Support act: Days in Grief
Driving in from Germany in a tiny van stuffed with as much as they could fit inside was Days in Grief, the four piece emocore band. Apparently they have a pretty large fanbase in their home country. I don’t really understand why though. Maybe the album is good, but live they are about as tight as a bundle of socks and that wasn’t just because of problems with the bass-drum. Still, quite a few people were moving around during their songs, and not only to get drinks at the bar. I feel sorry for the girls at the front who the lead singer was dripping his sweat all over. The parts the guitarist sang along sounded a lot better than when it was just the lead singer, I suggest you do some more of that, Days in Grief. And practise for a couple of years. I’ll come check you out and see if you’ve improved. Official website.
My Chemical Romance
There were a lot of very young girls in the crowd. Girls who had probably never been to a gig in their entire life, swooning over Gerard [singer] and Frank [guitarist]. Some of them had been waiting at the doors since 7.30 that morning. Why? I have no idea! At a show with a capacity of 1000 people, showing up ten minutes before doors open should be sufficient to get the desired spot at the front-centre. A shocking amount of them were showing of their cut up arms, wearing spaghetti-strap tops. Cutting seems to be the trend of 2005, especially when you listen to emo-bands like My Chemical Romance. Strange, because Gerard has said in several interviews that self-harm isn’t a solution for anything and that you’re much better off talking to someone than to stick a knife/razorblade/piece of glass in your body. Yet they all seemed proud of themselves for doing it.
Most bands save their biggest hit for the last part of the set, My Chemical Romance opened with it. I’m Not Okay is the perfect way to set the right mood; it’s energetic and everyone knows it. With The Ghost Of You being the only slow(er) track of the set, the crowd and the band were bouncing around almost the entire hour they were on stage. It had been very warm that day and we were all dripping with sweat within minutes. Despite some desperate fangirls who were constantly trying to push past us, the vibe in the crowd was good. I’m sure the little girls at the front won’t agree with me though, some of them looked petrified when people started to mosh.
Gerard was wearing ripped jeans, which gave them a nice view of bare flesh, but that wasn’t enough. Every time he was at the edge of the stage, their hands would fly up to try to touch the previously mentioned skin. And not only his skin! I saw them place their hands right on his crotch more than once. He obviously likes being worshipped; he didn’t pull away from them. After a speech about not showing your tits when a singer asks for it, Gerard had us doing a lot of hell yeah’s and fuck you’s. Pretty strange, considering he first insists we do what we want and not what anybody tells us to and then demands we all shout along with him and throw our hands up in the air.
There had been some technical problems with the drumkit when Days in Grief were playing. That was solved when MCR started, but there was something wrong with Frank’s guitar plug. He constantly switched guitars and started to look pretty pissed off. Overall the sound was fine though. A nice change was including The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You in the set. They hadn’t played this for a long time and Frank had told us earlier that afternoon that they loved playing something ‘new’. Personal favourites were Thank You For The Venom and I Never Told You What I Do For A Living.
Verdict: All in all a good show. It was very energetic and powerful. The downside was the large amount of young emo-girls and the not-so-good support act.
Imre
Pictures of this gig are here!
