My Chemical Romance - Syd Ent Cent 30/11/07

To me, there are predominately two types of bands, those that sound great in a studio but when it comes to a live performance, just seem to disappoint and those who sound great in a studio and are absolutely fantastic live.

My Chemical Romance, definitely fall into the latter group.

I must admit, I was somewhat hesitant at the prospect of seeing MCR in concert. Sure I have been listening to songs from their latest offering “The Black Parade” for the past 12 months but seeing them live in concert, well that was a completely different story but how could I say no to my youngest daughter, who was so desperately wanting to be part of the MCR live show experience.

So by the time I knew it, we were at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in readiness for the MCR show to commence and what a wait. You could sense the anticipation of the crowd; almost the whole centre was on tenterhooks, anxiously waiting for the band to run onto the stage…. and what an entrance they made.

Gerard Way, the bands lead singer, quite simply commanded attention, he controlled the audience, the stage and the atmosphere that surrounded the auditorium, in fact he owned the moment, the show and ultimately the night. Like a conductor controls a band, Gerard controlled the audience, from the Mosh Pit, right up through to the punters in the reserved seating and nose bleed sections.

The music was awesome and the band sounded great, the sound was outstanding (complemented by fireballs, cannon sounds, ample flow of sparkling rain and radical lighting completely in tune with each song) and the songs themselves sounded fantastic, most of them were from The Black Parade but they did slide in some old favourites like “Helena” for the hard core fans. The standouts for me were the two songs “I Don’t Love You” and their encore “Famous Last Words”. The former, a ballad was sung with the stage engulfed in a purple haze and the entire Mosh Pit ( which was filled to capacity ) swaying their arms in unison, it was enthralling to witness a flood of hands all held high, thrusting back and forth towards the direction of the stage. When they played “Famous Last Words” every person in the centre was standing and swaying, it was an incredible sight, the spotlights shone across the auditorium and all that you could see was a flurry of hands and jumping bodies, COMPLETELY synchronised to the music which concluding with an elaborate 6 gun salute.

The highlight of the night was the atmosphere, the combination of the band and the crowd, and the crowds obvious appreciation of what they were experiencing and observing them seize the moment. The ‘Emo’ crowd have to be applauded, no aggression, no drunken loutish behaviour, just a bunch of people with one common objective, to have a great time. One thing I noticed by the end of the night, even Emo’s can manage a smile.

David