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.
