My Chemical Romance (+ Placebo), MK Stadium. 21st May 2022

Welcome to Milton Keynes! I’m on the road accompanying my eldest to watch My Chemical Romance and you know what, they’re bloody brilliant. I’m jumping ahead though, this is the first of three stadium gigs in as many weeks and as stadiums go for live music, this is pretty good. It’s not massive and traps the sound pretty well. This fact is tested out by support band Placebo. Yes you read that right, Placebo supporting My Chemical Romance, not the other way around. Molko and co. have still got it and bang out a good hour of old and impressive new material. The new album is great, but there’s no ‘Pure Morning’ or ‘Nancy Boy’ but I’m seeing them headline later this year, so a longer set might allow for more classics. They finish with ‘Infared’ though that sounds awesome and certainly leaves me excited for more. Anticipation builds with a drone that gets louder until MCR arrive, the crowd goes batshit and they launch into new single ‘Foundation of Decay’. To any naysayer thinking this band aren’t big, aren’t important. Stand in a stadium full of people all singing “I’m not okay”, I mean EVERYONE! It’s blistering stuff. I’m not diehard enough to every song, but ‘Make Room!!!’ is brilliant, it’s line of “everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to die” is fucking brilliant. They’re every bit the stadium rock band, with all the brutal bombast that requires. Like the very best though, despite there being thousands in this sold out bowl, they make it feel intimate. This is down to Gerrard Way. He’s a charming lad, totally at ease telling stories like he’s down the local. There’s a sense that they’ve learnt every song off every album and are ready to twist and turn, belting out songs at will. It’s bloody impressive. They know how to pace a set though. Want a workout? Have a bit of ‘Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)’… I think I’ve counted right. It’s fast, bouncy, I’ve not seen a crowd move like that since lockdown was over, it’s beautiful. We get treated to a few rarities, but these do lose the crowd a little bit. Still, MCR fans I’ve learnt today are hardcore and must still love to hear these songs, even if they can’t really sing along. Enter ‘Teenagers’… I don’t think I’ve had as much fun at a stadium gig, ever!! It’s pure untethered joy. Want more? ‘DESTROYA’ is an absolute monster. If there were a roof it wouldn’t stand a chance. They ease up through the gears with ‘Thank You For the Venom’ and the spectacularly theatrical ‘Mama’, but when they get to ‘Welcome to The Black Parade’, my god I forgot we were inside. You’d swear we’re indoors it’s that loud. Incredible. They close out with ‘Sleep’, but we don’t want to and neither do they so we get the obligatory encore rounding out two hours of the best stadium gig I’ve seen in a long time. I wouldn’t have come had my eldest not asked, to think I could’ve missed this! Terrifying!!