REVIEW: My Chemical Romance w/ Turnstile, Dilly Dally | 8.23.22 @ Bridgestone Arena [PHOTOS]

My Chemical Romance
w/ Turnstile, Dilly Dally
Bridgestone Arena; Nashville, TN
August 23, 2022

Review by Philip Obenschain. Photos by Nolan Knight.

Undoubtedly one of the most influential and important bands of the 2000s emo and pop punk explosion, and one with an enduring appeal and rabid fanbase few of their peers can claim, New Jersey-bred rockers My Chemical Romance made their long-awaited stop Bridgestone Arena this week for their first Nashville show in 15 long years, as part of their first tour in nearly a decade, along with hardcore breakouts Turnstile and grunge rockers Dilly Dally. MCR previously split in 2013, and released a final single, “Fake Your Death,” as part of a greatest hits compilation a year later, though their last full-length, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, arrived back in 2010, and a compilation of new material, Conventional Weapons, was released from 2012 to 2013. It was 2019 that they first announced plans to reunite, playing just a single show in Los Angeles at the end of that year, before broader touring plans were postponed due to Covid. Now, two and a half years later, the group are finally making good on that reunion, counting Music City as just the third stop on their North American tour, following a run of shows in Europe and before heading up festivals like Riot Fest and When We Were Young later this year.

It’s hard to describe just how monumentally impactful the 2000s pop punk scene was on my formative teen years. I was in high school when My Chemical Romance first took off, and as a teen just getting into journalism, they were the first major band I ever interviewed, just as their sophomore album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge was about to make them the biggest band in the scene (I’d been aware of them a few years prior, thanks to cooler, older fiends in punk bands insisting that I listen to their 2002 debut, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love). I got to see MCR a few times back in that heyday, and when I last caught them before this reunion, in 2011, in support of Blink-182’s own then-reunion, I had no real sense that it could be the last. And yet, when they abruptly split, it felt like the final nail in the coffin for an entire era of music whose glory days were behind us (I was working for Alternative Press Magazine at the time, and I’d never seen such a gravely impactful band breakup ripple through a whole musical community like that).

Needless to say, there was no show this year I’ve been anticipating more, and this reunion- of the many delayed years by Covid- was like one of the absolute hardest to wait for patiently, nervous that whatever momentum had sparked it could wear thin before it ever came to be. And yet, as wildly enthusiastic as I was about it, my excitement paled in comparison to MCR’s legions of hardcore fans’. I loved this band, to be sure, but I can’t say they were ever my clear favorite of the scene, nor did I live and breathe them to a level of obsession as some of my friends and peers did. And after all of these years, those diehards are still out there, populating social media accounts and forums and forming communities and meetups, passionately following My Chem’s every move, and elevating them to arena status as heirs apparent of aughts emo. I saw through online chatter that fans began arriving and camping out the night before, and as I arrived at Bridgestone, it felt like a time machine to 2007, with so much classic emo attire, colorful hair, skinny jeans, and goth style out in full force.

My Chemical Romance clearly put a lot of thought into curating their openers for this tour, and they have some great (and drastically different) artists tapped throughout the entire run. Kicking things off, Canadian grunge rockers Dilly Dally are a band who’ve been around since before MCR split, and though I’ve listened to them casually, I can’t say I’m that familiar with their music. Nonetheless, they really pulled off the daunting task of warming up an arena crowd, and sounded great throughout their all-too-brief set. Next up, Baltimore’s Turnstile were an inspired choice here, as, though generally heavier than MCR, their fast, unlikely ascent mirrors the headliners’, and they’re easily one of the most buzzed about groups in contemporary punk right now. It feels like they were just playing little clubs like The End, and I was curious to see how their intense live show and hardcore sound would work in such a big room. They absolutely killed it, and, perhaps wisely, nearly all of their set came from last year’s Glow On, the record they helped break them into the mainstream, and without a doubt one of 2021’s best releases. A few years ago, I wouldn’t have thought a band like Turnstile could graduate to arena status, but seeing just how electrifying they sound now, and how their more genre-adventurous new material translates so well in a huge room, I was blown away by just how epic they’ve become.

