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Rockin' Oncology!: My Chemical Romance Puts On a Cancer-Themed Show You Can Dance To

Rockin' Oncology!: My Chemical Romance Puts On a Cancer-Themed Show You Can Dance To
Andy Jones  |  by www.washingtonpost.com. All rights reserved. 21.05 | 9:13

A guy is wheeled onto a stage in a hospital bed, IV drip at his side. He's in a gown and a whiter shade of pale. You can hear a heart monitor beep.

Thousands of kids cheer. Welcome to the Black Parade.
Since the release of "The Black Parade," My Chemical Romance's third studio album, the band has put on a rather odd live show, and the drama wasn't diluted at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Friday.

Part Queen, part Misfits and all theatrics, MCR has been tagged with nearly all the subgenres under the emo umbrella. But its inexact mix of styles -- always dominated by propulsive rock -- isn't nearly as interesting as what the group is asking you to dance to these days: "The Black Parade" is an "American Idiot"-ringing concept record about a teenager who died of cancer. Confetti, metal riffage, bursts of fire -- and lyrics like "Mama, we're all gonna die, stop asking me questions, I'd hate to see you cry.

" Everybody bounce!

Improbably, the night was both wildly entertaining and respectful regarding the subject. MCR, in a Sgt.

Pepper's move, "opened" for themselves as the Black Parade, outfitted in black "Hell High" marching-band costumes with frontman/showman Gerard Way, a.k.a.

the Patient, in white makeup with black-ringed eyes.
Way posed and pranced and owned the audience while the band ran through every operatic track off its latest release, but the singer was as much a mentor to the young crowd as he was a ringleader of his dark circus. He dedicated the heartbreaking ballad "Cancer" to anyone who's been touched by the disease and promoted the Shirts for a Cure Project, in which proceeds from T-shirt sales go to cancer research.


According to message board lore, though, MCR has been credited with saving lives in a more traditional heroes-to-the-young way, too: The rock pantheon may be filled with songs about outsiders and depression, but Way -- who's pushing 30 -- genuinely came off as the big brother who still feels his own scars as he talked to fans about reaching out for help and escaping through music, not violence, if they're feeling alone and desperate. The rollicking "Teenagers" followed with the show's most overpowering and cathartic singalong, the crowd shouting out the unsettling lyrics ("But if you're troubled and hurt/ What you've got under your shirt/ Will make them pay for the things that they did").
Disturbingly, this earnest message seemed forgotten after the Black Parade left the stage.

The guys, dressed casually, came out to play a few equally thunderous songs off their first two albums. But now the backdrop read "REVENGE," canopied by a half-circle of guns. If you could ignore the tasteless timing, this 30-minute addendum continued to prove the group's mastery of irresistible live performance.

Regardless, rocking out to a kid on a gurney suddenly didn't feel quite as wrong.

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Keywords: Black Parade, You Can, Chemical Romance, If You, Out To, Dance To, My Chemical, My Chemical Romance
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