The MCR World Contamination Tour London Show Virtual Experience
Okay, so that here's that recap I promised y'all. I didn't mean for it to get quite so long and multimedia based, but I ended up taking a shitload of video because I couldn't take stills so it's more of a viewing experience than a recap. Pour yourself a drink and settle in. I know everyone's already seen everything from other people's videos but this is as much for me to relive the night as it is for you! I give you:
My Chemical Romance, The World Contamination Tour
HMV Apollo in Hammersmith London
23rd October 2010
I showed up at the venue a little after noon, and met up with bebunny and her friend D (who does not yet have an LJ, but we're working on it). A lot of fangirls were in attendance, some we met, some we just tweeted at each other. It was a weird and awesome shared experience!
For a taste of the queuing experience I refer you to my twitter ramblings and also to this video from the MCRmy in Spain:
My Chemical Romance Spain en Londres - 23 Octubre 2010 from My Chemical Romance Spain on Vimeo.
The queue were great, met and squee'd with many fellow fangirls, chatted with randoms, bebunny started to teach me how to play Magic: The Gathering, but it got too windy. There was a really good vibe, people were singing MCR songs, randomly getting people to shout out things, throwing sweets into the crowd etc. A lot of anticipation and love. Around 4pm there was shrieking and running as the band arrived and people tried to meet them as they came in. Eventually, after a couple of bouts of rain and a lot of ARE WE THERE YET, it was time for doors. We managed to get an okay position way over to the left on Frank's side, and then the waiting started all over again. During the waiting maryangel200 and I made eye contact and at first I thought she was trying to get the attention of someone behind me, but then she shaped her fingers into an "LJ" and we were both like OH. RIGHT. FELLOW FANGIRLS FTW!
The support Act, Twin Atlantic were actually quite good and they seemed to get a great reception (which was nice because they got a shithouse one in Manchester, I felt so bad for them). They talked about how nervous they were to play for us, because they've loved MCR since they were 10, but also they'd heard that MCR fans were the BEST fans (totally true!) They played for about 30-40mins, finished around 8:40pm then it was MORE waiting til MCR took the stage.
During this time we noticed the amps had Gerard's new favourite spider stencilled on them, there was a Marshall amp painted up with "BOOM" to look like the boombox:
(blurry photo is blurry) and the drum kit had EXTERMINATE on it. Which, as Gerard tweeted later, was courtesy of Frankie:
EVERYONE SIGH NOW.
There was also a huge cheer when a roadie came to lovingly place Mikey's helmet on the amp. He eventually came back and adjusted it (and I could just imagine Gerard side stage instructing him because Mikeyway's helmet needs to be PERFECT okay?) Then the lights went down, the screaming started and the boys hit the stage.
As you can see Gerard was wearing a jacket, that didn't last long. They busted straight into Na Na Na and it was a firing start to the set. The guys were having SUCH A GOOD TIME. And they're all looking gorgeous but holy fuck, MIKEY WAY. I mean I've had something of an ever growing soft spot for him but HOLY FUCK, hot as fire, the blonde is a great look and he was all about shaking his head like a wet dog. Here's some head-shaking from 'Venom':
They were just SO fucking happy to be up there. Here's a little of Gerard talking post-Venom. He introduces Mike Pedicone on drums and James Dewees on keys and fuck, he's just so pumped to have his sweet ass back on stage you guys: (video courtesy of maryangel200)
Then they did Dead! and then Cemetary Drive. Gerard was in overdrive, so much posing, posturing, swearing and gesticulating. The man cocks his hip and flaps his hands like a champion. Frankie was adorable in his French Pirate garb and somewhere in here bebunny pointed out to me the picture of the twins Frank had on his amp. Which totally wasn't there when they were setting up so Frank must have brought it on stage with him. HEARTS IN MY EYES GUYS.
A little bit of Cemetary Drive here from maryangel200
Okay so next time I felt the urge to raise my camera was for the new song! Planetary GO! And Gerard gets his Steve Righ on and RAPS you guys. It's very dancey, electronic and totally awesome.
