The year was 2013, I was celebrating my 15th birthday, deep in the throes of my teenage hyperfixations. The name of the game for young Kate was Anime, Cosplay, Homestuck, and most importantly: My Chemical Romance.
I could sing the Black Parade album from heart and tell you all the trivia about every music video they had: in “Famous Last Words,” Ray Toro and Frank Iero both suffered burns from the bonfire scene.
Since I grew up in Utah (i.e., Mormon), I was a late introduction to the “emo revolution”. I missed out on the height of the Black Parade era, and my closest interaction with the emo aesthetic was an off-the-walls friend who I definitely didn’t understand. Yet somehow, the “Famous Last Words” music video popped up on my YouTube dashboard one day, and these pale, skinny goths won over my restrained Mormon-girl heart with their punk rock vibes. I wanted to wear the Black Parade uniform and seriously debated dying my hair white.
Then they broke up on my birthday.
My brain has rightfully repressed most of my teen years, but what I can remember of my reaction was that I was extremely excited to meet Gerard Way at WonderCon in Anaheim later that week. He canceled the appearance five days after the announcement of their breakup. I was upset, to say the least, later going to Tumblr to rant and mourn as you do when you’re newly fifteen.
I can only speculate the cancellation was because hordes of heartbroken fans would ferociously murder him in the name of emo instead of asking him for his autograph for the newest issue of The Umbrella Academy.
MCR? Whomst’ve?
My Chemical Romance (or MCR) hails from Newark, New Jersey, founded by lead singer Gerard Way, his brother, bassist Mikey Way, guitarist Ray Toro, and Matt Pelissier. Guitarist Frank Iero would join them later on. The band was formed not long after 9/11, when Gerard was so changed by witnessing the World Trade Centers fall, he decided to start a band. The name came from Irvine Welsh’s book Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance. Mikey suggested the name after he spotted the book working at Barnes and Noble. Their beginnings were humble, and they fostered their initial fanbase on their MySpace profile and booking at the notorious Big Daddy’s venue.
Their real breakout was the release of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge in the Summer of 2004. The album was incredibly successful, garnering punk rock classics such as “Helena”, “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”, and “The Ghost of You” (rip WWII-era Mikey Way).
While a triumph, this was later eclipsed by The Black Parade in ‘06. Anyone over the age of 18 has heard the well-known G note played at the beginning of the title track many, many times. The LP collected many accolades, debuting at #2 on the Billboard 200 (behind Hannah Montana), certified Triple Platinum, and being nominated for a Grammy.
Their depressingly emotional lyrics, epic instrumentals, and rebellious subject matter defined them, albeit controversially, as an “emo” musical style. Gerard Way has publicly rejected the term, describing it as “F***ing Garbage”. However, he also described the band’s style as being “What-else-ya-got-emo”. Whatever the case may be, My Chemical Romance became a figure-head for the emo subculture.
The Breakup.
Now, why would a critically acclaimed and incredibly successful band break up, especially after doing a song for Yo Gabba Gabba?
Just listen to the Conventional Weapons album.
Riding off the wave of The Black Parade and Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (which contained the hit song “Sing”), My Chemical Romance released their final and worst album ever. Conventional Weapons revolved (no pun intended) around 10 unreleased songs recorded prior to the Killjoys album. MCR released two songs a month for five months finishing in February 2013. It was in all honesty, unremarkable. If you’re thinking “Hm, that release sure is close to Kate’s birthday on March 22nd.” You are correct. Their breakup came soon after the final song was released. One can only assume that our near-and-dear goth boys had burnt out completely. In fact, Way admitted in an interview with The Guardian, “[that] it wasn’t fun to make stuff anymore.” The pressure from the world to keep creating bigger and better music, as well as the weight of The Black Parade’s success, crushed any enjoyment they had in producing music. It was time to stop.
The Reunion.
Here we are now, in the last months of 2019. While everything seems to be going up in flames in a giant landfill fire, we can at least expect more music from My Chemical Romance before the year is up. Rumors of a reunion had begun in 2016, but it turned out the teasing on the band’s website was because of the 10th anniversary edition of The Black Parade, much to the chagrin of every grown up goth ever. It was actually Joe Jonas that leaked the reunion. In June of 2019, the boy-bander claimed that My Chemical Romance were rehearsing next to them in New York.
And then no one believed him.
Joe Jonas proved to be the ignored prophet of the goth religion, because on Halloween, MCR officially announced their return with a comeback show in LA this December. Goth Christmas had finally come to pass. No need to worry about tickets to the show, they sold out within the first few hours of going on sale November 1st. If you didn’t snag a ticket- because you didn’t sacrifice a few goats for the chance to buy one- you can follow their Instagram as they continue to post cryptic images pertaining to the pending releases. Or, while you wait patiently for December to come bearing angry violent gifts of punk-rock, you can take this time to re-listen or listen anew to the iconic discography of My Chemical Romance.
