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Photo credit: Devin Sarno

After a LONG period of cancellations, rescheduling, and on-the-edge-of-our-seat sitting, the long-awaited return of emo icons My Chemical Romance finally came to be, and it was well worth the wait.

Diehard fans and brand new emos across the world finally have been able to live out their dreams of seeing their favorite band in person, bringing a sense of camaraderie that could be felt brimming from every venue. Fans were delighted to be surrounded by the myriad of raving scene kids decked out in their best, primarily black attire, waiting for the night of their lives to unfold before them.

The Noise hit the streets of New York to talk to a few fans on the eve of 9/11's 21st anniversary, a date significant to the band as its Earth-shattering events were what inspired Gerard Way to start the band. They shared their stories of how they became fans, what the community means to them, and what they love about this legendary band.

As you may or may not know, the band was formed after the events of 9/11. How does it feel to be seeing them here tonight in New York on the eve of the anniversary of that event

Balinda (Long Island, NY, 28, she/her): It's definitely a full-circle moment. I feel like he [Gerard Way] wanted to do something more than what he was doing. He wanted to do something more with his life; at that time, he was doing his internship with Cartoon Network. (The Cartoon Network Studios office was in the North Tower.) We all love art, and I know he loves art, but this is a different form of art, and he got to touch a bunch of people in a way that's so different from if he had gone down the visual art field. I feel like that means more to people, especially after 9/11. They could feel and process all the pain that they went through and could actually heal from it.

Landra (Brooklyn, NY, she/her): At this moment, it feels really historical, especially for me with this being my very first MCR concert ever. The one chance I had to see them was right before their hiatus. So it definitely feels like I was saying before. It's definitely a point where they're saying, you know, bad things happen, but as long as we stick together, then we can make it there anything.

Pheonix (Long Island, NY, 22, he/they): It feels very important. It feels very surreal. I can't describe it, but I think this will be great...I can't even speak for tomorrow, but this one will also be crazy.

Bear (New Jersey, 23, she/they): I'm just so happy to be here for this show for that reason. I know that Gerard Way likes to surprise people, and there are a lot of expectations for this, and I'm excited to see whatever the hell he pulls out of his hat, and however, they decide to fuck with us.

Jonathan (Brooklyn, NY, 24, he/him): It's a very powerful feeling as somebody who, I mean, I was only four when it happened, but I still remember my mom worked at the Institute of Culinary Education, which is in Midtown. Thankfully, she actually didn't go to work that day. I honestly didn't know that before, that that event was what kind of sparked everything. That's crazy. I'm so happy that we get to be here. In 2020, the world was falling apart. I'm glad that live music gets to still exist. I'm super excited to be here and experience this; hopefully, everyone else has that energy because I can't wait to feel the room when they get on stage. 

Jordon (Minnesota, 22, they/them): It feels like anything can happen. I got tickets to this today, so if it's a transcendental experience, I'll also buy tickets for tomorrow. It feels like I don't know what will happen, you know, it feels like I could be surprised.

Kalie (Brooklyn, NY 24, she/her): It just feels special!! This is obviously a huge deal for them, and along with it being Mikey's birthday today, I feel very lucky to be here for it. 

Victoria  (Baton Rouge, LA, 28, she/her): Seeing the band play here, especially on the eve before the tragedy, in my opinion, kinda makes this performance and the one tomorrow sort of like a full circle moment. Also, it's Mikey's birthday today, which is pretty awesome. I get the feeling that before the night is over, "Happy Birthday" will be sung at him. Sung or screamed at him

When did you start listening to MCR and how did you get into them?

Balinda: Oh god, probably since they came out. Like really from the beginning!

Landra: Since middle school, so a little over ten years. One of my friends first introduced me to Avenged Sevenfold, and then she showed me "Welcome to the Black Parade."