I’ve rarely seen such a palpably excited crowd, especially not outside of larger-than-life pop shows like Taylor Swift or Harry Styles, but it was abundantly clearly that everyone, whether longtime fans or newcomers who came to the band in their absence, had been fervently anticipating this show for a long, long time. And when the rockers finally took the stage, we were all swept up in a whirlwind of joy and elation and surreality; there, in the flesh, was a band who seemed dead and gone, performing at a scale more grand than they ever really did in their heyday. The performance began with the group’s one and only new song (it’s unclear when or if we can expect an album), “The Foundations of Decay,” which, with its dynamic crescendo and driving rhythm makes for a stellar opener. Singer Gerard Way donned a green and white cheerleader outfit- a costume he’d remain in for the whole night- met with thousands of instant smiles and, undoubtedly, countless viral moments on Instagram and TikTok. They’re all in their 40s now, but the MCR guys all look and sound and exude the same energy as they did 20 years ago, when they were just a bunch of scrappy punk kids from New Jersey who stumbled upon success. That ethos has endured, both in their more small-scale, less commercial post-MCR projects, and also in how they still present themselves on stage. This show was in an arena because the interest necessitated it, but everything from the simple, scaled down backline and stage production to the casual and humble way they interacted with the crowd to the ferocity and rawness of their performance, all felt better suited to a show in a small room like Exit/In (and what I wouldn’t give to see it in such an intimate space).

There were no huge surprises in the set- aside from the seldom played “The World Is Ugly,” which the group haven’t performed live since before its formal release as part of their Conventional Weapons compilation- but they did manage to balance their more mainstream, fan-favorite material with some older tunes and less obvious cuts. They showed that they can still get bitingly heavy with songs like “Our Lady of Sorrows” and, in the encore, “Hang ’em High,” recapture their MTV glory with “Teenagers,” “I’m Not Okay” (which appeared surprisingly early in the set, and Way introduced as “the greatest summer jam”), and set closer “Helena,” and flex the more avant-garde, flamboyant experimentalism that always set them apart with anthems like “Welcome to the Black Parade.” Guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero were both rocking “Mikey Fuckin Way” shirts, as was Mikey himself, and the reason became clear when Dangerous Days tune “Summertime” was dedicated to Way’s wife and daughter, in attendance, explaining that he now calls Nashville home. That feeling of friendship, community, and family felt immensely present throughout, and never was there a doubt in my mind that this reunion happened because these guys missed one another, missed these songs, and missed this genuine connection with the fans. It was a punk show, sure, and a propulsive and raucous and thrilling one, but it was also such a seminal affair, capturing a feeling of authenticity and genuine connection few rock bands are capable of.

Everyone sounded incredible, particularly Gerard, whose intense and strained vocal stylings have to be hard to keep so consistent after 20 years. And their gratitude for such an enthusiastic welcome back was deeply felt; at one point way acknowledged their long road to the reunion, saying something to the effect of “I know a lot of you have been waiting a long time for this. So have we. Thank you so much for sticking around.” I won’t name any names, but a few of MCR’s 2000s peers, in an effort to maintain fame and relevance, have forced themselves to chase trends, askew their influences, and change their ethos so much that they’ve become uninspired, unremarkable husks of their former selves, trading in personality in hopes of relevance. My Chem have stayed so special, so meaningful, so great because they’ve always stayed true to who they are, what they like, and what works for them. That’s not to say they didn’t evolve over their initial run, but I believe that their music holds up so well and feels so authentic because they never tried to be anything that they’re not. And all of these years later, time has been kind to them; they’re as great and as beloved and as relevant as they’ve ever been, and their live show- undoubtedly worth the years of wait- was nothing sort of remarkable, befitting of all of that legacy and adoration. I don’t know what’s next for this band, but I have no doubt that whether it’s an album, more shows, or another long slumber, it’ll be the right decision, and I feel so fortunate that I got to experience them in concert again at all, with thousands of other fans who felt their impact just as meaningfully.

_

_

Setlist:

The Foundations of Decay
Boy Division
Our Lady of Sorrows
Give ‘Em Hell, Kid
House of Wolves
Summertime
Teenagers
Thank You for the Venom
I’m Not Okay (I Promise)
DESTROYA
Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)
The World Is Ugly
This Is the Best Day Ever
Welcome to the Black Parade
Mama
Sleep
Famous Last Words
Helena

Vampire Money
Hang ‘Em High
The Kids From Yesterday