My Chemical Romance, The Architects, Thursday & This Good Robot

May 6 & 7, 2011
Tower Theatre, Philadephia PA
Starland Ballroom, Sayerville NJ


It’s really kind of hard to describe how much I love My Chemical Romance. Not only did their music help me through some hard times in my life (just like other bands have done), but they’re Jersey boys who made something of themselves and they’ve been through some hard times of their own and they’ve managed to come out on top. Like any large fan base, there is a familial kind of feel to the ‘MCRmy’ and I suppose I have MCR to thank for meeting one of my closest friends, Brittany and a bunch of other great girls (and of course there’s bickering and bullshit between fans too, but I like to focus on the good instead, because I fucking can). I’ve been a fan since ‘I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love’, which came out when I was in middle school, but my parents sucked and never let me see them in concert. So this past December I saw them with The Gaslight Anthem at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom where I almost got killed and punched a 30 year old man in the back of the head multiple times. But that’s okay, because I got to see them two nights in a row this past May 6^th & 7^th in both Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Philly is my home town, so of course I was going to see MCR at The Tower Theatre in Upper Darby. This is a seated venue, but we didn’t really sit, except for Thursday’s set, which I found a little strange. The Architect’s played first, and absolutely killed it with stuff from their newest album ‘The Hard Way’ as well as some older stuff. I’m pretty sure there were only a few actual Architects fans in the crowd, but they had the place rocking and it was awesome to see. Ironically enough, the row where I was sitting was completely empty until MCR actually came on so a couple of the Skeleton Crew roadies came out and were sitting, watching some of the show. Thursday seemed almost like they weren’t completely feeling the venue because they weren’t as energetic as they could have been. Granted, they were playing songs from their new album ‘No Devolución’ which is markedly slower than their older albums, but telling people they can sit down is a little bit of a cop out at a concert. They still sounded good, but the crowd didn’t seem into it, which was disappointing for a band that’s been around as long as Thursday has. And then there’s My Chemical Romance, who everyone was there to see so of course the place got crazy once they started playing. I was excited to hear them play stuff from the new album ‘Danger Days: The True Lives of The Fabulous Killjoys’, which they definitely delivered on. They played ‘Summertime’ which surprised me, but which made me incredibly happy, since I have lyrics from it tattooed on my foot. They also played some of the older stuff like ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’ and ‘Famous Last Words’ (also a tattoo, on the inner part of my bicep) which were received well, as I’m sure they always are. Being in the 11^th row wasn’t bad, because I had a great view and didn’t have to worry about the ‘pit’ or whatever ended up forming right in front of the stage. That would be for the next night…

Now, I don’t typically go to big concerts in Jersey, just because bands usually play in Philly around the same time anyway. I make exceptions when The Scandals, The Architects and the like play Asbury Lanes, but that’s about it. But, when my friend Brittany told me she was going to the first Starland Ballroom show, I said why not because I knew if nothing else it would be a great time. I think I slept about 3 hours before driving over, and once I got there we went right to Sayerville to get in line. Yep, I stood in line all fucking day, got sun burned on one half of my face because I had my hood up and still didn’t even get barricade once the doors finally opened. The good part about it was however, that Bee and I met a girl named Sam, who is totally awesome and who we’ll be seeing MCR with again in August. So standing in ‘round about the 4^th row of a basically standing room only venue wasn’t too bad (until I got up to the 2^nd row later in the night). I could see incredibly well for being 5’3” which surprised me, and I managed to keep both Bee and Sam with me until My Chemical Romance actually came on. This Good Robot opened the show, a band I had never heard of from New York who rocked the place right from the start. Everyone seemed really into it and I ended up getting a free demo off of the lead singer at the end of the show which was pretty awesome and I’d say they’re worth listening to. As the Skeleton Crew techs were setting up for The Architects, a kid behind me was talking shit on my boys from MO, thinking they were the British Architects, so I had to set him straight, letting him know that these guys sound more like The Bouncing Souls, as opposed to the more hard-core, screamo sounding Brighton boys. I probably could have touched Brandon Phillips once they came on, and it was really good to hear some girls in front of us singing along too. To my surprise The Architects played a couple of different songs from the night before, and they killed it once again, so much so that I got my hair pulled from the guy behind me, wanting to tell me how he’d been wrong about The Architects not being awesome. As Thursday, the Jersey natives came on, I could tell that they were so excited to be playing and Geoff Rickly was way more active on stage than he had been the night before. They killed the new stuff and ‘Jet Black New Year’, one of my personal Thursday favorites. By the time My Chemical Romance finally came on, I was in the 2^nd row, fighting for footing, but loving every second of it. We happened to be on the left side of the stage, right in front of Frank Iero, so a lot of the pictures that I managed to take are of him. They rocked, right off the bat and I don’t think it’s a coincidence because this was the first night of two ‘home-coming’ shows that they played in Jersey and you could see how happy they were to be playing. I can’t even remember exactly how long I lasted before I had to be pulled out of the crowd (I not only lost one of my favorite plugs, but also almost killed a girl who kept trying to push me out of the way). It was pretty funny, because as I’m getting yanked out of the crowd by this huge security guard, with half my ass crack hanging out because people were pulling on my pants (not really sure why), Frank Iero looked straight at me and mouthed ‘sorry’, I guess because I couldn’t stay up at the front. I don’t really know, but it was kind of cool all the same. To make it even better, when I ran off to the side I ended up standing next to Frank’s wife, Jamia, who is totally adorable and such a sweetheart. At the end of the show as we were walking to our car I caught Brendan Phillips of The Architects with one of the roadies I’d seen the night before and said hello. He’s so down to earth and I’m sure the rest of the guys are as well. Hell, he was selling their CD’s outside the venue!

All in all both shows were incredible, and I’m so glad that I got the opportunity to share the second one with some awesome girls. I’m looking forward to seeing MCR again in August, where I’ll be in the 18^th row at The PNC Bank Center. If you want to see my pictures from both nights, they’re on my Flickr, along with photos from other concerts I’ve been to in the past. And I would definitely say that if you get the chance to see any of these bands, it’s well worth it!

- RIOT! (aka Morgan)