My Chemical Romance returns: Welcome back to the Black Parade

In celebration of the critically acclaimed 2006 album “The Black Parade,” alternative rock band My Chemical Romance will perform their first stadium tour with some surprises.

Just weeks after their performance at the alternative festival When We Were Young in Las Vegas, Nevada, My Chemical Romance began teasing future projects to their worldwide fanbase.  

On Nov. 11, the band posted a cryptic image to their Instagram captioned “If you could be anything, what would you be?” Some fans believed the image was a teaser to a former scrapped project, “The Paper Kingdom,” which was worked on between the band’s 2010 album “Danger Days” and their 2013 breakup. Following the breakup, each member of the band pursued side projects, causing fans to believe the split was permanent until their reunion in 2019. 

The following day, an 80-second video was shared to the band’s Instagram, ending with “Long Live The Black Parade North American Tour” and a list of tour dates. 11 dates across ten different stadiums featuring different hand-selected special guests for each date were announced, ranging from Devo to 100 Gecs. Tickets went on sale three days later and all dates sold out in less than a week. 

My Chemical Romance will be performing the entirety of their 2006 album “The Black Parade,” an album Rolling Stone named one of the best 500 albums of all time in 2023. It debuted at No. 2 in The United States on the Billboard 200, No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart and sold 240,000 copies in its first week. The single “Welcome to the Black Parade” became a number one single in the UK and a top ten single in the United States.  

“My Chemical Romance skyrocketed into the mainstream with their 2006 album The Black Parade, which peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard U.S. Top Rock Albums and U.S. Top Tastemaker Albums charts. Its leading single, ‘Welcome to the Black Parade,’ has been certified 5x Platinum, while the album itself has earned 4x Platinum status,” 2b Entertainment shared with The Ledger. 

My Chemical Romance have primarily had a teenage to young adult audience throughout the entirety of their 23 years of existence. Songs like “Helena” and “The Ghost of You” discuss heartbreak, while “Headfirst for Halos” and “The Light Behind Your Eyes” discuss suicide and mental illness. 

Fans have naturally been attracted to Gerard Way’s vulnerability and the effort the band has put in to make listeners feel less alienated in their struggles. 

The announcement of the stadium tour has already elicited strong emotions from the band members, with bassist Mikey Way acknowledging the band’s formation in New Jersey and now being able to play at the state’s largest venue, MetLife Stadium, in a post shared to his Instagram. 

Guitarist Frank Iero stated in a now expired Instagram story, that after years of hard work, it is still possible to make it big in your 40’s, displaying his happiness ahead of the tour. 

This will be My Chemical Romance’s second time touring North America since their 2013 breakup, following a 2022 tour announced following their reunion that was postponed due to the pandemic. The tour begins July 11 in Seattle and finishes Sept. 13 in Tampa, Florida.  

At the recent When We Were Young festival, My Chemical Romance performed the entirety of “The Black Parade,” signaling that the upcoming tour will also include songs from other albums and possibly unreleased tracks. The band has released just one song, “The Foundations of Decay” in 2022, since their reunion.  

Despite the band performing at large stadiums, fans have expressed their frustration on social media regarding the high prices of tickets and the large numbers of resellers charging tickets for over twice the initial value. For fans, tickets were released at 10 a.m. Pacific Time on a workday, however, they had to wait in a waiting room and then a queue before finally selecting their tickets. Within two hours of the tickets going on sale, many shows were sold out and the band announced another Las Angeles date the day after the first one due to high demand. 

Until there’s an official announcement, fans are hoping for more news or for a new album, since it has been almost 15 years since the release of their last studio album. Their 2022 tour and When We Were Young shows gave younger fans an opportunity to see the band again. It’s also an opportunity for the band to show the world they’ve not lost their groove. 

Tickets for My Chemical Romance’s “Long Live The Black Parade Stadium Tour” are available online while supplies last.