misfits inspired horror, punk, onslaught ‘Dead!’ leaves the crowd begging for more just before the encore, but a change of pace greets the crowd instead for the tragic, haunting, most excruciatingly honest song from the new album, ‘Cancer’. But the mood doesn’t last for long and ‘Helena’ finishes the night with a bang.
The language barrier has been completely annihilated, some how the crowd participation has been just as noticeable as it is with the English speaking crowds and My Chemical Romance, even without the usual aspects of their live show and a drum tech playing, due to an ill Bob Bryar, have proved yet again they’re so much more than a band for depressed children. Newspapers in Britain such as the Daily Mail and the Mirror have claimed that the band promote self-harm and depression in youths, but judging by the beaming smiles and joy from these kids tonight we realise that this perception couldn’t be further from the truth.
Further Listening:
www.mychemicalromance.com
'The Black Parade' out now on Warner Brothers (2006)
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