Evaluation: My Chemical Romance marches bloody Black Parade into San Francisco

Followers got placards as they entered Oracle Park in San Francisco on Saturday evening (July 19).

On the purple aspect of the placard was the phrase “Yea,” whereas the black flipside merely learn “Nay.” Followers would later be directed to make use of these indicators to find out the destiny of some hooded people lined up in entrance of a (faux) firing squad on the stage. A majority of “yea” (or purple) votes would imply the “execution” would begin.

“I see an overwhelming ocean of red,” My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Approach reasoned as he appeared out on the extremely charged capability crowd in entrance of him.

And with the fan resolution within the books, the firing squad let free — bang, bang, bang, bang, bang! — and the hooded people dropped “dead” to the ground.

It was the dramatic and sinister second of a extremely theatrical present that included no scarcity of shock and awe. And the entire former got here through the first portion of the massively sold-out live performance, as My Chemical Romance revisited its best business triumph — 2006’s mall-rock manifesto “The Black Parade” — as a totally fleshed out and disturbing rock opera earlier than returning to play a straight-forward (and, for my part, extra pleasant) second set of different materials.

My Chemical Romance performs at Oracle Park in San Francisco on July 19, 2025. (Jim Harrington, Bay Space Information Group) 

However Approach and his alt-rock companions didn’t simply play “The Black Parade” in its entirety, however fairly they totally took on the characters of the piece’s fictional Black Parade band and threw themselves fully into the unhappy dystopian storyline that borrows no scarcity of concepts from Soviet Union Chilly Warfare occasions whereas maintaining one foot in immediately’s Trump period.

This was Evening 2 of the roadshow — dubbed the Lengthy Stay The Black Parade Tour — which opened in Seattle a bit of over per week prior is at the moment set to incorporate a dozen dates (stretching into 2026). It’s celebrating the twentieth anniversary of “The Black Parade,” a piece that has solely grown in stature and acclaim over the previous 20 years as OG MCR followers preserve returning to the opus and youthful generations latch onto a rock opera with a lineage that may be simply traced again Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.”

Taking the stage simply after 8:30 p.m., the New Jersey outfit kicked off the present — identical to the album itself — with “The End.” My Chemical Romance spent the subsequent 70-plus minutes meticulously recreating “The Black Parade,” carrying the united statesS.R.-reminiscent marching band outfits whereas rocking by the tunes in the identical order as the unique observe itemizing, earlier than winding again the place it began with a blood-soaked reprise of “The End.”

My Chemical Romance performs at Oracle Park in San Francisco on July 19, 2025. (Jim Harrington, Bay Space Information Group) 

Approach was a convincing, crazed entrance man, adopting a nasal Japanese European-esque accent as he spoke to the gang with out ever breaking character throughout “The Black Parade” phase. He used each (considerably) delicate sarcasm and over-the-top spectacle to deal with a variety of ongoing societal considerations, a lot of which needed to do with the sort of management the federal government exerts on our lives. (These “executed” people, for instance, had been paying the worth of getting offended the Black Parade’s dictator.)

Approach was nothing in need of a power of nature within the position, bringing a mixture of mania, terror and madness to a personality that felt straight out of the comedian books he’s written. (His comedian e book credit embody an acclaimed run on DC’s Doom Patrol and co-creating The Umbrella Academy collection, which was then reworked into a superb Netflix present.)

My Chemical Romance performs at Oracle Park in San Francisco on July 19, 2025. (Jim Harrington, Bay Space Information Group) 

Having led the cost on the execution of others earlier within the present, Approach’s character would meet his personal bloody ending as a killer clown waltzed out on stage on the finish of the “The Black Parade” efficiency and stabbed the singer. He’d fall to the ground, painfully inch his means towards to entrance of the stage, earlier than lastly triggering a missile strike that signaled an finish to all of it, as officers stormed the stage to forcefully take away the remainder of the band members.

And, after all, that led immediately into:

A cello solo?

Positive, why not? And Clarice Jensen did a positive job with the unnamed piece, giving the band members time to vary garments — and personalities — and make their means out to the a smaller stage erected immediately in entrance of the primary one.

Considerably surprisingly, that’s when the live performance received even higher.

Not having to fret concerning the weight of enjoying its grand rock opera, or coping with all of the particular results, message moments and theatrical gadgets, the band might simply totally consider rocking the gang.

“We are My Chemical Romance from New Jersey,” Approach stated. “Let’s (expletive) do this.”

My Chemical Romance performs at Oracle Park in San Francisco on July 19, 2025. (Jim Harrington, Bay Space Information Group) 

The group went on to ship one other 10 songs over the course of roughly an hour, kicking us within the collective enamel with such rippers as “I’m Not Okay (I Promise),” “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)” and “Helena.” This setlist for this part was fairly a bit completely different than what followers heard through the Seattle opener, with MCR delivering a half-dozen tour debuts in San Francisco.

Probably the most notable quantity from that assortment was the band’s first-ever cowl of Smashing Pumpkins’ iconic “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” which sounded even stronger than when the Pumpkins performed the tune on the identical venue in 2024.

“I had a religious experience with this song during the pandemic,” commented Approach, who, at occasions, sounds a lot like Billy Corgan that he may very well be his youthful brother.

The group introduced the live performance to a conclusion with a robust model of “The Kids From Yesterday,” firmly placing an exclamation level on what had been one of the crucial extremely anticipated rock exhibits of the yr within the Bay Space.

And it was one that the majority undoubtedly lived up the hype. Not unhealthy for a bunch that hasn’t launched a brand new album in 15 years.

Setlist:Set 1 (The Black Parade)1. “The End.”2. “Dead!”3. “This Is How I Disappear”4. “The Sharpest Lives”5. “Welcome to the Black Parade”6. “I Don’t Love You”7. “House of Wolves”8. “Cancer”9. “Mama”10. “Sleep”11. “Teenagers”12. “Disenchanted”13. “Famous Last Words”14. “The End.” (reprise)Break:15. Cello soloSet 2:16. “Thank You for the Venom”17. “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”18. “Summertime”19. “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)”20. “It’s Not a Fashion Statement, It’s a (expletive) Deathwish”21. “SING”22. “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”23. “Boy Division”24. “Helena”25. “The Kids From Yesterday”

Initially Printed: July 20, 2025 at 10:35 AM PDT