Bear: 2020 for me. I'm a late-in-life emo. Basically, I broke up with my ex towards the end of college, and lo and behold, I started getting really into MCR, and then I came out as trans, and MCR was kind of, it feels so sad to say this, but they were a big part of that whole period of my life, and I also didn't think I would see them live so I'm just really excited and I'm ready.

Pheonix: I started listening to them in 2013, and that was right when they broke up or went on their hiatus. So I was like, "Oh, I'm never going to experience that." So then they got back together, COVID happened, and I was like, "Oh, I'm never gonna see them." So it's very shocking to be here right now. 

Jonathan: I think 2011? I didn't listen to Danger Days when it first came out. My dad was actually a fan. My dad's kind of young, so he got me going with The Black Parade and the older stuff, so I've always liked the classics. Once I listened to Danger Days, I wasn't a big fan, but it did grow on me eventually.

Ione (Massachusetts, 27, she/her): I also started listening around 2011. I was a junior in high school, and I had a friend who would like live and breathe this band. I think I started with The Black Parade and probably "Teenagers" was the first song by them I ever heard. I've been listening really ever since. It's funny. We [gestures at Jonathan] were talking about it earlier, but I listened to them in the time when you bought songs on iTunes. So there are certain songs from albums that I should know that I don't just because you had to buy all of them. So you only bought like four songs and an album. So there are songs that I don't know and songs that I go way too hard for.

Jordon: I got into MCR because of "Famous Last Words." I think that was like the first music video I ever saw of theirs. I think I was nine, and then I bought Danger Days the day it came out in 2010, so I was ten at that point.

Kalie: Oh man, I don't even remember. I was young, I know that. Maybe around the time, The Black Parade was released?

Victoria: I started listening to them in late 2006 or early 2007 so it was definitely The Black Parade era of MCR.

How many times have you seen MCR live?

Landra: This is actually my first time seeing them and my first big concert ever! I'm super excited!

Jonathan: This is our first time seeing them together. So funny story: We were quarantined in the apartment with her roommates at the time, over in Brooklyn, and I think it was, like, 3:30am. I was probably a little drunk and said, "What if we went to the My Chemical Romance concert?" We were looking at the prices, and it was $250 a ticket, which is honestly, in hindsight, not that bad. So I was just like, "Happy anniversary! You want to go?" And you said, "I don't know, it's expensive." And I just said it's an anniversary gift. I don't care. We love going to concerts together, and so this is like, you know, when will we be able to do this again, you know? Like, what's going to happen in the future?

Ione: Yeah, my birthday is September 7, so of course, I want to see MCR on my birthday weekend. Our anniversary is in August, so you put the two of them together, so it's kind of like he was doing a combo package [laughs]. It's funny because we'd only been dating about a year at that point, and it was the middle of a pandemic. So I was like, "Are we still gonna be dating by the time MCR actually performs?" So I was terrified that he was spending like $700 on tickets we'd never use!

Jonathan: But despite all the odds, here we are now!

Victoria: I saw them for the first time when I was thirteen in 2007. I remember it was for this huge concert called X-Fest. It was supposed to be an annual concert, and they had success the year before, but they never did it again after that one. I had just gotten into their music and rock music in general. I was left alone in the car flipping through radio stations, and I remember being so excited when I heard the announcement that MCR was coming to Baton Rouge. When I told my mom, she never saw me so excited before. We got tickets for me, two of my sisters, a friend from school, my mom, and my aunt. Christ, I remember feeling so cool cause I got to leave class early the day of the concert. I had a blast, and it was very special because it was literally my first concert.

If they only played one song tonight, what do you hope they play?

Balinda: Probably "Famous Last Words" or "I'm Not Okay," but their B-sides are pretty good too.

Landra: "Desolation Row." I think that would be really cool!

Pheonix: I really hope they play "Mama." I also wish for "The End," but I don't think they will play it. I love "The End" and its transition into "Dead!"

Bear: I second "Mama." I love that song and I'm working on a translation of it. So yeah, "Mama" and "Helena" are the two I NEED to hear tonight.

