Live: My Chemical Romance in Amsterdam
Though bands like Panic! At the Disco, lostprophets and Fall Out Boy do pretty well in the Netherlands, My Chemical Romance doesn’t seem to be able to break this market. On October 13th 2006, the guys played Paradiso in Amsterdam, which has a capacity of 2000. This time they have been scaled up to the much larger Heineken Music Hall, which is strange considering the fact they haven’t scored a hit since then. When the doors open, only 2900 of the 5500 tickets have been sold...
Support acts: Paramore and Billy Talent
Right according to schedule, the lights dim at half past 7 and Paramore enters the stage. The young kids in the crowd scream their lungs out and sing along. I must admit that they’re better than I expected, but after three songs, more of the same gets kind of boring. Time for a drink. It’s fashionable to have not one but two bands supporting, and tonight Billy Talent also accompanied MCR to Amsterdam. It’s their second time in this city and they’re obviously happy to be back. The band is able to impress a larger part of the crowd – a few people are actually jumping during their set! Especially Fallen Leaves is very well received.
My Chemical Romance
It takes half an hour for the stage to be transformed and MCR can play. The vibe Billy Talent has created dies down, but the crowd is instantly revived when the curtain falls down, revealing the huge MCR banner behind the stage. The screams only get louder when we hear the first notes of Dead! and the bandmembers emerge one by one.
My Chemical Romance mostly plays songs of their latest album The Black Parade. We didn’t get the ‘full album plus a few old songs’ setlist, like the US, Canada and the UK, but a mixture of old and new tracks. They play singles Welcome To The Black Parade, I Don’t Love You, Famous Last Words and Teenagers. Thankfully they also do a couple of live favourites of their second album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, like Cemetery Drive, Give em Hell, Kid and You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison. No tracks from their debut album this time though.
A fine list of songs, but unfortunately the band doesn’t play as well as last time in Paradiso. Frank needs a lot of assistance from his technician and is too busy fixing his sound to be able to show any of his famous moves. After the show he tells me that he couldn’t hear the drums, which is why he missed a few cues.
Verdict: My Chemical Romance is not popular enough in the Netherlands to play in large venues. It would be better to book them in a smaller one twice, possibly in two different cities. The half empty venue, the sound problems and tiredness of the band - who have been touring non-stop since February - resulted in an ok show, but nothing more than that.