My Chemical Romance : Manchester Night & Day

Usually Sadchester's non-more indie hangout and home to acoustic nights and members of Elbow, tonight the Night & Day has been descended on by hordes of fiercely serious backpacked and bespectacled emo souls. Uncharacteristically for this venue, the atmosphere swiftly reaches fever pitch when a white projector screen (usually employed playing old arthouse films) rises to reveal My Chemical Romance’s longhaired pretty-boy singer Gerard Way- clad in black gloves and jacket - in a typical mentalist pose. Instantly unleashing a cacophony of ear-shredding screams on opener ‘Honey, This Mirror Ain’t Big Enough For The Two Of Us’ it’s clear that he didn’t gatecrash last year’s NME Cool List for nothing. Charging round the stage like a Ritalin-deficient toddler, Gerard permanently appears to be on the verge of a nasty bout of projectile vomiting, pulling a range of comically camp facial expressions. Visually, any murmured comparisons with Morrissey seem more than a little misguided. However, the emotional vulnerability laced in his lyrics – for example the way that ‘Headfirst For Halos’ takes the melodramatic introspection of The Smiths' classic ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’ and mainlines it with a rabid punker fury – leaves him at least sounding like the extremo embodiment of the Bard Of Manc Misery. On other highlights like ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’ and ‘Drowning Lessons’ - taken from debut album over here ‘I Brought You Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love’ - guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Lero more than match his feral vocal delivery, conjuring wave after thunderous wave of brutal guitar noise. Whilst it’d be harsh to call My Chemical Romance The Gerard Show, tonight all he lacks is a cape and mask to stop him from transforming into a full-blown extremo superhero. If the genre is to avoid the same swift fate as its spiritual cousin nu-metal, it needs more characters like this fighting for the cause. Extremo needs more bands with the inherent star quality of My Chemical Romance. Tonight they leave rest of the chasing pack choking on their dust.


Rick Martin