Following three sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium and a huge stadium tour of the United States, continued their 20th anniversary celebrations of The Black Parade with a historic run at the Hollywood Bowl.

The legendary band became the first band to headline a five-night residency at the iconic amphitheatre, wrapping up the run with a special Halloween show.

My Chemical Romance and Halloween are a match made in heaven, and it was clear that everyone understood the assignment. Hundreds walked in the pouring rain down Hollywood Boulevard towards the Hollywood Bowl with outlandish and innovative Halloween costumes, many of which featured Black Parade-era face paint and skeleton outfits, ready for the show to commence. 

As the lights dimmed, the new seven-minute animated short film ‘Prelude to The End’, which features Billie Eilish and Phoebe Bridgers, was shown on screen. It set the tone and gave fans the chance to warm up their vocal cords and sing ‘The End’ at the top of their voices before the iconic band hit the stage.

My Chemical Romance wasted no time in getting the party started with performances of ‘Our Lady of Sorrows’, ‘Thank You for the Venom’ and ‘Surrender the Night’ before ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’. 

The vibes were immaculate throughout the evening, and Gerard Way fed off that energy. He was enigmatic and charismatic, with the audience in the palm of his hands. After performing fan-favourite ‘The Sharpest Lives’, MCR had fans jumping around and even crowd-surfing to ‘Vampire Money’.

The Halloween shows provided a completely new setlist and experience from the ‘Long Live The Black Parade’ tour. The world tour was a theatrical masterclass and was highly choreographed, with elaborate elements such as a firing squad and setting the stage on fire. However, the Halloween shows felt like they gave the band a chance to unwind with songs they haven’t had the chance to perform since their comeback.

Addressing the crowd, Way said that tonight’s setlist was like a game of “Russian roulette”; you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get. And that was true, as the band had a few surprises up their sleeves with deep cuts and songs they rarely perform live. One of the surprise inclusions was ‘Someone Out There Loves You’ – which they haven’t played live for 18 years. It was previously an unreleased track, but MCR officially released it last week as part of the anniversary edition of ‘The Black Parade’. In fact, it had only been a song they performed a handful of times during the initial tour run in 2007, and it’s an unfinished song. Despite the scarcity of the song for such a long time, the fans in attendance knew all the words and sang at the top of their voices.

It sounds crazy to describe the Hollywood Bowl as an intimate venue, as it has a capacity of 17,500 people. However, that is considerably small compared to the huge stadiums that MCR had been performing at during their ‘Long Live The Black Parade’ tour.

It almost felt like a surprise show that huge artists would throw in intimate bars; it had that feeling of fun and spontaneity. This also meant that just the die-hard fans were in attendance and knew every song. Way felt that energy in the crowd and remarked on how much fun he was having, as the show had a nostalgic feel to the old Halloween shows they used to do in 2006 and before that.

The show ended with a huge surprise song as Gerard Way performed ‘Early Sunsets Over Monroeville’ from their 2002 debut album, ‘I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love’. This was a historic moment, as it was only the fourth time that the band had ever performed this song live and the first time since 2005. People in the audience knew the significance of this moment, as the introduction produced deafening screams, with some people holding their heads in disbelief.

With a lyric sheet in hand, Way produced a performance that was raw and emotional with the rain pouring down in the open-air amphitheater adding to the atmosphere. From a crowd that had been headbanging and jumping up and down just minutes before, they were stunned into silence, waving their flashlights in the air from side to side. 

As the use of AI becomes more prevalent in the music industry, the raw performance of ‘Early Sunsets Over Monroeville’ really struck home about the power and importance of humanity in art. It has the ability to provoke such an emotional response from both the artists and crowd as they share a special communal moment through music.