My Chemical Romance’s world-building theatrics rock Citizens Bank Park

In My Chemical Romance’s imagined world of DRAAG, The Black Parade lives forever. Or, rather, it keeps coming back to life. It’s a concrete, gloom-filled empire, a place where His Grand Immortal Dictator keeps killing frontperson Gerard Way, making him relive the same night over and over again. In this world, The Black Parade isn’t really an album, but a band who clocks in for their shift as the Dictator’s National Band, and Gerard himself as the Dictator’s personal puppet. This lore is long, and it’s something I needed explained to me before the New Jersey rock icons’ high-concept concert at Citizens Bank Park last week. 

The suspense started with a tape recording of “Tonight You Belong To Me,” it served as an ode to the Dictator who keeps the band hostage every night to play this show and it prepped the audience for the show to start. Then, “The National Anthem of Draag” was played with a military drummer and opera singer, Lucy Joy Altus.  Yes, My Chemical Romance wrote a national anthem for a world they created from scratch. After the anthem finished, the band came out to punch their time cards and start the night, again.

My Chemical Romance played the entirety of The Black Parade album, top to bottom, within the concept of the world of DRAAG. During “Welcome To The Black Parade,” Gerard stood at a podium as if making a political speech out of the lines “I’m just a man, I’m not a hero.” This song, in the context of this world, reads almost like a taunt to His Grand Immortal Dictator. It’s like he’s saying, “you can keep killing me, but I won’t submit.”

My Chemical Romance has always been exceptional at world building; it’s easy to admire their dedication to making something we can physically be a part of. (Even down to the Phillie Phanatic taking the stage and tossing cheesesteaks to the crowd.) But the whole show was an incredible production, world building aside. It was filled with flashy costumes, theatrics (the opera singer Altus returned to the stage to accompany them on “Mama”), and a remarkable amount of pyrotechnics. By the second to last song, the reprise of “The End,” the stage was covered in flames and filled the stadium with a heat we could feel from our seats. It was honestly a little nervewracking, and reminded me of when the band’s former drummer Bob Bryer suffered third degree burns on the set of the music video for “Famous Last Words.” 

With smoke in the air, The Black Parade band was kidnapped again by the Dictator’s army as Gerard lay dying after being stabbed by the Dictator’s crony in a clown suit. The final song of the first set was the album’s hidden track, “Blood.” It encapsulates the idea of performing a neverending show, spilling your guts for vampires who just want to bleed you dry. “I gave you blood, blood, gallons of the stuff / I gave you all that you can drink and it will never be enough / I gave you blood, blood, blood / I’m the kind of human wreckage that you love.” During this song, the Dictator’s worker was not only dressed in a full clown suit but also a pyrotechnic vest. At the end of the song he blew up. 

The world of DRAAG reads to me like a commentary on the demand of touring, playing the same show over and over and over until they’ve spilled their guts all over the stage, and the crowd still wants more. It’s a topic that maybe can be touched now that My Chemical Romance seems to actually enjoy touring again. Or, maybe it’s about the industry as a whole, using bands as their money-making puppets, the artists struggling while the execs get richer. There’s probably a hundred different ways to spin it, but at its heart it’s a show about exploitation and power, and how violent those things can be for the sake of entertainment. 

After the thematic first set, cellist Clarice Jensen took to the B-stage to play “From A to B.” It was an enchanting display of artistry: one person and their cello against a stadium full of people, and it was exactly the kind of reprieve we needed.

When Jensen was finished, My Chemical Romance took the B-stage as themselves. Guitarist Frank Iero wore a Phillies jacket and somehow chewed gum the whole time despite needing to sing. The second set was filled with some deep cuts alongside the hits, plus a tour-first. 

“Bury Me In Black” was on the setlist. It’s an epic, heavier demo from the live-and-rarities album Life on the Murder Scene. There were some obvious classics, like “Helena,” “I’m Not Okay (I Promise),” and “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid.”

We also got the tour debut of “Headfirst for Halos,” off the band’s 2001 debut album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. It was during the B-stage set that guitarist Ray Toro really shined. The entire band presented themselves as true masters of their crafts, but Toro especially was a highlight. He plays complicated riffs with such remarkable ease that’s an obvious product of decades of hard work, it’s hard to look away from.

As a whole, My Chemical Romance’s chemistry on stage is unmatched. They’ve been friends for decades, watching each other become husbands and fathers. It was truly heartwarming to watch them reunite in a way that felt tangibly passionate and authentic. 

My earliest memory of My Chemical Romance is when I was in the third grade. My sister introduced me to them, like she did most things, but I can’t remember when or how. In this memory, though, I was in the backseat of a short limo at my grandfather Salvatore’s funeral. I was sitting with my family, headphones on and plugged in to my little iPod. My dad turned to me and asked if he could listen to my music with me, and I said something along the lines of “I don’t think you want to listen to this.” When he asked why, I showed him my screen. I was listening to “Dead!”, which was a bit on the nose for a kid still in their single digits. It’s one of those memories that’s so absurd that it could’ve been a dream, but feels far too real to have made up.

My Chemical Romance is a cross-generational band. There were tons of families who came out to this tour, many of them taking their kids to their first concert. It was fascinating to see old emo and new intertwined. This was happening even on stage, with Frank Iero’s father Cheech joining them to play auxiliary percussion. Emo music is no longer something we’re hiding from our parents, but something we’re gladly sharing. There’s a new generation of brooding kids taking the reins. 

And for those kids’ brooding parents, rock-legend Alice Cooper opened the show by stepping in front of a big tapestry that said “ALICE COOPER BANNED IN PENNSYLVANIA.” His stage was a plague, pirate, steam-punk hybrid. He had on a handful of belts, the tallest top hat in the world, and he was surrounded by people in clown masks.

At the end of his first three songs, Cooper tossed his cane into the crowd to be caught by a young fan in skull makeup. His set closed with  a cover of “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath, in honor of the late Ozzy Osbourne, as well as his classic hit “School’s Out.” Alice Cooper’s appearance bridged the generational gap even more, with music from as far back as 1970 being played on the Citizens Bank Park stage.