They followed with I'm Not Okay and Frank went NUTS during the solo on that, lots of patented Iero rolling around on the floor on his head. I didn't manage to get video of that, but maryangel200 did here:
Next was Give Em Hell kid, where Frank seemed to catch a bit of Mikey's head shaking action:
And then Gerard proceeded to prance around on stage and talk about how they were punish fucking us (with all these high energy songs I would imagine). That's obviously his new favourite phrase. Punish fucking. OH GERARD.
So, then he couldn't remember how long it had been since they'd played this song. Five years? Six years? Luckily Frank was on hand to remind him that no, it was five years. Video courtesy of maryangel200 because I was busy scrambling for my phone going THIS MUST BE A SONG FROM BULLETS because I promised b_dsaint a gig phone call if they did anything from Bullets. Which, thanks to krisipanics who texted me while we were in the queue to let me know they'd told Radio One they were doing two songs from Bullets and four from Danger Days.
Here's the intro to Our Lady Of Sorrows with Gerard talking about punish fucking and Frank and Gerard's adorable little to and fro:
They followed that up with I Don't Love You and it really was Dewees time to shine. In between most of the songs he'd been synthing it up and the intro to IDLY was all keys and synth and gorgeous. See here (thanks again to maryangel200 for the video):
After IDLY they picked it up again with Prison, and as tradition dictates Gerard encouraged all the guys in the audience to take their shirts off and spin them above their heads. Particularly any first-timers. "We're gonna pop your fucking cherry. Spin that shit over your head!" Oh you are SUCH a charmer Geeway.
Then it was time for another Danger Days track - The Only Hope For Me Is You. Here's a little of that:
Time for another one from Bullets! And time for some audience participation. Gerard went looking for an audience member to join him onstage to sing Honey because as he said "I don't remember the words anymore". Sure you don't, Gerard. Anyway he dragged this lucky girl on stage and she was trying to ask him something but he was being all "no, no pictures, you gotta sing the song! You gotta sing the song or we kick you off!" eventually she managed to get a word in edgewise to explain that the girl in the audience with the impressive mohawk was her twin sister and could they PLEASE do it together. Gerard was like "Fucking twins? Let's do it." I didn't get it on camera but Frank was smiling SO HUGE at that, because FUCKING TWINS RIGHT?
Anyway the twins were adorable, they started singing too early and Gerard gave them shit for it and they kept hugging everyone, it was the sweetest thing. Here, check it out:
Then it was time for How I Disappear. The beginning of this video is not the best, (except for the Frank spitting at 0:10) but if you persevere, from about 1:54 you can get some Shredicone and Dewees action (for you, halfeatenmoon) and some decent-ish Ray footage (for mugsyface) and from about 3:10 you've got Gerard and Frankie:
Next up was Welcome To The Black Parade. I feel like this video needs to come with a "warning: not Bob" disclaimer. I don't know, I'm probably well overinvested but this song was kind of emotional for me because it's always been a Bob song. And to see someone else on his kit for those opening drum parts was kind of throat closing. bebunny and I were holding hands pretty tight for the whole song because if there was any part of the set where we missed Bob the most, it was this part. Don't say I didn't warn you:
Time for Helena, and Frank comes out to play at 01:20 and falls to his knees at 02:20 (because we all love him on his knees right?) and Gerard comes on over to sing to him. As you do.
Mama followed, and Gerard is in all of his hand flapping, hip cocking, head wiggling glory. And I still can't quite get over superhot Mikeyway. I don't know if I ever will. If you're missing Ray I managed to keep him in frame for most of this one:
Then went Teenagers and Ghost of You. Here's GOY, if you're in it for Dewees you'll like this one.
Famous Last Words was next, which just. Yeah. Ugh. Love that song so SO much. Gerard being Gerard he decided to whack on his mask for the passionate bit near the end. Oh Gerard. I think this is my favourite of the night...
Just, all the fucking hearts, man. I love them. They did Sleep next, then Gerard had a little chat about how fucking EXCITED he is about Danger Days but he's even MORE excited for the next ten years of the band and how scarily close they came to not doing this anymore. "The future is bulletproof". It sure is. Then they did Cancer, just Gerard singing and Dewees on keys and it was GORGEOUS.
