My Chemical Romance has millions of dedicated fans and most of them have never had the chance to see the band live. MCR is currently on their first ever stadium tour. It’s also their first tour back since 2022. The band broke up in 2013 and the state of any reunion was heatedly debated by fans. Many fans felt the band was gone for good while others kept hope that the breakup was merely the beginning of a hiatus. One thing that gave fans hope for a reunion was lead singer Gerard Way’s comment at the end of the breakup message: “it is not a band – it is an idea.”
Growing up, I fell headfirst into the emo scene. I would spend hours listening to Twenty One Pilots, writing posts on Tumblr, and saving YouTuber fan edits. For me this era of my life started in 2015. While watching Dan and Phil at 3 am, I discovered My Chemical Romance. They instantly became my favorite band. After falling in love though I found out the band had broken up 2 years prior. I was devastated. I knew more than anything that I HAD to see them live at some point in my life. Regardless of the band being gone, the fan community was thriving. The official chat boards were still up and people were still running Tumblr blogs dedicated to them. I participated in everything I could and made some friends in the fandom. It helped keep me sane throughout my teenage years and young adulthood.
When it was announced that My Chemical Romance had gotten back together and would be touring in 2022, my wildest dreams felt realized. The band that I’d loved for almost 10 years was finally getting back together and I’d have the opportunity to finally see them live. Reasons beyond my control led to me not being able to attend the first reunion tour, but I knew that it wasn’t the only one that would happen. I resolved to save and catch them on the next one. Cue “Long Live” the Black Parade Stadium Tour in 2025. I had 2 computer screens up for different venues closest to me and my friend on FaceTime with their own laptop to buy tickets. Only 1 screen ended up putting me in line at a reasonable point – Philadelphia, PA. I was under 5,000 in line. I rushed to purchase tickets the moment I was let in and was able to secure 4 floor tickets for my friends and family. It was insanity, but I had gotten tickets. This was months before the concert. It didn’t feel real at the time.
Fast forward to August 15th, 2025, my little emo group elected to get to the venue early to get merch. We showed up around 4:30 p.m. and doors were at 5:30 p.m. It had been posted that the merch line was open around 10 a.m. so we suspected the line would short. We were very wrong. The merch line stretched across the road and down the sidewalk leading up to Citizens Bank Park. My group decided to split up due to this. Two of us would wait in line for the merch and the other two would wait in line for the doors. After almost 50 minutes, my friends getting merch showed up to the line waiting to get inside. They had been successful, but barely made it in time.
Once I got in the venue, we made our way to our seats. There were so many people in outfits representing the different eras of MCR. A few people had the skull face paint from the original Black Parade and some were dressed as Helena from the music video. When we made it to our floor section, we saw that there was a sign taped to the barricades saying that the show would be recorded.
The opener for the concert was none other than Alice Cooper. My dad would tell me stories of Alice Cooper’s concerts when I was a child. The theatrics definitely lived up to the grandiose stories. His performance was iconic. He had his band fight monsters on stage. One monster was a huge animatronic. It was so big that you could see its head from any point in the crowd. Later on in the set, a guillotine was set up on stage that beheaded Alice Cooper. The woman in charge of the beheading was his wife Sheryl Cooper. She held up his fake head on stage and the stadium roared. Beyond the theatrics, Nita Strauss was the star of the show. Her guitar riffs and killer stage presence helped to elevate the show to the next level. The moment she was introduced, the crowd screamed the loudest they had all night.
After a very brief intermission, the screens next to the stage lit up. “Tonight You Belong to Me” by Irving Kaufman started playing over the speakers as the rules of the night’s performance flashed by. There were also scenes that played on the screens from Draag, the fictional world that the show takes place in. The band came on stage after “Over Fields (The National Anthem of Draag)” played. When “The End.” started playing, a rush of adrenaline went through my body like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. This was the moment I had been waiting for the last 10 years.
The rest of the concert was almost 3 hours, but it felt like it flew by. The set list was 25 songs, including the songs played on the B-stage. That night I screamed as loud as I could and was met with the same energy from all the fans around me. The band played each song like it was their last and the stage production was unmatched. It was like watching a stage play while the music accompanied each act.
The story followed the band the Black Parade (My Chemical Romance) as they were forced by the dictator to play for the crowd. They were forced to follow all of the dictator’s rules and acted as conduits for the dictator’s message to the city of Draag. As each song played, I could feel every problem in my real world melting away. I was getting sucked into the screaming guitars, Gerard’s angelic voice, and the pyrotechnics. As “Famous Last Words” played, I screamed the lyrics with my friends. Shouting the words “I am not afraid to keep on living” healed a deep ache in my heart that found its way there during my teenage years. I was listening to the band that had saved my life many times before and I could see the joy on their faces.
Toward the end of the show, when “The End.” reprise plays, a clown comes on stage and kills Gerard. The rest of the band is kidnapped and taken off stage by the bad guys in Draag. The clown then uses an explosive vest during “Blood” to blow himself up. The crowd cheered at the demise of the clown.
Next, the concert moves to the B-stage. Here the band seems to play as themselves, My Chemical Romance. They also had a special guest play the drums – Cheech Iero, Frank Iero’s dad. They played mostly B-sides of The Black Parade album, but they also played songs from their other albums, including Danger Days. It was during this time of the night that Gerard revealed that the reunion of MCR had been in the works since the time around the pandemic. He said a friend had come to him and told him it was time to restart the band. He agreed and said if it didn’t happen now that it never would. The show finished with the song “The Kids From Yesterday.” It was such a full circle moment. I remember when I was younger watching sad picture videos of the band’s break up to that song on YouTube. I’m so glad that they made the decision to reunite. That one night changed my life, so I can only imagine the impact of their return on their fans all across the world.
My Chemical Romance, thank you for everything that you’ve done.
Set List
Main Stage
- “Tonight You Belong to Me” (Irving Kaufman song) (Patience and Prudence version) – played on tape
- “Over Fields (The National Anthem of Draag)” – played on tape
- “The Black Parade”
- “The End.”
- “Dead!”
- “This Is How I Disappear”
- “The Sharpest Lives”
- “Welcome to the Black Parade”
- “I Don’t Love You”
- “House of Wolves”
- “Cancer”
- “Mama” (with singer Lucy Joy Althus as “Marianne.” It also had “Dagger” outro.)
- “Sleep”
- “Teenagers”
- “Disenchanted”
- “Famous Last Words” (with extended outro)
- “The End.” (Reprise)
- “Blood” – played on tape
B-Stage
- “From A to B” (Clarice Jensen song) (performed by Clarice Jensen)
- “Headfirst for Halos”
- “Bury Me in Black”
- “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”
- “DESTROYA”
- “Heaven Help Us”
- “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid”
- “The Foundations of Decay”
- “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)”
- “Helena”
- “The Kids From Yesterday” (with extended outro)
- It’s Over (Roy Orbison song) – played on tape