My Chemical Romance - John Labatt Center, 12th May 2007

Setlist
The End
Dead
This Is How I Disappear
The Sharpest Lives
Welcome To The Black Parade
I Don't Love You
House Of Wolves
Cancer
Mama
Sleep
Teenagers
Disenchanted
Famous Last Words
I’m Not Okay (I Promise)
Give ‘em Hell Kid
Heaven Help Us
You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison
Ghost Of You
Helena


The queue at the John Labatt Center (London, Ontario) snaked around the building in a parade of black, red and white. Slightly more organized than the ACC, those lining up were speared into neat little rows that moved with surprising speed.

The set for The Black Parade – the entire album played in sequence – was, in one word, breathtaking. All the stage effects were performed with an extra sense of flair and the confetti canons shot out so much confetti that it rained down in an oddly poetic manner during the entirety of I Don’t Love You. The performance was flawless, interrupted only once while members of the stage crew attempted to clear the stage of its sea of confetti. The songs resonated powerfully and intimately throughout the arena and the flow of the concert was beautiful – even Gerard’s speech of reaching out for help – warning youth and adults alike never to resort to violence – did noting to break the spell that The Black Parade had managed to wave over the crowd.
As they have done since the start of this tour, the New Jersey band broke the show into two sets, and as Blood was played over the sound system, The Black Parade shed their outer layers and became the raw and stunningly powerful My Chemical Romance.

My Chemical Romance’s half of the set was messy, raw and entirely cathartic. The band was energetic, feeding their excitement to the crows, then cultivating the excitement thrown back at them and magnifying it ten-fold. The older singles were played in an order set to raise the level of audience excitement to a level of near frenzy before that night’s surprise was revealed. Tonight, as a final “hurrah” to Ontario, the B-side Heaven Help Us was included in the set, and the cheers rose to high heaven within the first few opening chords.

The crowd at the John Labatt Centre were a little more vicious, a little more rowdy, and not necessarily as conscious of each other as the crowd at the ACC (the night before), but they still unloaded all of their love and appreciation onto the five men on stage – and they all left with that same satisfied buzz in the pits of their stomachs, and the ringing in their ears that only My Chemical Romance can deliver.


Review by Einat Brigler


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