(not my video - found this one on Youtube)
Then he cleared the stage and that was it (ha!) except of course until they started winding up the crowd for the encore - which was the last new song we were owed (they promised us FOUR from Danger Days). Kids of Yesterday is a gorgeous power ballad and it has a bit of vaguely 80's vibe to it (for me anyway) and Mikey got to conquer the stage solo at the end and play the gig out. Oh Mikeyway we love you. Skip to 00:57 to get to them onstage. As Gerard says "we always come back" and he PROMISED he'll see us again soon. WE WILL HOLD YOU TO THAT GFETT.
And that was it! The boys are BACK. They are SO HAPPY to be back. They rocked London off it's head! It was such an awesome gig, not just from the perspective of the guys on stage, but the love in the crowd was amazing. Even in the crush, everyone was keeping an eye out for each other, making sure everyone got water, apologising if they crashed into you. It was really lovely. I know the guys felt it and everyone in the room felt it too.
If you want to vicariously live through the folks who hung around after and got to meet the band I suggest you check out liescontinue's post here. And I'm also wheedling xclusiveantonym to post a recap because she somehow managed to blag her way into the aftershow party, while missing a shoe, and had Frank going "ONE SHOE GIRL! DO YOU NEED SOMEONE TO CARRY YOU HOME?" Seriously, she HAS to post about this. Bug her. OH LOOK SHE TOTALLY HAS, CHECK IT OUT!
But that was my gig experience. I also attended the Manchester gig (with my most awesome gig buddy krisipanics), which was great, but not quite the same. The crowd was pretty violent and that overwhelming feeling of LOVE wasn't there. However, Gerard did see my Powerglove in the crowd when he was thanking everyone for coming in costume and said "Oh, you got a fucking Powerglove" at me, so I'm a happy bunny. (If anyone sees footage of this PLEASE point me at it. It would make my year.) I FOUND VIDEO:
@00:48: Gerard: "This is a song off Danger Days - oh you got a fucking powerglove!"
(Video courtesy of SirKingy on YouTube. He seems to have amazing high quality footage of the entire gig if you are interested in seeing more - his channel is here)
The Powerglove in question:
And, of course, the t-shirt y'all helped me design!
If you made it to the end of this post, congratulations. Hope you got a tiny slice of this awesome night out of all my rambling.
My Chemical Romance, The World Contamination Tour
HMV Apollo in Hammersmith London
23rd October 2010
I showed up at the venue a little after noon, and met up with bebunny and her friend D (who does not yet have an LJ, but we're working on it). A lot of fangirls were in attendance, some we met, some we just tweeted at each other. It was a weird and awesome shared experience!
For a taste of the queuing experience I refer you to my twitter ramblings and also to this video from the MCRmy in Spain:
My Chemical Romance Spain en Londres - 23 Octubre 2010 from My Chemical Romance Spain on Vimeo.
The queue were great, met and squee'd with many fellow fangirls, chatted with randoms, bebunny started to teach me how to play Magic: The Gathering, but it got too windy. There was a really good vibe, people were singing MCR songs, randomly getting people to shout out things, throwing sweets into the crowd etc. A lot of anticipation and love. Around 4pm there was shrieking and running as the band arrived and people tried to meet them as they came in. Eventually, after a couple of bouts of rain and a lot of ARE WE THERE YET, it was time for doors. We managed to get an okay position way over to the left on Frank's side, and then the waiting started all over again. During the waiting maryangel200 and I made eye contact and at first I thought she was trying to get the attention of someone behind me, but then she shaped her fingers into an "LJ" and we were both like OH. RIGHT. FELLOW FANGIRLS FTW!
The support Act, Twin Atlantic were actually quite good and they seemed to get a great reception (which was nice because they got a shithouse one in Manchester, I felt so bad for them). They talked about how nervous they were to play for us, because they've loved MCR since they were 10, but also they'd heard that MCR fans were the BEST fans (totally true!) They played for about 30-40mins, finished around 8:40pm then it was MORE waiting til MCR took the stage.
During this time we noticed the amps had Gerard's new favourite spider stencilled on them, there was a Marshall amp painted up with "BOOM" to look like the boombox:
(blurry photo is blurry) and the drum kit had EXTERMINATE on it. Which, as Gerard tweeted later, was courtesy of Frankie:
EVERYONE SIGH NOW.
