Live Review – Greatest Hits B-set – My Chem Friday @ Wembley

4 minute review read

Intro

In this article I’m covering the second half of My Chemical Romance’s set – when they stop being ‘The Black Parade band’, drop all the lore and play a set of songs from all albums other than The Black Parade. For the first half and the lore breakdown click here, and for the support act Joan Jett’s set review click here! (And come back here once your done, yeah?)

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The B-Set

There are so many things I loved about this set, so I’m gonna speak about each thing one by one, and hopefully not go on for too long!

To start, even the way they staged this set was brilliant. They all walked through the standing crowd to play from the middle stage – which made Wembley Arena feel like an intimate venue, at least from where I was sat. Doing it like this, making it feel personal, was a brilliant move. It also highlighted the differences between the two sets, it said “We’re done being unreachable up there, doing all our complicated lore stuff, this is just songs amongst you lot”. (Although, for all the complexity of the lore, my mum and dad, who know next to nothing about it, said they watched the non-music parts like a theatre show, and it definitely added to the performance)

I liked that they played a large variety of songs from all their albums, though Gerard was very mean in his intro to one song. He said “We’re gonna play a song we’ve never played before.” I’m ashamed to say I screamed like a teen girl (I know I am one, but shrieking is something I disapprove of in its stereotype), as I thought ‘Oh my gods its gonna be a new track! We’re finally getting a new song!!!’ and I can tell a lot of the arena was going down the same train of thought until, a few seconds later, “This is Zero Percent.” Come on. I bet he knew how we’d all take that. Not that I didn’t love the live debut of Zero Percent – it’s a brilliant song and absolutely blew up in a live setting. It’s just so high energy – I was jumping up and down the whole song!

As well as all the classics that they obviously played (I’m Not Okay (I Promise), Helena, Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)) I really enjoyed the songs that were comparatively deep cuts – To The End, My Way Home Is Though You, S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W and, of course, Demolition Lovers, which they closed the set with.

Na Na Na was insane. More insane than everything else was insane. I feel like it was the kind of song that wants to be played live – filling a stadium, everyone screaming along to the lyrics perfect for such a purpose, floodlights lighting the place up like day on some beats.

Helena was indescribable, but of course I’m going to try to describe it. It still has all the emotion and desperation that you’d hope for from this song, and the atmosphere it created… simply amazing.

I’m Not Okay (I Promise). What’s there to say? This thing’s well-known for a reason. Screaming your lungs out while literally saying, ‘I’m not okay’ is extraordinarily cathartic, especially when 90,000 people around you are doing the exact same thing. Even though that album is 22 years old (I feel very young…) all the tracks played off it still sound very now and relevant – and I think they will continue to be so for years and years to come.

A song that I wasn’t expecting to be played, but is definitely one of my favourites, is a B-Side off The Black Parade, My Way Home Is Through You. Something about that song is just infectious, and another one to be jumping up and down to!

Something I enjoyed about this gig was that almost everyone in the sitting area was standing up – in a lot of gigs I’ve been too, you can feel super self-conscious about standing up if no one else is. But we all stood up at the start of the gig and didn’t sit back down (Well except if you’re me, and had to try to give your aching feet a break between tracks).

So, in short, if you can go see them at any point in the future – get your asses there!