My Chemical Romance in Berlin: The Live Show Review
Usually, the music reviews I write are non-personal and straight to the point. However, I think part of what made My Chemical Romance's Berlin show so magical was that so many souls tucked away inside the Velodrome, it was incredibly personal. While I do not know everyone's story, I do know mine.
Before diving into the personal, let's talk about the actual show. Thanks to the long global pandemic, this tour just now came to life two years past due. Selfishly, I am glad as it meant the timing worked out for me not to miss this spectacle. The energy in the Velodrome was a palpable buzz, as though if you dared to flick on a lighter, the whole thing would catch fire.
Gerard Way delivered an incredible performance regardless and especially for someone who is recently back to performing live shows. He has been busy the past years working on his comic book series turned into an incredible and progressive TV series: “Umbrella Academy”. He brought theatrics in spades from his outfit, which was composed of what looked like a clown Halloween costume that I am honestly not sure how he didn’t die of heat stroke in.
He also had his face painted in dramatic contrasting black and white face paint to pull together the whole look. His stage presence and vocal performance in person made me realize why growing up I had heard people talk at length about the magic of My Chemical Romance live. It was truly a show of a lifetime with a crowd who could not have been happier to be there. I saw smiles, tears, love, pain, and heartbreak throughout the evening.
At one point in the evening the glow of cell phone flashlights illuminated the top of the Velodrome replicating a starry sky. This show felt personal to everybody I observed from the crowd, and while that is usual to a degree at all live shows, I have never seen it the way I did this evening.
In my humble opinion a large part of what makes My Chemical Romance a band that has carried its following for decades and globally is the connection fans have found within the many albums.
My first memory of My Chemical Romance is from when I was just a pre-teen. My little sister and I became obsessed with the song "Helena". I remember her and I writing lyrics to each other back and forth from separate rooms on our Nintendo DS’s in between games of Mario Party (yes, this was a while ago).
Jump forward to 16 - barely knowing how to drive and blasting "Teenagers" while driving through my conservative hometown in my dark green pickup truck. Finding comfort in music that made me feel seen in a place that while I grew up in… Did not feel like home.
At 17 - My Chemical Romance was not actively touring anymore, with Gerard focussing on his comic book series. However, I found myself living in Sydney, Australia alongside my parents. Far from home and depressed in that special 17-year-old way. I only had the albums I had downloaded and would wander the streets wondering who I was, who I wanted to be, if being an artist would be my path, what kind of artist, and so much more, all while listening to “Famous Last Words” and other classic tracks. I was a model at the time but knew I wanted to create more - to become an artist that could make a difference… I had no idea the path life would take me down at this time. I was only starting to figure myself out.
I just about lost my mind when I saw Gerard Way and Grant Morrison would be giving a talk that night at the Sydney Opera house. I remember just stopping in my tracks and staring at my parents with “Please!” written all over my face.
Later that evening I found myself in a balcony seat listening to the two discuss creation, artistry, their stories and so much more. At one point they opened up the floor to questions and somehow (to this day I am still surprised) my socially anxious teenage self yelled from the balcony:
“How do you beat the fear?”
I didn’t know why I asked it, the question just came flying out of my overly existential teenage lips. I had no idea that Gerard’s and Grant’s answers would radically change how I approached life, art, love, and anything else that had passion at its core.
Grant: Embrace the fear, love the fear, fuck the fear to death! Fear is your very best friend! Enjoy the fear, fear makes you get shit done, the fear will be there with you holding your hand…
Gerard: “It will always be with you, it will never go away, and he is right it is your best friend, fear is your very best friend. There is a photo some photographer took at Reading and Leeds and I've saved the photo, because it’s my favorite photo, and not because it’s of myself. But I am standing there with my fist up in the air - and you can see the fear in my eyes - and that is why I like the photo. Because it is right there in me - and I had a great show anyway. That’s how it is, you're going to be scared, you're going to be scared a lot, you're going to think you did something awesome, and then you're going to realize it sucks, but then you're going to realize it’s awesome again, and these things are going to happen until you die, and that’s what being an artist really is.”
This advice made me not fearless but rather, seeming to be. It made me look for the fear - for the things that scared me - it made me want to chase them. Grant and Gerard were right on all counts. Fear is my best friend and has led me to the most amazing things in my life. It is always with me, when I look it in the eyes is usually when I make the best art, and the best choices. They taught me fear is how I know I am heading in the right direction. It is true, it really does make you get shit done and it is an integral part of being an artist. At least for me I have found.
At 23 - My best friend and I could be found screaming "Black Parade" and "Mama" in her beat up Honda minivan outside of Los Angeles parties - waiting to feel like going inside. I found myself listening to “The Sharpest Lives” while watching my life fall apart and reform into something better.
At 25 - I looked fear in the face, took its hand once more, and moved to Berlin as the one type of artist I never thought I would be all those years ago… A photographer. 3 months later, at 26 I laughed at the way life does all connect back to itself. I had a little smile on my lips possibly mixing with a lil taste of that familiar fear - as I stood in the photo pit at My Chemical Romance's comeback tour at the Velodrome in Berlin - waiting to shoot those first three songs.
From Texas suburbs, Australian sunshine, Los Angeles late nights, and all the way to beautiful Berlin, My Chemical Romance has been on my playlists every major step of the way. That is why their show was so personal to me. I am just one story, with every single person in that arena harboring their own, some more important, some maybe there, just to keep a friend company. What I do know is I have never felt energy like that at a concert before, and I don’t know when I will again.
My Chemical Romance has captured hearts and minds for decades as they continue to carry those they have gathered along the way with incredible music on a timeless “Black Parade '' of fans worldwide. Below are some photos of the spectacular evening at the Velodrome with My Chemical Romance.
My Chemical Romance: @mychemicalromance
Photography: Weslee Kate @wesleekatecreative
