My Chemical Romance at MetLife Stadium: Live Review

It’s Saturday night in New Jersey and My Chemical Romance have set the MetLife stage on fire — literally. Flames engulf the stage floor and bright orange flares shoot up in bursts around lead singer Gerard Way, bassist Mikey Way, and guitarists Frank Iero and Ray Toro as the band delivers an electrifying performance of “Famous Last Words” worthy of the blaze that surrounds them.

In this moment, with a jam-packed stadium of fans screaming the song’s emotional bridge back to My Chemical Romance, they are undoubtedly the saviors of the broken, the beaten, and the damned. Gerard sings the final line, “Nothing you can say can stop me from going home” and in their hometown stadium, the line couldn’t ring more true.

Saturday night marked My Chemical Romance’s sixth stop on the Long Live the Black Parade Tour, which kicked off last month in Seattle. At each stop, the band has played their seminal album from 2006, The Black Parade, in full. Prior to their 2024 set at emo nostalgia festival When We Were Young, My Chemical Romance hadn’t played the entirety of the album live since wrapping the project’s original tour in 2008. 

Fans were already excited to hear My Chemical Romance’s magnum opus live, but the feeling was compounded by the band’s homecoming to New Jersey in the state’s largest venue. In fact, Courtney and Mike, two fans from Eastern Canada who arrived at noon on Saturday in order to secure their spots at the barricade, were adamant about getting tickets to the band’s MetLife show. “It’s their home,” Mike said.

My Chemical Romance’s show at MetLife marked the band’s headlining debut there, and nearly every minute of their two-and-a-half hour set made sure to commemorate that very fact. The Garden State pride was felt before MCR even took the stage, when openers Thursday kicked off the night. As the Way brothers attended shows on the Jersey basement circuit, Geoff Rickley was a major inspiration for the future rockers. It was only right to give Rickley, and the rest of Thursday, their due and have them join My Chemical Romance’s headlining debut at MetLife.

While not Jersey Boys, the additional special guests at MetLife were none other than indie staple, Death Cab for Cutie. It was a lineup made of early-aughts emo dreams. The show was coursing with Jersey energy till the very end, when My Chemical Romance closed out with an unexpected, and explosive cover of Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer,” or what Way called “the New Jersey state anthem.”

Earlier in the night, before they launched into their hit song “Welcome to the Black Parade,” the band was granted a ceremonial key to the city of Belleville, where Gerard, Mikey and Iero were raised. “Even in our storied history of Belleville… never once in the history of Belleville, have we ever handed a key to the city,” Belleville mayor Michael Melham said. “It’s long overdue and they deserve it,” Melham added. 

By this point, My Chemical Romance were dressed as their alter-ego band the Black Parade, and Gerard refused to break character, even to receive the key. Instead, he gifted Mayor Melham with wheat and a fake fish from the fictional city of Draag, which has played a role in the entire tour’s storyline. (Afterwards, on the B stage, Gerard did thank the mayor for being a good sport through all the theatrics.) Funnily enough, moments after receiving the key, Gerard momentarily broke character when he yelped, “Oh wait. I almost forgot. Let’s fucking kill some people” in a full North Jersey lilt. 

That brings us to the theatrical portion of the Long Live the Black Parade Tour, which has gone viral online for its dark, intensely political elements like the fake execution. (At one point in the show, a mock election was held where attendees were forced to vote with “Yea/Nay” reversible signs on whether or not they believe people should be executed. Regardless of the actual vote, the people are still killed.) 

The play at the heart of the show is set in Draag, which is under the dictatorship rule of the Great Immortal Dictator. The timing of the Long Live the Black Parade Tour and political satire at the heart of the show is particularly poignant and feels intentional, given the political turmoil in the U.S. The world-building of the fictional Draag have been in play since last fall, when My Chemical Romance began teasing the tour on social media with cryptic Instagram posts and imagery that felt similar to Nazi Germany. In a long caption, My Chemical Romance revealed that alter-ego band the Black Parade has had their “work privilege ceremoniously reinstated” as “His Grand Immortal Dictator’s National Band.” 

From the first moment My Chemical Romance graces the stage in their the Black Parade marching band suits, the world of Draag is front and center with the newly-shared instrumental track “Over Fields” (Draag’s National Anthem) and a rotation of World War II inspired characters playing a role in the theatrics. The band took everything to the extreme. There’s a clown that blows himself up, and at one point, Gerard uses his one last gasping breath after being stabbed to launch a nuclear war. The amount of creative output is astounding so it makes sense that the band used the help of director Claire Marie Vogel to create intricate tour visuals that fit the story.

Whether or not attendees were able to grasp all the details and the story being told in between The Black Parade songs or just went along for the ride, it was one hell of a dramatization. It’s clear My Chemical Romance wanted to outdo themselves. After all, the massive impact of The Black Parade demanded it; they needed to up the ante, especially nearly 20 years later.

The dedicated My Chemical Romance fans loved every second of the show. Swaths of attendees were dressed in outfits inspired by the Draag world. During “I Don’t Love You” and “Cancer,” the slower songs on the setlist, fans lit the entire stadium up with red and white lights using their phones and colored paper, showing their appreciation for the band. 

Even as My Chemical Romance played out as the rock gods they’ve become on the main stage, their star power was truly underlined during the latter half of the show. From a B stage situated near the center of the stadium, My Chemical Romance commanded their hometown stadium with songs from the rest of their catalog and a raw, effusive energy that was contagious. Gone were the marching band uniforms and outsized production; instead, the band stood as New Jersey-bred rockers taking in the preternatural full-moon that hung above them. 

“It’s truly fucking wild that we are up here,” Gerard said before the band delivered insane deep-cuts like “Skylines and Turnstiles” and “Vampires Will Never Hurt You” from their debut LP I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. My Chemical Romance even played a raucous rendition of “Boy Division,” a track from their scrapped material collection Conventional Weapons, which was released shortly before the band broke up in 2013.

With each riff, Mikey, Toro, and Iero couldn’t help but smile from ear-to-ear while Gerard continued to fling his body around and command massive singalongs. There was headbanging, screamo singing, and high-voltage energy that reached every corner of the stadium before My Chemical Romance” exploded into fan-favorite “Helena.” For the final chorus of the track, Gerard belted the notes along with the entire sold-out crowd. “That song, I felt that in my bones,” he said.

Set List
“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”
“Sleep”
“Teenagers”
“Disenchanted”
“Famous Last Words”
“The End.(Reprise)”
“Skylines and Turnstiles”
“Our Lady of Sorrows”
“I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”
“The Ghost of You”
“Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)”
“It’s Not a Fashion Statement, It’s a Fucking Deathwish”
“Boy Division”
“Vampires Will Never Hurt You”
“Helena”
“Livin’ on a Prayer”