There was also a huge cheer when a roadie came to lovingly place Mikey's helmet on the amp. He eventually came back and adjusted it (and I could just imagine Gerard side stage instructing him because Mikeyway's helmet needs to be PERFECT okay?) Then the lights went down, the screaming started and the boys hit the stage.
Click to viewAs you can see Gerard was wearing a jacket, that didn't last long. They busted straight into Na Na Na and it was a firing start to the set. The guys were having SUCH A GOOD TIME. And they're all looking gorgeous but holy fuck, MIKEY WAY. I mean I've had something of an ever growing soft spot for him but HOLY FUCK, hot as fire, the blonde is a great look and he was all about shaking his head like a wet dog. Here's some head-shaking from 'Venom':
They were just SO fucking happy to be up there. Here's a little of Gerard talking post-Venom. He introduces Mike Pedicone on drums and James Dewees on keys and fuck, he's just so pumped to have his sweet ass back on stage you guys: (video courtesy of maryangel200)
Then they did Dead! and then Cemetary Drive. Gerard was in overdrive, so much posing, posturing, swearing and gesticulating. The man cocks his hip and flaps his hands like a champion. Frankie was adorable in his French Pirate garb and somewhere in here bebunny pointed out to me the picture of the twins Frank had on his amp. Which totally wasn't there when they were setting up so Frank must have brought it on stage with him. HEARTS IN MY EYES GUYS.
A little bit of Cemetary Drive here from maryangel200
Okay so next time I felt the urge to raise my camera was for the new song! Planetary GO! And Gerard gets his Steve Righ on and RAPS you guys. It's very dancey, electronic and totally awesome.
They followed with I'm Not Okay and Frank went NUTS during the solo on that, lots of patented Iero rolling around on the floor on his head. I didn't manage to get video of that, but maryangel200 did here:
Next was Give Em Hell kid, where Frank seemed to catch a bit of Mikey's head shaking action:
And then Gerard proceeded to prance around on stage and talk about how they were punish fucking us (with all these high energy songs I would imagine). That's obviously his new favourite phrase. Punish fucking. OH GERARD.
So, then he couldn't remember how long it had been since they'd played this song. Five years? Six years? Luckily Frank was on hand to remind him that no, it was five years. Video courtesy of maryangel200 because I was busy scrambling for my phone going THIS MUST BE A SONG FROM BULLETS because I promised b_dsaint a gig phone call if they did anything from Bullets. Which, thanks to krisipanics who texted me while we were in the queue to let me know they'd told Radio One they were doing two songs from Bullets and four from Danger Days.
Here's the intro to Our Lady Of Sorrows with Gerard talking about punish fucking and Frank and Gerard's adorable little to and fro:
They followed that up with I Don't Love You and it really was Dewees time to shine. In between most of the songs he'd been synthing it up and the intro to IDLY was all keys and synth and gorgeous. See here (thanks again to maryangel200 for the video):
After IDLY they picked it up again with Prison, and as tradition dictates Gerard encouraged all the guys in the audience to take their shirts off and spin them above their heads. Particularly any first-timers. "We're gonna pop your fucking cherry. Spin that shit over your head!" Oh you are SUCH a charmer Geeway.
Then it was time for another Danger Days track - The Only Hope For Me Is You. Here's a little of that:
Time for another one from Bullets! And time for some audience participation. Gerard went looking for an audience member to join him onstage to sing Honey because as he said "I don't remember the words anymore". Sure you don't, Gerard. Anyway he dragged this lucky girl on stage and she was trying to ask him something but he was being all "no, no pictures, you gotta sing the song! You gotta sing the song or we kick you off!" eventually she managed to get a word in edgewise to explain that the girl in the audience with the impressive mohawk was her twin sister and could they PLEASE do it together. Gerard was like "Fucking twins? Let's do it." I didn't get it on camera but Frank was smiling SO HUGE at that, because FUCKING TWINS RIGHT?
