I think that it was fully realized when I got approved to review this show, and my mom heard my scream from the other room, that it was definitely not a phase. My Chemical Romance itself is the peak of the emo phase for many people. I myself found The Black Parade at the ripe, impressionable age of 14. I remember listening to it on repeat and as a young girl just getting into going to shows, looked up when I could see them live. Turns out, I wouldn’t be able to since their breakup in 2013. Young Taylor got a whole lot more emo after that, believe me.

Flash forward to over a decade later, I finally get a chance to not only see them live, but hear the album that introduced me to them in its entirety. On September 13th, My Chemical Romance took to the stage for the last night of tour in front of a sold out crowd at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa FL. For anyone wanting attendance numbers, that 75,000 emos gathered in one spot at one time.

Following the order of The Black Parade’s tracklist, the night was set. To the beat of a lone drum, the band took the stage, dressed in their Black Parade regalia. In true My Chem fashion, the show was theatrical, political, and above all added to the band’s ever evolving lore that keeps fans on their toes. The album itself tells a story, but their stage performance of it enhances it to another level. Gerard Way performs like he’s on Broadway, emotional and stage commanding, drawing the audience in from the very first note. Theatrics met politics as the crowd was asking to vote on the fate of four people in office, NAE they live, YEA they die by firing squad. Plot twist to the Tampa show, we were given a card, on both sides with YEA. Gerard pleaded with The Clerk to let there be a fair vote, ultimately to be denied, losing the four to a firing squad and solemnly then saying to the crowd, “Thank you all for participating in democracy”.

From there we knew the story-line would change a bit for the band, and we were right. It seemed as if Gerard was realizing the continual loop the band was stuck in and wished to change the outcome. He found a postcard from New Jersey and seemed perplexed by the writing on it, and then read yet another book to The Gentleman (they have changed books every performance). Once again, leaving fans to wonder what the band will look like after this final night of tour.

The band ended The Black Parade portion of their set with kidnappings, fire, and a suicidal clown. Members of the band one by one getting dragged off stage, leaving Gerard Way to fight, stumble, and in the end succumb to holding on to the clown wearing an explosive vest, sparks and fire encompassing the stage to signal the end of that era for the band.

After an about fifteen minute interlude, the band took the stage in the present. Street clothes, bodies clean of fake blood, and ready to play their second set; The B Stage. Throughout this tour, the band has used this stage to treat fans to songs that do not usually get their time in the sun. Like the song, “My Way Home Is Through You”, it being perfomed live for the first time live since 2008. Fans got to experience favorites from the album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, such as Helena and I’m Not Okay (I Promise). Killjoys got their fix when the band busted out with Na Na Na and DESTROYA. 

Hearing The Black Parade in its entirety was something fourteen year old Taylor never would have imagined possible, but at the same time seeing My Chemical Romance truly happy and receiving so much love from a sold out stadium was even more overwhelming. From teens who just found My Chemical Romance through TikTok, or the pair of eighty year old rockers in the pit beside me, My Chemical Romance is a band that truly realized that “It was never a phase Mom” and will continue breathing livfe into that “phase” for generations to come.

As My Chemical Romance would say, “So long and goodnight”