Long Live ‘Long Live The Black Parade’

Oh boy, have the past 365 days been a lot! On a general world-wide level, yes, but also more personally. I got my first tattoo, I got my first big-girl job, I got an autism diagnosis, and weaving its way through all of this, I fell in love with a band.

(I’ve wanted to write an article about New Jersey rock/emo band My Chemical Romance (MCR) for a while, think October last year, but I wasn’t sure exactly how to approach it until now — though I did manage to mention them in a recent article.)

I first came to know MCR through my general chronically-online nature growing up. Being a fan of Youtubers Dan and Phil and having an active Tumblr account put me at the perfect intersection to start getting into them, but they never took root. Sure, I had ‘Teenagers’ and ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’ on some playlists, but that was about it.

That was, until last year when the band began embarking on their still-ongoing tour ‘Long Live The Black Parade’, wherein they perform their 2006 album The Black Parade in full, surrounded by intricate world-building, audience participation executions, and an exploding clown. Now that caught my attention.

My first stop after seeing clips from the show on Twitter was to message my friend (hi Daria!) and ask what album to listen to first — I had already made the choice that I was going to become a fan, I just needed to know where to start. Unsurprisingly, she suggested The Black Parade, and so it was there that I began my journey.

Listening to the album was a conflicting experience. As much as I wanted to get it, I had to confront the fact that the music really wasn’t my style (an opinion I would hold for a solid few weeks) and could even verge on overstimulating at times. And yet, sitting there reading along with the lyrics as the album closer ‘Famous Last Words’ played, I couldn’t deny that the atmosphere and storytelling had grabbed hold of me, and I found myself verging on tears as the chorus of “I am not afraid to keep on living” played.

From that moment on it was full steam ahead. Over the next few days I listened to their other three albums, finding Youtube videos to fill me in on the concept behind each one and the band’s experiences and inspirations during each era. I watched Strange Aeon’s A Deep Dive Into the Return of My Chemical Romance — a video I had watched many times before — with a new understanding of, like… who these guys actually are. Within a week I was telling my long-time-fan friend tidbits she didn’t even know.

At some point, this train started veering off course (I know trains can’t do that, but I’m running with the metaphor). It quickly went from ‘this is a fun new interest of mine’ to ‘These Random Men From New Jersey Are Taking Over Every Ounce Of My Brain And I Think There’s Something More To It’. So I booked an appointment. And now I’m autistic.

This was something that had, in hindsight, been simmering in the background for a while, and had been raised as a suspicion by multiple people in my life in the span of about two months mid-last year. But it can’t be denied that My Chemical Romance was a significant factor in making me actually book the diagnostic appointment with the psychiatrist. It really only takes one instance of going on an impromptu, hour long, non-stop rant breaking down the intricacies of a tour you’ve only ever seen through Instagram lives and tweets to realise that Something’s Up. 

Coincidentally, something else notable in my life was happening around the same time. In fact, only three days before my diagnostic appointment, I started my first professional office job! Huzzah for another Big Change, something that autistic people are notoriously Super Normal about! 

But actually, things have been good. I’ve been getting the job done, learning corporate etiquette, and my whimsy and youth have landed me a pretty good reputation with my coworkers who are mostly elder millennials and older. However, sitting in a room with the same people for eight hours a day, four days a week, it was kind of inevitable that the hyperfixation would spill over into my day-to-day work life.

Most of them had a passing ‘oh, I remember them’ reaction when I mentioned MCR, but now know far more than anyone needs to, especially about the ‘Long Live’ tour. It’s not an uncommon occurrence to walk past my desk and see the insanely detailed spreadsheet I have breaking down every tiny detail of the show.

Even on a surface level, I wear an MCR jumper almost every day, have a custom calendar from Big W with photos from the tour, and have decorated my computer screens with tiny cut-outs of all of the members. Oh, and now a tattoo.

One could call me obsessed… one would be correct

That’s right, less than a week ago I took the plunge and got my first tattoo, much to my parents’ horror. I felt like since it’s been a year and I still care about them, and because they’ve kind of made a major impact on my life and personality, I wanted to represent them somehow. And since they still haven’t announced any Australian dates for the tour, a tattoo it is!!

Bringing it full circle to this day one year ago, I now have the lyrics to ‘Famous Last Words’ on my body forever, accompanied by a symbol of the fake country, Draag, from the ‘Long Live The Black Parade’ tour.

Tattoo by Renee (@m00.ink) at Ink Haus Creative Studios

As much as it feels kind of cringe sometimes, I don’t believe in cringe. Everybody should be able to indulge in their interests without fear of judgement. 

So yeah, I love this band and they mean a lot to me. Happy one year of My Chemical Romance to me.

(Also shoutout to my friends for reassuring me that my info-dumping is actually interesting and not horrendously annoying, even when I feel like I’m being Too Much, it means a lot.)

((Also also, happy birthday Ray Toro, my favourite member!! Crazy that we share a celebration day, but I guess that’s just fate :3 ))