After ‘The Black Parade,’ band struggles to find new direction

By Kevin W. Smith ksmith@azstarnet.com | Posted: Thursday, March 27, 2008 12:00 am in the Arizona Daily Star

A year ago, My Chemical Romance brought its explosive live show to the massive Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, a place that can hold close to 18,000 fans.

On Saturday night, the New Jersey five-piece will play a sold-out show at the more intimate Rialto Theatre. The Downtown venue will be brimming with 1,400 or so fans.

For this tour, the hard-rock act seems to have abandoned the stadiums and arenas it played following the 2006 release of its second major-label full-length CD, “The Black Parade.”

In a phone interview with Caliente last year, the group’s drummer said he wasn’t sure where the band was heading after the grandiosity of “The Black Parade,” a prog-rock epic.

“We’ve completely f— ourselves,” said Bob Bryar from Australia. “We’ve kind of backed ourselves into a corner right now. So, we’re not even going to think about that. Whatever happens, happens.”

Earlier this year, singer and goth-teen pin-up Gerard Way told NME.com he expects the next album will be more stripped down and that the band will “cut loose more.”

We’re not sure what My Chemical Romance cutting loose will sound like (Bachman-Turner Overdrive?), but what does the future-future hold?

Caliente looked into its crystal ball to see what life will be like for some members of My Chemical Romance.

2014: The band announces it is going on indefinite hiatus to pursue other artistic endeavors.

2015: Singer Gerard Way continues authoring comic books in the vein of his 2007 release, with its ultra-specific and ridiculously long title, “My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way presents The Umbrella Academy Apocalypse Suite #1: The Day the Eiffel Tower Went Berserk.”

Way also releases a solo album, in which he moves more into a singer-songwriter, alt-country direction. The first single ends up on the soundtrack to the Rob Zombie-directed “Saw XXXIV: 3-D.”

2017: Bassist Mikey Way becomes a confessional music blogger in the tradition of former girlfriend and ex-manager of My Chemical Romance, Ultragrrrl aka Sarah Lewitinn.

2018: Guitarists Frank Iero and Ray Toro take over each other’s fan sites, frank-iero.net and ray-toro.com, in an effort to slam each other’s solos after years of pent-up but largely undetectable animosity. Also, Toro announces he is Iero’s father.

2019: Bryar writes a tell-all book, in which he reveals what it was like to join My Chem before the recording of “The Black Parade” and critiques other famous drummers like Travis Barker and Tommy Lee. He also disputes Toro’s paternity claim and insists that he’s Iero’s real father. The book, “Bryar For Hire,” is a commercial disaster.

2024: 10 years after announcing its hiatus, My Chemical Romance reforms for a summer tour. The group performs to sell-out crowds across the country, including Tucson’s new Downtown arena, with the majority of ticket buyers forced to hire baby sitters.

But the old fans still remember when My Chem played the Rialto way back when.

Win a meet & greet with My Chem at Big Day Out Auckland

Wednesday December 21, 2011 | Posted by MCR

CoupedeMainMagazine.com is offering My Chem fans in New Zealand a chance to win a meet and greet for them and a friend at Big Day Out Auckland. All you have to do is create an original Killjoys comic strip.

Enter here

Win an Epiphone Phant-o-matic Designed By Frank & Signed By MCR

Friday December 16, 2011 posted by MCR

Chem fan- a Wilshire Phant-o-matic Epiphone guitar designed by Frank. Learn more about the guitar on Epiphone.com. All you have to do is send in your favorite memory associated with Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys.

Here’s how to enter:
- Register on MyChemicalRomance.com
- Fill out the form to submit your entry

Some entries may be featured on MyChemicalRomance.com and MCRmy.com!

One fan will be chosen to win the guitar. Limit one entry per person. Contest ends 12/21 at 12 noon PST.

Check out more great info about Frank Iero and his Epiphone Phant-o-matic here Epiphone.com. Don’t forget to check out Frank’s feature in the current issue of Guitar World Magazine!

My Chemical Romance Gives the Voodoo Line-up That Punk Rock Flavor

via Play Jones

On the line-up for the first day of Voodoo My Chemical Romance will be rocking out with their signature theatrics and crazy costumes. Ray Toro, on guitar and backup vocals, talks about the band’s plans for Halloween weekend in New Orleans, surprise plans for Voodoo, and their ever evolving sound.

What are you guys most excited about performing in New Orleans at Voodoo?
Well we’ve played in New Orleans a couple times before so we’re excited to get back to the city. It’s such an amazing place with a rich culture and energy. You can feel that energy empowering the shows we play in New Orleans. We’re even going to take time off after the show to hang out for the weekend. Some of the band members’ wives are flying in for the show so we’re excited to really kick back and enjoy the city.

Any plans for Halloween Costumes?
Well for Friday we have some secret plans involving costumes for our set at Voodoo but I can’t reveal too much about that. For Halloween, I don’t know if anyone else is dressing up but I know I am. It’s kind of fun to walk around pretending you’re someone else for the night.

What kind of a set are you guys thinking about playing for Voodoo?
It’s an hour set so we’re going to have to fit a lot in a short amount of time. We’ll probably play a good balance between Black Parade and Danger Days with maybe one or two songs from our first album. We’ll be playing to an audience that might or might not know us so we want to play some of our signature songs. We also want to try and make sure we play songs that our fans are looking forward to listening to. Because we’re playing to a lot of people we want to give the crowd kind of a mix of everything.

My Chemical Romance has a reputation for responding to events going on in the country and the world. How do you see your music responding to events going on today?
Well Danger Days addresses the growing internet culture of our society. People are more attuned to what’s going on all over the world and they’re seeing the changes happening on a global level. This internet culture also has a crazy effect on youth culture and their obsession with being famous on the internet without having to really do anything of merit or talent. There’s also more importance placed on having online friends versus real friends. So we’re trying to respond to these issues with that album. Our song SING is about raising your voice and making a change, like how people are doing right now with the internet. They’re able to get their voices heard to a greater audience than ever before.

Have you been working on anything new lately?
We like to change things up especially with being on the road. We’ve been on the road for two months now and we’re already getting antsy to start working on new material. We’re also always trying new things because it keeps our music constantly evolving.

What is the band’s process for creating music, especially since a lot of the songs have heavy emotional lyrics?
Gerard Way is really great about doing what feels right for him, so a lot of the lyrics come to him often on the spot. When he’s sketching a melody he also ends up sketching out the lyrics as well. We’ll keep changing these phrases for months or however long it takes for the song to be complete. In that sense we’re a very in-the-moment band.

Are you guys thinking about heading into a more electronic sound? Especially since Danger Days incorporates more electronic elements into the music than Black Parade does.
Well right now we’re working on more of an organic feel. With Danger Days we did a lot of experimentation into that area with keyboards. It’s fun because you can make crazy sounds just by hitting one key, so we might mess around with that again. I don’t think we’ll ever go into all electronic or anything like that because at the end of the day we’re really four guys banging around on instruments.

This is going to be your last show in the United States, how do you guys feel about ending the US portion of your tour at Voodoo?
We’re so excited to play in New Orleans. I can’t imagine a better place to play, especially because it is our last stop in our US tour. There’s a lot of energy going on in the city and the festival. It’s a great line up with great artists. It’s going to be a fun weekend all around.

VIDEO

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PHOTO

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My Chemical Romance Meet & Greet Photos