Review of My Chemical Romance at Brixton Academy - 4.11.05

Here we are, at the second date of My Chemical Romance's sold out brixton academy gigs. The atmosphere is huge, in a teenage army of black and long fringes. As we waited in the ever-extending queues, entertainment was bought to us outside with a truck with a 60 inch tv on the back of it playing various videos from the band.
As we finally make it into the academy, we are greeted by the sound of Drive-By. A 4-piece run of the mill band playing a 40 minute set of catchy (but average) emo songs, time to go for a piss methinks.
Now, Every time i die are a revelation. A 5-piece with a huge sound, the singer may look feeble but the scream he produces is immense. After Drive-by this sent the crowd wild, with probably the most violent moshes of the night. They bounce about the stage and show an energy which the crowd related to all the way through their set. But the biggest scream came mid-set when the vocalist announced, "We co-wrote a song with this guy and he's going to help us sing it!". And out came Gerad Way to a rapurous scream, deafening out the music itself. Every time i die were a great band and definatley one to look out for.


Now everyone is buzzing, the headliners are due to take the stage and even their roadies get a bigger cheer than the previous bands. A huge cheer went up as the lights dropped and Gerad and Ray took to the stage and played the haunting, gentle 'Interlude' which then explodes into the ferocious 'Thank you for the venom' and the rest of the band take the stage. Even though the notoriously bad brixton sound makes it hard to distinguish parts, the performance blows the crowd away. They make the stage their own and suddenly the rest of the night seems irrelivent. 'Hang 'em high' is mind-bendingly powerful, and 'The Ghost of you' is even more epic than on the c.d. They throw in a cover of Blur's 'Song 2' which sparks a mass sing-along, and the new song from the forthcoming album is very impressive. They end the set on 'You know what they do to guys like us in prison' which is by far the best song of the night and leave the stage to screams of "MCR MCR MCR". An encore 'I'm not okay' finishes the night in fine fashion.
Okay, they may be a bit uncool and have a teenage following, but tonight My Chemical Romance blow brixton away. Looking forward to the new album and a new tour.

By Joe Savins


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