Rain delayed the Black Parade, but thankfully, it could not stop My Chemical Romance from marching on through their theatrical show, which featured new set design production, additional performers, and other fun surprises on the first night of their five-date residency at the Hollywood Bowl. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of their masterwork, The Black Parade, the show marked the first time a band has had a residency of that length at the famed venue. These shows also serve as the closing salvo for MCR’s second U.S. run of their tour playing the album in full.
As they’ve done throughout their latest tour run, the charismatic frontman Gerard Way, bassist Mikey Way, and guitarists Frank Iero and Ray Toro — appearing as alter-ego band the Black Parade — invited the audience at the Bowl into the authoritarian dystopian state of Draag, alongside other performers. Together, they performed to placate the Grand Immortal Dictator. On this night, their fantastic rock spectacle went even further with new narrative twists and other fun surprises. For those attending upcoming Bowl shows, warning: spoilers ahead.
The show kicked off 45 minutes late due to the rain. It opened on the fictional kingdom of Draag’s skyline, flanked by banners featuring wheat, as an announcer told the audience it was the Grand Immortal Dictator’s birthday. Shortly after, a newscaster shared the story of “The First Battle of Gubrick” as performers reenacted the gun fight. Then, as opera singer Lucy Joy Altus performed a dark debut of “The United States of Draag Anthem,” the set’s city scene backdrop rotated to reveal the band and a giant Draag flag was unfurled behind them.
Way caught us up on the last two months of fictional events with a screen presentation, which summarised Draag’s Invasion of the United States in four points: “America Loves His Grand Immortal Dictator,” which made it “Super Easy” when “Draag Takes Control of America,” and so “Things Are Now Great.” Among the improvements, as illustrated during the slide show, the dictator is now carved several times into Mount Rushmore, the White House is now the Grey House, money no longer exists (just bartering), and there’s “tons of fucking wheat everywhere.” There are also power plants, and oh so much traffic. “Good fucking luck America,” Way said before they performed a snippet of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.”
The show was equal parts theatrical play, concert, and political satire — one that hits so close to home, as that summary of the takeover showed. Later, a nuclear missile was revealed onstage, which eerily mirrors real-life concerns that the nuclear threat is back, in part due to President Trump. (Earlier on the tour, shows featured a mock execution onstage, a seemingly eerie fictional foreshadowing given the very real news earlier this month that the Pentagon planned to livestream a military execution, a decision that was condemned by many. Trump called off the livestream a week later.) The adage that truth is stranger than fiction was on full display.
As My Chemical Romance delivered their highly entertaining, absurdly spectacular, subversive, if not dead-on prescient, set comprising all of The Black Parade, the music was augmented by plenty of pyro and fireworks, so much that the heat lingered for minutes afterward; Rockettes-style dancing soldiers; and gunslinging, Dallas Cowboys-esque cheerleaders. There was also the matter of the Grand Immortal Dictator’s 247th birthday. A cake was brought out, and while the dictator sat at the table facing the cake, Way shot him in the head from behind, killing him. As far as lore goes, there was plenty to unpack.
The B-stage portion of the set was equally compelling. Unlike on previous outings where they performed in the middle of the audience for the last section of the show, they remained on the mainstage, likely due to the rain. Among the highlights were “Bury Me in Black,” their cover of Morrissey’s “Jack the Ripper,” and “Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us.”
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The show comes as My Chemical Romance reissue the landmark album in a 20th anniversary edition. The new reissue arrives this Friday, Oct. 23, via Reprise and includes six bonus tracks spanning three live songs from their hometown show at Hoboken’s Maxwell’s on Oct. 24, 2007. It also features three B-sides, including the previously unreleased “Someone Out There Loves You.”
The Black Parade 2026 Hollywood Bowl Night One Set List
“The United States of Draag Anthem” (performed by Lucy Joy Altus)
“The End.”
“Dead!”
“This Land Is Your Land”
“This Is How I Disappear”
“The Sharpest Lives”
“Welcome to the Black Parade”
“I Don’t Love You”
“House of Wolves”
“Cancer”
“Mama”
“Sleep”
“Teenagers”
“Disenchanted”
“Famous Last Words”
“I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”
“Bury Me in Black”
“To the End”
“Jack the Ripper”
“Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)”
“Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us”
“It’s Not a Fashion Statement, It’s a Fucking Deathwish”
“Helena”
From Rolling Stone US
