My Chemical Romance Ups the Ante on Rock Theatrics
The 2025 stateside leg of the My Chemical Romance tour is over. Reviews were fantastic. The 2026 Southeast Asia leg of the tour has been pushed back from April to November. Valentino Petrarca, writing in www.theaquarian.com, called it “their most exciting year yet…it’s not just another tour, it’s a whole new world.” This may have something to do with the fact that the production was so over-the-top, it could’ve been on a Broadway stage. In fact, they use two stages. Actors, fire, film and choreography inhabit a futuristic story line on Stage #1. The band even gets executed. Stage #2 has them pummeling their catalog into submission. At their MetLife Stadium summer show in East Rutherford, the Mayor of Belleville (their home town) gave them symbolic keys to the city. Singer Gerard Way, lead guitarist Ray Toro, rhythm guitarist Frank Iero and bassist Mikey Way stayed in character the whole time. (Drummer Bob Bryar died last year.) Between the multi-media effects and the sounds of cello, violin, keyboards and percussion, the obvious maturation of this once emo-only unit is almost akin to how The Beatles went from “I Want To Hold Your Hand” to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.