Review: My Chemical Romance at the Pageant, Tuesday, December 14

By Annie Zaleski Wed., Dec. 15 2010 at 2:05 AM

Todd Owyoung

Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance

Near the end of My Chemical Romance's very-sold-out show at the Pageant, the band took a break and left vocalist Gerard Way and touring keyboardist James Dewees alone on the stage. Way, sporting simple black pants, boots and a T-shirt, clasped the mic; his cartoonish, dyed-red-hair clung to his face and hid his eyes. Dewees started playing the simple, affecting piano chords of "Cancer." Way's voice - strong, confident and nearly Broadway-esque - reached the rafters of the venue as he sang the song, and quieted the crowd into near-silence.

View a slideshow of photos from My Chemical Romance at the Pageant

Frankly, it was a stunning moment - and not something usually seen during a raucous rock show. But that's My Chemical Romance: always unpredictable, always willing to take risks and always unafraid to show its vulnerability. The first two traits especially stood out last night: The group made a Dylan song sound like the Sex Pistols crashing a piano recital (a fist-pumping cover of "Desolation Row"), indulged its inner Cure fan (the moody, gothic "The Ghost of You") and took cues from theatrical, Russian high-kick ditties (the macabre "Mama").

Todd Owyoung

My Chemical Romance bassist Mikey Way

Still, MCR is first and foremost a formidable rock band. "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)," the first single from the new album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, was an adrenaline-shot of scuzz-garage with a glammed-up chorus. The song set the stage for an even more ballistic "Thank You For the Venom," which nodded to the band's hardcore punk and thrash roots. Guitarist Ray Toro had the chance to unfurl some gnarly solos on the Thin Lizzy-influenced horror-show "House of Wolves" (which also featured vocalist Way howling like a werewolf), while guitarist Frank Iero and bassist Mikey Way bookended him with their own slash-and-burn moves. Gerard Way commanded attention - throwing his arm in the air like a marching-band drum major, headbanging and stalking around the stage restlessly - but his charisma was never over-the-top or off-putting.

James Dewees held court (mostly) out of the spotlight, although he played a prominent musical role: Keyboards factored heavily in the band's new material, and so he was always in motion, manipulating sounds and textures. "Planetary (GO!)" was a bizarre hybrid of bombed-out disco and plastic synthpop, with hip-hop-cadenced vocals layered on top. (Despite the contradictions, the song totally works.) "Sing" was far creepier than its studio version: Eerie synths zoomed and streaked like space junk, calling to mind the dark electronica of '90s alt-rock footnotes Stabbing Westward and God Lives Underwater.

Location Info

Venue

Map

The Pageant

6161 Delmar Blvd., St Louis, MO

Category: Music

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my chemical romance, photos, review, setlist, the pageant

We Recommend

Kae

Re: the openers, BrookRoyal was very "eh" in my opinion; a rock band that sounds like many other rock bands. You didn't miss anything, quite frankly. Middle Class Rut were high-energy and enjoyable. They reminded me vaguely of Jane's Addiction (particularly the latter's "Mountain Song"), unfortunately they had some technical difficulties and the teens around us seemed disappointed in them.

Misty

I was one of those 'crazy' fans who spent the night on the sidewalk! There were five of us: my husband, Nile, and our friend Dani and I actually got there (from Kansas City) at 7:30pm, not 9:30, and then two other girls, Erin and Lynn, got there a few hours later, I think around 11. They were great. Meeting people who share the same kind of enthusiasm for 'our' band is one of the best parts of acting like a crazy kid for a couple of days.

It was worth every uncomfortable moment to get the spots we got! Right behind the barricade, in front of Ray and Gerard? You can't put a price on that. And I know I got some amazing photographs, too, particularly of Ray (what I'd been hoping for!), but we haven't had a chance to check them out yet because we're still walking around like zombies, half-in and half-out of sleep all day (it's hard to sleep at all on the sidewalk in December) while we try take care of our little ones, and today we go back to our real life, grown-up jobs. (But as soon as I actually get a chance to load them on my laptop and see them myself, I'll share them via the MCR Facebook page. Sharing is caring! We love seing other fans' photos.)

There is nothing like seeing your favorite band in a smallish venue like the Pageant (opposed to the huge arenas they usually sell out), and I'd sleep on the sidewalk for a week to get the kind of spots we had. Best show of my LIFE. I can't wait to do it again.

Janet

They played material from their first album at their recent shows in Europe. For a radio show like this one with a pretty limited set time, it would make sense for them to stick to newer stuff.

Liz

Thanks for the link Lili :-) I should have specified in my comment that they haven't played Bullets material in St. Louis since The Black Parade release. "Our Lady of Sorrows" is such a great song.

Lili

Actually, Liz and Amanda are both wrong. They actually have been playing Bullets songs quite alot recently. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Amanda

Liz, I believe that they stopped playing material from their first album since it was considered their "dark" times. It was a time that Gerard was heavily into drugs and alcohol and the way that I've understood, it's a period they've wanted to move on from ever since Gerard became sober.

Ellen George

Thanks for the shout out! My daughter (and I) thought that was pretty cool! I do enjoy taking them to concerts, especially My Chemical Romance!!

Liz

I've seen this band everytime they've hit St. Louis since Feb 03 opening for The Used at Mississippi Nights. Always phenominal performers even if I'm not such a big fan of their new material.

I have to say that I think "Teenagers" sounds very T. Rex influenced, which is why I love it so. The major disappointment of the nite was that they played nothing off of their first album, I Brought You My Bullets You Brought Me Your Love (though they seem to have ditched playing anything from that album circa The Black Parade release) and only played one song from it during their show at The Pageant in fall '05 with Alkaline Trio (one of their best shows in StL maybe?)

The sound and the crowd may have changed, yet there's no denying how fierce of a band My Chemical Romance are.

dawhizz

Encore - A blistering "Vampire Money"

BrookRoyal was very good I thought. Very straight-ahead rock with good vocals from a talented local band. Glad the Point is highlighting them.

Middle Class Rut started fairly strong, but then class was in session on How to Lose a Crowd 101 when the drummer threw his kickdrum over his shoulder and everyone waited 10 minutes for them to install BrookRoyal's drum while nothing really happened. The music itself was solid, particularly from just a duo. Kind of a stripped down version of The Music or Jane's Addiction, except they seem to think they're more Rage Against the Machine or At the Drive In ("Here's a song about the immigration policy of Barbados. Listen up. It's real."). They were also less than thrilled with the crowd, as they mentioned at the end that the only thing moving the crowd was eyeballs (or something).

Glad the proper MCR more than made up for it.