Our Philadelphia Phillies spent this past swampy summer weekend in Washington DC, where the President of the United States has deployed the National Guard to police the nation’s capital. And, in a fitting dystopian twist, this past Friday night, the Phillies’ home of Citizens Bank Park hosted My Chemical Romance’s “Long Live” The Black Parade Tour, a 21st Century rock opera soundtracked by the band’s third LP (often regarded as the most important emo, or emo-pop, album of all-time) and revolving around Draag, a fictional country ruled by a leader known simply as the “Great Immortal Dictator,” which featured, among other things, an election in which the 43,000 in attendance voted on whether or not to execute four Draag citizens… It’s essentially Pink Floyd’s The Wall for the Hot Topic generation.
The ballpark’s outfield and grandstands were filled with formerly (or, perhaps eternally) angsty teens, mostly of the Zillennial variety, donning a surprising variety of band T-shirts (I was within 10 feet of both The Damned and Nickelback.), platform combat boots, fishnets, and military marching band jackets imitating those of The Black Parade, My Chemical Romance’s alter-egos for the performances of their titular 2006 concept album, whose songs famously made their local live debut in September of 2006 at The Trocadero for MTV2’s $2 Bill series, before The [official] Black Parade World Tour went on to perform at Temple University’s Liacouras Center in February of 2007 and then again two nights at the Electric Factory (when it was called that) in May of 2008. Fun fact: If each of those four Philthy shows of the album’s initial dates contained an entirely unique audience, it would only add up to roughly 40% of the crowd at this “classic album” soiree.
Although I was not in attendance for any of local stops on the album’s original run, this [roughly] 20th-year, baseball stadium celebration would seem to be The Black Parade World Tour on steroids (pun intended). The pyro was more massive (Luckily, by showtime, the heat index was only 95 degrees…), the narrative was more complex (Aside from the band’s most hardcore fans, who have been known as both the “Killjoys” and the “MCRmy,” I suspect the storyline resembled little more than something that looked, “Cool as fuck!”), and the singalongs were more monumental throughout the album’s 14 tracks (Opening track “The End” was reprised, followed by hidden track “Blood” played on tape, which I’ll count as one track between the two.), concluding with The Black Parade marching band being abducted from the stage as it became engulfed in flames.
While the theatrics of The Black Parade (which included the Phillie Phanatic joining them for “Welcome to the Black Parade”) established the fictional band as being as iconic as Ziggy’s Spiders (not quite as cool, but with even more pomp and pageantry), the evening’s second set was maybe even more “rock n’ roll.” After a brief intermission, where fans were serenaded by cellist Clarice Jensen (formerly of yMusic) as they took a brief seat, My Chemical Romance (no longer The Black Parade) emerged from a tunnel, running across Left Field to a second stage (which was still only accessible to those willing to shell out several hundred dollars for seats) as fans clamored to grasp their teen idols in what resembled an emo spin on Beatlemania.
My Chemical Romance’s 11-song set from the significantly smaller 360-degree stage had Gerard and Mikey Way’s crew looking far less like rock legends and far closer to the young punks who once played The Fire and North Star Bar… and I mean that in the best possible way. For the notably shorter (despite the number of songs) performance, the band looked more like Jersey-bred skaters (which is only half true) as they played a number of non-TBP singles, along with a handful of relatively deep cuts: “Headfirst for Halos,” off of 2002 debut I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, which made its tour debut; The Black Parade B-side “Heaven Help Us;” and “Give ‘Em Hell Kid.” And while the audience’s battery seemed to be at less than 20% by this portion of the evening, it proved a charming way to wrap the two-and-a-half hour show and provided a rare opportunity to see the rock n’ roll megastars at their most “authentic,” as the kids say…
Fittingly handling opening duties for the night was perhaps the godfather of the rock spectacle (and wordsmith behind this article’s title… whose sentiment didn’t quite turn out to be true, but I won’t be wearing that night’s leather jacket again until it has significant time to air out…), Alice Cooper, whose last appearance in the 215 proper was 10 years (and one day, literally!) ago when he was at Wells Fargo Center providing direct support for Motley Crue, the likely heirs to the rock spectacle throne between The Coop and MCR… Despite the daylight, 60-minute runtime, and… being 77, the original shock rocker put on a show that would put most stadium headliners to shame, including his famous confetti balloons, guillotine, and two-story dancing Frankenstein (for “Feed My Frankenstein”).
The hard rock veteran, in ringleader attire, took the stage to “Lock Me Up,” a highlight of his “hair metal” era, emerging from an oversized newspaper front page stage prop proclaiming “Banned in Pennsylvania: Alice Cooper” with at least half of the outfield on their feet. In fact, many of the set’s highlights came from that era when Cooper was one of the few rockers not donning spandex, including Aqua Net anthems “Poison,” “Hey Stoopid,” and “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask),” his loving ode to Jason Voorhees. However, it was the tracks from the The Alice Cooper Band that (rightfully so) incited the most singalongs, including “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” “I’m Eighteen,” “Ballad of Dwight Fry,” and “School’s Out,” half of which I’m guessing those in attendance know from Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused.
