My Chemical Romance kicked off their Long Live The Black Parade Tour on July 11 in Seattle, Washington, to some mixed reviews. While long-time fans met the theatrical showcase with enthusiasm, some casual listeners left the venue confused at best and unsettled at worst.
For example, a woman went viral on TikTok for sharing her thoughts during crowd participation at the Seattle show. The video showed her sitting down and snacking with what could be described as a condescendingly worried look on her face. “My discernment actively trying to make sense of all this ‘theatrical propaganda,’” said the caption.
Another fan posited that MCR are bringing back “Satanic Panic,” which they declared a “recession indicator.” Some people are now trying to sell their tickets, which diehard fans are more than happy to take off their hands.
There’s one possibility for these reactions that stands out: if you haven’t listened to or engaged with My Chemical Romance since middle school, the intense narrative of their current live show doesn’t hit the same way. This happens because MCR has purposefully kept up with the current cultural and political climate.
My Chemical Romance: Deliberate To A Fault, But Not Their Own
MCR has been a deliberate band since the beginning. There’s nothing they don’t do on purpose, with careful thought and consideration. Speaking with Apple Music 1 in 2021, Gerard Way revealed that he always had plans.
“When the band started, I kind of came up with a plan, and I feel like I had a pretty good idea of the direction I thought we would be going in,” he said. “This was literally when the band started and I kind of would write down what I thought was a direction.”
The vision continually grew after their first album, leading into Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge in 2004. From there, the plan became to build something bigger upon each previous album. Three Cheers made way for The Black Parade in 2006, which used increased theatricality and imagery as a vehicle for talking about death.
What this comes down to is that if you engage with the current tour in the same mindset you engaged The Black Parade with in middle school, you’re going to come away feeling unsatisfied and out of the loop. This is not the same loop that it was in 2006, things have changed.
‘The Black Parade’ Then And Now
The narrative of The Black Parade back then was character driven. It was a theatrical exploration of humanity’s experiences with death, and it cemented itself in the conversation surrounding death and dying. Surface level engagement ends there. Now, in 2025, The Black Parade is a deliberate political statement. Every performance, every setlist, every stage dressing and interlude is purposeful for the times we live in.
Even the timing of the tour announcement was on purpose. After performing The Black Parade in full for the first time since 2007 at When We Were Young, My Chemical Romance dropped the tour announcement in November 2024. As it was so eloquently put on Tumblr: “election so bad you made My Chemical Romance wake up.”
The Long Live The Black Parade Tour has so far featured over-the-top theatrics and thinly veiled narrative devices. One could argue that The Black Parade in this context is still character driven. Only this time we are the characters in this play. This isn’t about The Patient anymore. It’s about the illusion of Us and Them. It’s about you and the person sitting next to you and the person sitting next to them, the people twenty rows down and in the pit and on the stage.
Heavy-Handed Metaphors or Skillfully Executed Provocation?
The entire production of Long Live The Black Parade is meant to parody political authoritarianism. There’s a Grand Immortal Dictator who rules the country of Draag. It has a national anthem and several unusual, shadowy ministries. The Black Parade is now His Grand Immortal Dictator’s National Band. There are (fake) public executions where the crowd gets to determine who lives and who dies. But, as we learn, sometimes everyone dies anyway.
The fact that My Chemical Romance is deliberately fighting the threat of fascism is obvious in the way they’ve designed their tour. It also shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s deeply engaged with them for any length of time. The natural progression of the band’s politics is obvious if you know where to look, and if you’ve listened to them more than once since graduating eighth grade.
Photo by Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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