I'M OFFICIALLY NOT OKAY (TRUST ME)
At the time of writing this, it’s officially been three weeks since Halloween and the day of my favorite band, one of the biggest emo bands of the last two decades, coming back into existence. That’s such a strange sentence, that I really didn’t think I’d ever write. If you don’t know, I am of course talking about My Chemical Romance.
My Chemical Romance formed in 2002 after Gerard Way was headed back to New Jersey from art school in NYC and saw the Twin Towers fall on 9/11. The band was made of Gerard Way, Mikey Way, Ray Toro, Frank Iero, and Matt Pelissier. They eventually released I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, which contains songs such as “Our Lady of Sorrows” and “Skylines and Turnstiles”, which is about 9/11.
In 2004, the band released Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. This album helped push them into stardom with the lead single “Helena”, and other singles like “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” and “The Ghost of You.” Those videos are of course super recognizable with their different aesthetics.
The album that really changed their universe, and mine, was The Black Parade. My favorite emo band was now donning dark jackets, and Gerard had cut all his shaggy locks off in favor of bleach blonde short hair. The concept record that changed the world, and keeps influencing people and bands since it came out in 2006, really was the cream of the crop that year. This was supposed to be their final record, but the label thought otherwise and we got the next one 4 years later. This record also saw the band having an extensive touring schedule in support.
Before their last record came out in 2010, My Chemical Romance added a drummer, Bob Bryar, and lost the same drummer due to feuds and scandal. The last iteration of the band was just Gerard Way, Mikey Way, Frank Iero, and Ray Toro. The final record was titled Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. This album found the band ditching their black and white look, and concept album, in favor of bright colors and a post-apocalyptic landscape. Gerard Way continued on the change of his and the band’s looks to bright red hair, bright jackets, and code names. The names were Kobra Kid, Jet-Star, Party Poison, and Fun Ghoul. The album featured songs such as “The Only Hope For Me Is You” and “Sing”. This album was set in apocalyptic California in 2019, which to me in 2010 sounded very far away.
Fast forward to Halloween 2019, when they started dropping clues and photos. I thought it was another album re-release just like the band did for the 10th anniversary of The Black Parade. As more stuff started coming out, it was becoming more apparent to the internet and the world that the band might actually be coming back for real. Sure enough, they posted a flier for a come back show, on sale on Nov 1st at 3pm EST in LA for December 20th. California 2019 - they were telling us all along they were only taking a few years off. The working theory is they wanted to copy the model of Smashing Pumpkins - be a band for 12 years, break up for 6, and then come back.
485.5k Likes, 42.1k Comments - My Chemical Romance (@mychemicalromance) on Instagram: "Like Phantoms Forever... ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ Tickets on Sale Friday 11/1/19 at 12:00 PM Pacific⠀ ⠀..."
As soon as that show got announced, rumors started flying around about what iteration and the look of the band we’d get in December. Personally, whatever it is, I’m very excited. It is so nice to have them existing again. The prospect of being able to buy a ticket to see them in the next 12 months makes me pretty happy. Also, are we getting a new record? Are we just going to get a tour of old stuff? No one knows.
I personally think that we have to be getting a tour or something. There was too much invested in the creation of their Instagram and the comeback for it to be only one U.S. show and four international dates, but like everyone else, we will just have to wait and see.
See you in the pit.