Ione: I think my favorite My Chemical Romance song is "Cancer."

Jonathan: "Helena" for sure!

Jordon: This is a long shot, but I would love it if they played "Bury Me In Black," but because it was just played for the first time in 18 years a few nights ago, I would also love to hear "I Never Told You What I Did for a Living."

What do you love about this band and the community it's fostered?

Balinda: That's just it. This is a community. Everyone loves each other, and we're all supportive of each other, and that's the cool part about it. The band is so supportive of a bunch of people, and they're not toxic, which is what I like. I find that many bands tend to be toxic outside of their fan base, which is kind of really sad. I like that they're all expressing love and being original in themselves, and it's brought, as I said before, us together. My sister brought home their first album, and we haven't stopped listening to them since then, and I was just a kid then, so it's been a long journey for us with them.

Landra: The collective togetherness. Like we all just know that things might be a little crappy, but if we kind of stick together, things will be alright. It may be hard, but we can get through it no matter what.

Pheonix: When I got into them, I was at, the peak of my childhood trauma, and music was my biggest coping mechanism. Just to know that someone feels the same emotions as I do and hearing them in a song and just hearing such emotionally heavy music, I knew I wasn't alone in that. It got me through a lot, so it's just very nostalgic music for me. I just feel really like safe here. I can wear this makeup that I'm wearing. I'm wearing a very bloodied crying look inspired by Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. So I feel very safe here as a queer individual but overall it's a very expressive community. Be whoever the fuck you want. 

Bear: Yes! Definitely, the queer shit Pheonix said. The thing about me is I'm from Jersey, and I think there's a throughline, from Springsteen to My Chem, with this New Jersey sad boy music that really speaks to my soul. So there's that sort of grit and this rawness that I'm not gonna say Jersey invented it, but I do think we're big on that. And then yeah, like Phoenix was just saying, the whatever the fuckness of it all is just delightful.

Ione: I think there's a lot of honesty to MCR's music. I think it's always just been very emotionally open in their songwriting, and they have a unique sound that I think a lot of bands since they got big have tried to copy, but they always just sound like themselves in a way that always felt really honest to me.

Kalie: I've always admired how true to themselves this band is. Everything is so authentically THEM, and I feel like that's something that can be hard to come by in the music industry. Every fan I've ever met has been so kind, inclusive, and essential to have in a fanbase! 

Victoria: I mostly like the fan base. They are pretty accepting. As for the band, I like them for a lot of reasons. One of these includes how, with each album, it's a new story, and you see them grow with each one. With Bullets, you get the story of lovers running from the law, and in Three Cheers, I think it picks up from that with the guy making a deal with the devil and killing a thousand men to reunite with his girlfriend. Black Parade follows a patient as he makes his way to the afterlife, all the while, he reflects on his life. Finally, in Danger Days, you get a colorful post-apocalypse where the titular killjoys (the band) fight an oppressive authority. You get a feel for the album and the world it's set in with the narration from Dr. Death Defying. Not only that, but this is a band where you can steadily hear them change from album to album. I love all of MCR's works, but holy shit, Danger Days threw me through a loop at first cause when it came out, it sounded so different from their other albums, but I think the fact that this is a band that can and will change their sound and takes risks without losing what makes them great says something about the band as a whole. This band also tackles tough topics in their songs, sometimes with clever wordplay in the lyrics and powerful music that pushes the imagery and themes of each album. It's well thought out and put together, making a cohesive piece of art.

Do you have a favorite MCR story or reference from their decades-long career?

Balinda: I work for a publishing company, and I got to be at Comic-Con. So Gerard was doing his own thing there, and my sister and I were sneaking pictures because we're creeps like that. So anyway, the opportunity presented itself that I could get something signed by him, so I asked him, and he asked me to wait. So he turns to me, and I have my book ready for him, and he takes it and goes, "Do you have a pen?" I totally forgot to get one out ahead of time and literally threw my whole purse to the floor to search for a pen in this giant purse. I felt bad. I felt like I was taking up all of his time, but it was the funniest thing too because I looked like a total moron.

