Come One, Come All, My Chemical Romance Brought The Black Parade to San Diego
Come one, come all, My Chemical Romance brought The Black Parade to a sold out Petco Park stadium on August 30th. The band is celebrating 20 years of The Black Parade this year; an album that not only redefined a genre, but was a voice of a generation. Making us all feel heard, understood, and giving us a voice when we felt like we didn’t have one. The Black Parade is a timeless album and 20 years later, it’s still relevant. An album this monumental deserves a monumental celebration. The band has been touring The Black Parade in its entirety for over a year now and this hasn’t happened in almost 18 years since The Black Parade was “killed off” in 2007. On this tour, every city had a different opener and on this night in San Diego, BABY METAL opened the show!
One of the things I love about BABY METAL is they are a team, one artist is not above the others. The Kami band is lined up at the back of the stage mostly in the dark, wearing all black and masks. The girls are dressed in gorgeous costumes that are a blend of traditional Japanese culture and metal. After a couple of songs, the girls went off stage and gave the band a few minutes to show off their solo skills. The band played an 8 song set with their amazing J-pop choreography. They played my favorite, “RATATATA”, which features Electric Callboy on the recording. They also played “BABYMETAL DEATH”, “PA PA YA!!”, and “Gimme Chocolate!!” While I don’t understand the lyrics, it doesn’t matter, the energy is amazing.
I planned on going to the show with Kaiya, (if you don’t know is my daughter and VTU editor in chief) who was so excited to see The Black Parade in its entirety, but she had a last minute opportunity that she couldn’t pass up (Stay tuned for that). I know a little bit about MCR, but I'm a Gen X thrash metal kinda girl. While my dad, her grandfather, was going through chemo and hospice, Kaiya listened to The Black Parade over and over. I was gone a lot caring for my dad in his final days and struggling with losing him and figuring out how to help my daughter do the same. Fortunately, she had The Black Parade that was so relatable for her. She shared with me some of the songs and their meaning for her, one even named “Cancer”. I was so excited to share the experience with her, but I went by myself, but I wasn’t alone! Walking into Petco Park seeing all the seats filled for a band is quite an experience.
With that being said, having very little knowledge of what I’m about to experience, this is what I think was happening, tell me in the comments if I’m close. On the screens above, not the side stage screen, but high above to the side was a dystopian dictator looking man. I thought it was a photo, but he moved ever so slightly. So we’re being watched, maybe guarded? We all received Yea or Nay cards when we walked in, so after “Welcome to The Black Parade”, four hooded prisoners were brought out on the B stage (small stage set midway between main stage and soundboard) and the crowd voted to save them or eliminate them with their cards. The crowd voted “Yea” and with one bang they were eliminated. I still think we’re the prisoners. “Mama” is the one song I know and I was so excited to hear that live. There was a LOT of fire, including a man ON fire running across the stage. his show was next level!
After the Black Parade set, the band went off stage and the B stage lit up with spotlight on Clarice Jensen cellist performing “From A to B” for the transition. After about 15 minutes or so the band walked through the crowd to the B stage in the middle. Dressed in regular clothes, they climbed up on the B stage and played 10 “random” songs. I could hear the people around trying to guess which songs would be played. They change up the songs every night so you never know what you’re going to get and it’s a fun little guessing game. I love a random setlist like back in the day when you couldn’t look it up and it was a surprise. I knew more songs than I thought and there was a Gen X couple right in front of me singing every word.
The Black Parade will carry on through the end of the year, playing festivals Louder Than Life and Aftershock, returning back to Los Angeles for 5 nights, and then closing out the year with a tour an Asia!
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