All Photo Credit: Bryce Hall
My chemical romance welcomes phoenix to the black parade
Usually, I'm watching a concert through a viewfinder. This time, I left the camera behind and watched My Chemical Romance bring The Black Parade back to life with my own eyes. Phoenix became Draag for the night, full of marching uniforms, a giant watching eye, and a stadium full of screaming fans…and possibly…clones???
My Chemical Romance
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I’m used to seeing concerts through a camera. I’m usually thinking about the light, the angle, the moment I need to catch before it disappears. For My Chemical Romance at Chase Field, I left the camera at home. A review with my own eyes to witness.
Chase Field was surrounded by people dressed in black, red, and white. There were checkered Vans everywhere. More Converse than I could count. Laced up to the knee. Bracelets made to trade with other fans. Black eyeliner. Military-inspired outfits. I thought i walked through a tumblr thread inspired by Hot Topic. A gothic dream. I walked through security and grabbed a postcard from a box. The lore began to sink inward.
The Black Parade lore is a strange rabbit hole. Intriguing in the least, and open for a lot of interpretation. The Black Parade isn't just the name of an album or a collection of songs here. They're a fictional band from Draag, a Soviet-esque authoritarian country ruled by the Grand Immortal Dictator.
After disappearing….and essentially '“dying" in 2008, the band has supposedly been brought back and placed under the control of the regime. They've spent time in the M.O.A.T., where they've been reconditioned, and now they're being paraded around the world…or at least that’s what i’ve summed up from the show itself and an extensive read on reddit.
The Phoenix show opened with “Mr. Blue Sky” before the Draag national anthem. “Over Fields,” played over the stadium. The band stumbled onto the stage in their uniforms looking like prisoners being marched somewhere. Pills were handed out. Everyone looked confused, and uncomfortable. This was full theatricality. This was The Black Parade beginning.
The first half of the show moved through “This Is How I Disappear,” “The Sharpest Lives,” “Welcome to the Black Parade,” “I Don't Love You,” “Teenagers,” “Disenchanted,” and “Famous Last Words.” The songs were beloved.
The Clerk, who appears to be in charge of the band, became one of the night's strangest figures. He seemed to be caught as a prisoner himself. A giant eye descended from above the stage, watching over everything. Halfway, Gerard Way pulled a knife and killed the Clerk. The Clerk came back. I wasn't entirely sure what I was watching, but I was definitely watching it. The interpretation sunk long after.
Things seemed to move darker. The Clerk was captured by Draag and subjected to some kind of reconditioning. There was a moment of him strapped down beneath a massive machine while authoritarian imagery, the giant eye, and flashes of what looked like brain surgery filled the screen. It was frantic and ugly in exactly the right way.
The Clerk was wheeled onto the stage on a gurney, dressed completely in white. He looked disturbingly happy, playing with a doll like he'd forgotten everything that had happened to him. The authorities tucked him in and walked away while a doctor stayed.
The Blood started. What happened next was probably the most unsettling part of the entire show and I couldn’t peel my eyes away. The doctor climbed onto the gurney and viciously attacked the Clerk. The imagery was deliberately grotesque. Blood everywhere. The Clerk being torn apart while the music carried on like nothing was wrong. The scene was absurd. It was theatrical. It was very My Chemical Romance.
After that, the show shifted gears completely. The B-stage performed “I'm Not Okay (I Promise),” “Boy Division,” “The Only Hope for Me Is You,” “My Way Home Is Through You,” “Helena,” “Honey,” and others before finishing with “The Light Behind Your Eyes.”
Standing there I had felt completely immersed inside of their story.
I think that's what makes this version of The Black Parade so interesting. Having read through the deep lore, the original era was built around death, grief, spectacle. As well as the idea of a fictional band marching toward its end. Nearly twenty years later, My Chemical Romance has taken that mythology and turned it into something bigger. I witnessed a story about resurrection, control, death, and what happens when something that was supposed to stay dead gets brought back… or cloned? Still trying to sink in the interpretation. I think that’s why I found this performance so deeply captivating.
When The Black Parade began and that entire stadium screamed back at the stage. Swarms of beloved fans. I was watching a crowd that had been dead for a very long time take its first breath again. I had been glad to not be behind the lens this time, and to absorb the haunting, and very alive energy.
Article by: Kili Goodrich
Plug In. Tune Out.
My Chemical Romance is a New Jersey rock band known for turning raw emotion, theatrical storytelling, and explosive punk energy into anthemic songs. From Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge to The Black Parade, their music blends dark, dramatic imagery with big hooks and a sense of rebellion that made them one of the defining bands of the 2000s emo scene.