MCR split but survived emo’s moral panic to leave a shining legacy for all outsiders – especially young people struggling emotionally or those who refuse gender binaries
When My Chemical Romance announced their reunion tour in early 2020 – the band’s first extended spell on the road in nearly a decade – they promptly sold out three nights this month at Milton Keynes Stadium (30,000 seats) and shifted 228,000 tickets for their North American tour in less than seven hours. It’s not an unusual state of affairs: before their 2013 breakup, the US four-piece frequently headlined arenas and festivals. The difference is that back then, they were unlikely superstars, misfits who inadvertently infiltrated the mainstream – now, they return to a pop cultural landscape they helped to define.
Led by vocalist Gerard Way, a talented comic artist who grew up listening to punk, metal and Britpop, they started off scrapping in New Jersey’s early 00s basement-venue hardcore circuit alongside bands such as Thursday. Their music took a darker turn on 2004’s breakthrough, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, an album influenced by the Cure’s gloomiest moments and the gothic-tinged punk fury of Misfits and the Damned. In the wake of that album’s success, My Chemical Romance (MCR) swiftly shifted gear once again. Driven by the UK No 1 hit Welcome to the Black Parade, a multi-part epic in the spirit of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, the band embraced Bowie-calibre shapeshifting, Pink Floyd’s grandeur and glam rock’s sledgehammer riffs on 2006’s The Black Parade. MCR’s final album to date, 2010’s Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, was yet another departure, which drew on bratty punk, swaggering 80s rock and new wave’s colourful keyboards.