Anyway the twins were adorable, they started singing too early and Gerard gave them shit for it and they kept hugging everyone, it was the sweetest thing. Here, check it out:
Then it was time for How I Disappear. The beginning of this video is not the best, (except for the Frank spitting at 0:10) but if you persevere, from about 1:54 you can get some Shredicone and Dewees action (for you, halfeatenmoon) and some decent-ish Ray footage (for mugsyface) and from about 3:10 you've got Gerard and Frankie:
Next up was Welcome To The Black Parade. I feel like this video needs to come with a "warning: not Bob" disclaimer. I don't know, I'm probably well overinvested but this song was kind of emotional for me because it's always been a Bob song. And to see someone else on his kit for those opening drum parts was kind of throat closing. bebunny and I were holding hands pretty tight for the whole song because if there was any part of the set where we missed Bob the most, it was this part. Don't say I didn't warn you:
Time for Helena, and Frank comes out to play at 01:20 and falls to his knees at 02:20 (because we all love him on his knees right?) and Gerard comes on over to sing to him. As you do.
Mama followed, and Gerard is in all of his hand flapping, hip cocking, head wiggling glory. And I still can't quite get over superhot Mikeyway. I don't know if I ever will. If you're missing Ray I managed to keep him in frame for most of this one:
Then went Teenagers and Ghost of You. Here's GOY, if you're in it for Dewees you'll like this one.
Famous Last Words was next, which just. Yeah. Ugh. Love that song so SO much. Gerard being Gerard he decided to whack on his mask for the passionate bit near the end. Oh Gerard. I think this is my favourite of the night...
Just, all the fucking hearts, man. I love them. They did Sleep next, then Gerard had a little chat about how fucking EXCITED he is about Danger Days but he's even MORE excited for the next ten years of the band and how scarily close they came to not doing this anymore. "The future is bulletproof". It sure is. Then they did Cancer, just Gerard singing and Dewees on keys and it was GORGEOUS.
(not my video - found this one on Youtube)
Then he cleared the stage and that was it (ha!) except of course until they started winding up the crowd for the encore - which was the last new song we were owed (they promised us FOUR from Danger Days). Kids of Yesterday is a gorgeous power ballad and it has a bit of vaguely 80's vibe to it (for me anyway) and Mikey got to conquer the stage solo at the end and play the gig out. Oh Mikeyway we love you. Skip to 00:57 to get to them onstage. As Gerard says "we always come back" and he PROMISED he'll see us again soon. WE WILL HOLD YOU TO THAT GFETT.
And that was it! The boys are BACK. They are SO HAPPY to be back. They rocked London off it's head! It was such an awesome gig, not just from the perspective of the guys on stage, but the love in the crowd was amazing. Even in the crush, everyone was keeping an eye out for each other, making sure everyone got water, apologising if they crashed into you. It was really lovely. I know the guys felt it and everyone in the room felt it too.
If you want to vicariously live through the folks who hung around after and got to meet the band I suggest you check out liescontinue's post here. And I'm also wheedling xclusiveantonym to post a recap because she somehow managed to blag her way into the aftershow party, while missing a shoe, and had Frank going "ONE SHOE GIRL! DO YOU NEED SOMEONE TO CARRY YOU HOME?" Seriously, she HAS to post about this. Bug her. OH LOOK SHE TOTALLY HAS, CHECK IT OUT!
But that was my gig experience. I also attended the Manchester gig (with my most awesome gig buddy krisipanics), which was great, but not quite the same. The crowd was pretty violent and that overwhelming feeling of LOVE wasn't there. However, Gerard did see my Powerglove in the crowd when he was thanking everyone for coming in costume and said "Oh, you got a fucking Powerglove" at me, so I'm a happy bunny. (If anyone sees footage of this PLEASE point me at it. It would make my year.) I FOUND VIDEO:
@00:48: Gerard: "This is a song off Danger Days - oh you got a fucking powerglove!"
(Video courtesy of SirKingy on YouTube. He seems to have amazing high quality footage of the entire gig if you are interested in seeing more - his channel is here)
The Powerglove in question:
And, of course, the t-shirt y'all helped me design!
If you made it to the end of this post, congratulations. Hope you got a tiny slice of this awesome night out of all my rambling.