Live Review – Lore Breakdown and theories – My Chem Friday @ Wembley

8 minute review read

Intro

In this article I’m covering the first half of My Chem’s set (The Black Parade album in full) and the MAJOR lore breakthroughs that I think happened! I’ve also released a post about the support act that night: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts! This review is here for after you’ve finished this article, and my goal is to be releasing my review on the second half of the concert on 17/07 at 8pm. Enjoy!

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The Black Parade Set

I’ve never been to a concert where a whole album has been played start to finish before. I can see it not working great with less well put together albums, but this is not a problem for The Black Parade. Despite technically knowing what was coming to a great extent, the arena was absolutely buzzing with excitement. (I speak more about Wembley in general in Part 1 of this series) There was a great mix of the familiar and the new, which accentuated the fact that the whole thing was pulled off perfectly. The excitement and elation from start to finish was truly unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.

The concert itself started with the announcement “All stand for the Grand Immortal Dictator.” said in such a way that even the ones uninterested in lore leaped to their feet. We put an arm across our chests and sang along to the National Anthem of Draag, which was performed by a woman in a red dress, but also with the visuals from the ‘music video’ for it on the screens (The karaoke-like lyrics accompanying that were also helpful). A lot of the Kaposhka (Draag’s language) that I translated from the inner back of the t shirts mirrors the lyrics of the national anthem, by the way. The Grand Immortal Dictator took his seat and I’m kinda talking lore aren’t I? Sorry, I’ll stay on topic.

So, the fact that every single song they played was so ridiculously good is actually making it really hard to write about! When I think about it, my mind just goes blank with plain awe. I’ll try to get around this and write some cohesive specifics.

Something I noticed throughout the concert was that Gerard’s singing technique was slightly different to how I’ve heard it before on a lot of songs – very dark and almost metal-like growls and screams. I’m definitely here for it – This Is How I Disappear and The Sharpest Lives worked perfectly in that style. My favourite verse in The Sharpest Lives referencing Romeo and Juliet was superbly dark, complimenting the verse and the play it refers to.

My one one little thing I didn’t like was the piano intro to Welcome To The Black Parade – the piano was out of tune!!! It was in a stylistic way – a kind of old-timey echoey feel, like the piano had survived since WWI. But not like the studio version. If something will be the most iconic and recognisable bit of your set, maybe don’t change it? However the rest of that song (pic below) definitely made up for it.

When there’s audience engagement, like arm waving or pumping fists in the air, there’s usually a certain percentage that don’t do it – but here basically every single person went for it. Seeing 90,000 people all beat their fists in the air at the same time to such an amazing track was truly an incredible and impactful experience. Imagine sharing a room with 90,000 people you have something important in common with, and going through all the emotions of a gig with them. It felt like magic.

As I’ve said, everything was insanely good, but the last song I’m gonna give some extra attention to is Famous Last Words. I could have guessed it was going to be fantastic – when the music video is literally everything on fire, the stage show has got some stuff to live up to. Literally everything was on fire. A countdown to the end of the song showed on the top screen as the pyro went insane, the screens made it look as though the rest of the stage was burning up too, the lights were mad, then there was fireworks, even more pyro everywhere and even Catherine Wheels spinning along wires above the crowd!

People say that once you’ve seen you’re favourite band live you’re life can feel complete – I just feel like I need to see them again!

LORE!

So, there are multiple things that changed, lore-wise, at this concert, as far as my knowledge, and some theories that have become more/less likely. However, since I’m just covering this gig, (not everything that’s brought us to this point) I recommend you check out the YouTube channel Disloyal Order’s previous three breakdowns to get you caught up to speed on what’s going on, and some of the theories I’m gonna be expanding on.

Something I’d like to state, from the get-go on lore, is – why? Why have they created this world, a whole language for goodness sake! – just to not release an album to live in that world? I’m certainly gonna follow it and decode and try to figure stuff out from the breadcrumbs we’ve been given… but some extra motivation would be great – how about a new song? Please?

One of the first things I noticed as a change from previous shows, was the woman known as The Secretary’s extended involvement. Usually, a man that is thought to be The Black Parade’s management gives Gerard a letter (which he has a mixed reaction to) then slaps him. He also dresses up as a clown who stabs Gerard at the end of the show before blowing up. However in this show, when Gerard is given the letter, it’s The Secretary who hands it to him. And at the end, it wasn’t the management dressed as a clown that stabs Gerard, it was The Secretary in the clown costume.

During Mama, she also tried to wrestle the dagger from Gerard’s hand during the extended outro – which was more extended than before! (I’ll get to that later)

Also involving The Secretary – at one point Gerard took off his Black Parade jacket and left it on the floor. I think many people had a twenty one pilots Clancy Tour flashback when The Secretary tried to give Gerard the jacket. He did take it – but just to throw it dramatically in the air, and she was not impressed. She slaps him again, but instead of being cowed, he mockingly tries to intimidate her, only then to run away, intimidated.

What I’m kinda getting at is – she’s becoming more and more important and prevalent in the show, while the Grand Immortal Dictator remains the same, as in, kinda inconsequential and not making the decisions. Is The Secretary actually in more power than she seems? She’s always in the background, always supervising, even in the earliest promotional videos – and now she’s started taking more action. Can it be a coincidence? Is she the one actually running the show, maybe literally?

Three more things: Firstly, the Mama extended outro is more extended then before. As well as what has been said before, he began with ‘And if you like it/ blow us a kiss/ it’s nearly started/ it goes like this’ (then the usual ‘a dagger, a dagger…’ thing) then he asks, not in song, though the music hasn’t stopped ‘What’s it? What’s the plot? What’s the plot say? What’s the plot? What’s the plot say?’ then ‘Why are you here?’ seemingly aimed at someone in particular, though I can’t tell who. And again ‘Why are you… here… ladies and gentlemen’ at the crowd. He then goes on to thank the magicians, singers, aristocrats and ‘but a girl’? I think that’s what he said anyway… If you guys can get something relevant from that, or know what he said at the end there, please let me know.

Secondly, during the intro for Sleep, Gerard usually reads something. There have been lots of different things, including a book on Quantum Physics – this time, he was reading a newspaper. On the cover – very familiar posters with Wanted: The Killjoys above them. So this lore isn’t just ‘bridging the gap’ between 1910s The Black Parade and 2019’s Danger Days – it feels like it’s acting in multiple times at once. The Quizzo show seems very 50s/60s, yet if The Black Parade was only in MOAT for 17 years, it should be the 30s – definitely not anywhere near what we know is in the 2010s… Is Draag (as a concept? Organisation? Whole county?) like the TVA in Marvel Universe? Existing outside of time, seeing over everything, and able to jump in and out of different times when and where they like? Am I talking rubbish? Dunno, I might be onto something, it might explain the Quantum Physics book…

Last thing. Gerard mentioned being the ’52nd battalion of The Black Parade’… how many shows have they had on this tour/ since getting back together? Maybe Gerard is killed every night by the clown, but isn’t brought back to life – each night its a different person, a different Black Parade?

Please tell me your theories – it would be great to know what everyone else is thinking of this!