'The Black Parade' rocks the Forum

My Chemical Romance's Black Parade Tour marched through the Inglewood Forum. Leaving spectators howling for more.

By Victor Farfan
Celluloid and Sound

Lead singer Gerard Way gives a rip-roaringly hot performance Photo: MCRfanforum.com
Guitarist Ray Toro gets down Photo: MCRfanforum.com

My Chemical Romance’s “Black Parade” tour rolled into the Inglewood Forum, bringing with it legions of devout fans dressed with their requisite jet-black clothes, tight pants, dark eyeliner and worn converse.

Openers “Rise Against” kicked off the show with their adrenaline-filled set. Lead singer Tim McIlrath’s gravelly voice belted their fast-paced, aggressive yet melodic brand of hardcore punk and pumped the crowd up for the main attraction.

From behind the black curtain, a hospital gurney was rolled out with an unknown “patient” draped beneath a sheet. The beep of a hospital heart monitor pulsed and then flat-lined; and with that death knell the ‘parade’ began.  

From under the sheet rose lead singer Gerard Way, making his grand entrance. The hospital bed and monitor were reminders of the overarching theme of the band’s critically-praised album “The Black Parade”: death.

“Now come one, come all to this tragic affair. Wipe off that makeup what’s in is despair…” Way proclaimed with bitter glee, greeting the crowd with the lyrics of the first song, ironically titled “The End.”

Way and the rest of the band, dressed in what looked like black high-school-marching-band uniforms for the undead, snarled strutted and howled their way through their entire “Black Parade” album for the first part of their nearly 2 hour set.

One of the night’s highlights was their performance of lead single “Welcome to the Black Parade.” It opened with the somber notes of a piano and slowly built to an operatic grandeur reminiscent of something Queen would have done. As the crowd yelled their hearts out the anthemic chorus “We’ll carry on,” black and white confetti spewed overhead.

Over-the-top? Yes. Amazing? I think so.

The band was bent on keeping everyone’s energy up throughout their performance; Way made that clear when he playfully screamed to the crowd, "I want to melt your fucking faces off. So if you're face is still okay...then come to the front and dance it off!"

Slower songs, like “Cancer” and “I Don’t Love You,” turned into poignant sing-along laments between the band and audience. People whipped out and waved their cell phones high (apparently, cell phones have taken the place of old-school lighters).

If the audience thrashing around, raising their fists in unison and shouting back lyrics of rabble-rousers like “Mama,” “Teenagers” and “Famous Last Words” was any indication, they loved every last minute of the bombast spectacle, which was made even more larger-than-life as pyrotechnic flames and sparks erupted from the stage and by two large blimps which hovered at the stage’s sides.

After a short intermission, the band changed clothes and although Way’s voice began sounding strained, his energy did not waver. The band powered through the final part of their set, where they performed more than half of the songs from their previous disc “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge,” and ended the night with a rousing rendition of “Helena.”

Who could have imagined that a concert so wrapped-up in death could be so rip-roaring, intense and, dare I say, lively?