Landra: I don't have any stories or follow the lore of the band that closely, but I definitely think the storyline for Dangers Days was really cool and so intricate.

Pheonix: I can't think of anything. I can only think of fanfiction I have read, which is me calling myself out right now. [laughs]

Bear: I found about recently that Frank [Iero] or someone recently tweeted something along the lines of, "Hey, guys, so many of you have been asking me about official MCR chest binders. So tell me. I don't know how to make those, but I want you guys to feel good, so what makes a good binder so we can make the official MCR binders." I think that encapsulates a lot of what people love about this band.

Ione: I appreciate how hard they went in the music videos for Danger Days. It just looked like they were exploring their creativity and had so much fun with it. I know that many fans weren't really expecting that direction, but I appreciate how much they were just making the music they wanted to make and explore.

Jonathan: It's more MCR-adjacent, but I love The Umbrella Academy!

Jordon: I'm a big fan of Gerard's pancake updates that he used to do on in 2016.

Victoria: Jesus, I remember seeing a video a long time ago; it was a compilation of funny moments with the band. It's probably floating somewhere on the internet, but parts of it still stick out in my mind. I think there's this one bit where there's an action figure or figurine of Gerard Way in pieces. An interviewer held his mic up to the figurine, and Gerard said off camera that he felt so emo that he fell apart. There's another where Frank literally runs from a spider. I think it was some kind of MTV TRL show? I don't know, but a dude brought out a tarantula, and Frank noped on out of there. I think the host was like, "And we lost Frank. Where did he go?" Even further back, I remember seeing an interview on Yahoo music where the band was saying, "We are not vampires. We have one song about vampires, but we're not vampires." However, when I think of MCR stories, one of the ones I think back to the first time I heard about them. I was about twelve, and my parents brought me to a dinner party. One of the other kids had on the show My Super Sweet 16, and this girl with cancer ended up having MCR playing at her party. 

If you had to introduce MCR to someone who's never heard of them before, where would you recommend they start?

Balinda: I always say start with their old stuff. Their old stuff is so raw, and they only got better with time. So I would give them a set amount of songs from each album to get into and consider the type of music they already listen to because I feel like every album was so different from each other genre-wise.

Landra: I'd say The Black Parade. I think that it is an essential album for anyone to listen to. Then, after that, I think Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.

Jonathan: I feel like it has to be The Black Parade. There's just banger after banger. I feel like even if you're not a fan of the band or not a fan of the genre, you listen to "Dead!" and you're going to go hard. There's just a lot of good general music on that albums.

Ione: I have a unique approach. I would always recommend that someone start with whatever was released most recently and then work their way back so that you can see the band where they're at now. Because a lot of times, if you go to their most popular album, you kind of get stuck there as a listener. So I would also tell someone to start with "The Foundations of Decay" for that reason, so you can see the band as they are now, and then you can go back and see how they grew into where they are, but that's where I would start.

Jordon: I think Danger Days is the most accessible album to start out with, ao I'd probably start them with "NA NA NA."

Kalie: I feel like the "right" answer is all of their radio hits like "Helena," "Welcome to The Black Parade," and "Teenagers," - but I don't think I'd actually say that! I'd probably recommend something from each album that encapsulates WHAT the album is like and hope that the person would connect enough with it to listen to the whole album. So maybe, "I Never Told You What I Do for a Living" off of Three Cheers, "Dead!" off of The Black Parade, and "Planetary (Go!)" off of Danger Days.

Victoria: Honestly, I'm never entirely sure where to recommend as a starting point for the band. It depends on the person and what they are looking for in the band's music, you know? Want something raw and uncut? Then check out Bullets. Something angsty and dramatic? Then check out Revenge. Rock opera-y and theatrical? Black Parade. High energy rock that's a touch lighter? Danger Days.