My plane left early in the morning on the day of the gig and I was in Düsseldorf at 11.30 already. A friend came to pick me up at the airport and we had quite some fun during the day at another friend’s place (she couldn’t be there, but she joined us for the gig later); huge thanks to both of them! At around 4.30 pm we decided to leave for Cologne to beat the traffic jams and by 5 pm we were already queuing in front of Palladium together with a lot of teenage fans that have been there since earlier that day. Doors were supposed to open at 7 so we had 2 hours to kill which we did by observing the latest emo fashion of all those (for that kind of cold really underdressed) kids, eating cookies and chatting. Just before the door opened our friend joined us and when the line finally started moving we were in, in no time. But not even half the people were in yet when the first band already started playing. Later we realized that wasn’t Funeral For A Friend but some other band - when at 9 pm we were all expecting the first tunes of The End and something else started playing. FFAF were OK but we were happy when they left anyway because it meant it was finally time for MCR.

My Chemical Romance

We were standing really far at the back with a really poor view of the stage (so poor that all through the gig we were trying to determine if that was really Frank on the left side of the stage or not - it turned out it was him after all) and when the lights went out and the first tunes of Dead! started playing, I was a bit confused. I was expecting them to do the whole TBP thingie with the hospital bed and uniforms like they did in UK just days before and play the whole album first song to last. But as they didn’t start with The End, they have obviously decided to change that now - at the very gig I go to. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed at first.

Still, they played a great set just a bit short and, as I realized later, without Disenchanted, another song I really like, and with no extra songs. It was still a good mix of the old and the new, but I think all 3 of us were the most happy to hear Gerard say something like ´Are you ready to dance?!´ followed by The Sharpest Lives. We all sang along at the top of our lungs to our favorite tunes. At some point during the gig, Gerard started talking to someone from the crowd about doing an interview after the gig, but we all thought that he was joking at the time. Well later we found out he wasn’t, and the girl (Brigitte from TasteitTV) actually did get to do an interview with him after trying for months - and a really good one too.

Half way through the gig I decided to call a friend of mine to UK that couldn’t go to any of their gigs on this tour and surprise her with a couple of her favorite songs live; I think she liked that. I realized later I could have gotten kicked out of the venue for that if someone would see me and figured I was taking pictures (like that would work with my old phone from that far back), but luckily everything worked out fine. Eventually I managed to get a bit closer to the side fence to get at least a bit of a view of someone other than Bob and before we knew it, they were doing Sleep (interesting choice of a song to end with) and left the stage. Of course we waited for the encore which was unfortunately only Cancer and Helena and ´so long and goodnight´. We waited around a bit to meet up with some friends (we knew there wouldn’t be any chance of meeting the band because everything is behind the fences at Palladium) but we were all tired and we still had a bit of a driving to do to get home so we soon left. I spent the next day with my friend in Düsseldorf and went back home on Thursday full of new impressions and with a big desire to see this band again soon.

Verdict: Even though it was a short trip, a short gig and with no extras (and no Disenchanted!), it was worth to see them live for the very first time. The venue was too big and too crowded though (I like smaller places) and two support bands is at least one too many for my taste.

Romana