The alternative superstars make a triumphant return at Cornwall’s Eden Sessions
The frontman of one of the biggest American rock bands of the last twenty years – or, depending on the age of the person you’re asking, the guy who created The Umbrella Academy – is currently galloping around the stage of the Eden Project. He’s belting out a song about how ‘teenagers scare the living shit out of [him]’, all while four thousand eyeliner-clad twenty-somethings scream every word back at him like he’s the anointed leader of their own, rather loud, cult.
It’s theatrical, over-the-top, and impressive in equal measure. It is not, generally, what you’d expect to see on a Monday night in Cornwall.
So, how did we get here?
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Well, like most things in 2022, it’s a long story.
You see, back in October 2019, a little-known band named My Chemical Romance announced that they were reforming after a seven-year hiatus. The reaction was… Enthusiastic. Their ‘one-off’ Los Angeles comeback show sold out in seconds, and a flurry of global arena and stadium dates were soon added to the band’s busy 2020 schedule.
And then? Well, we all know what happened next. Plans were shelved, guitars were put away, and countless pairs of black skinny jeans were thrown back into dusty corners of long-forgotten wardrobes.
But then, there was hope. The world started opening up. Fingernails were carefully painted black, floppy fringes were dyed peroxide blond, and My Chemical Romance’s long-mooted reunion tour dates were finally – finally – rescheduled for 2022.
And on a warm Monday night, they kicked it off at Cornwall’s Eden Project.
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And frankly, dear reader? It was glorious.
There’s just something about the sight of a few thousand people screaming at their idols that gets our spines tingling here at One on One HQ. When you throw in the fact that this was the first time anyone in Europe had seen said idols in a decade, then you might just begin to imagine the kind of near hysteria that greeted Gerard Way and co. when they strode onto the stage as the sun began to set over the biomes of The Eden Project on that chipper Monday evening.
It was about then that everyone involved started to lose any semblance of sense and reality. Song after song came and went, and yet the enthusiasm of the forty-year-old emo kings on stage never waned; an enthusiasm that was matched only by the most ardent members of the audience, who arrived clad solely uniformly in black and furnished with enough hairspray to present a minor fire hazard.
And as for the setlist? Well, to say that My Chemical Romance ‘rattled through their hits’ would be an understatement. From the opening riffraff of the excellently titled I’m Not Okay (I Promise) to the closing chimes of their most iconic ‘number’, Welcome To The Black Parade, the entire gig was a bonafide victory lap, soundtracked by some of the best emo-rock songs ever produced by four skinny outcasts from New Jersey.
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It helped, of course, that the entire situation was exaggerated by the sheer bizarreness of its surroundings.
It almost feels rude to start a mosh pit in the middle of one of the UK’s most beautiful areas of conservation and ecology – but, when at The Eden Sessions, it would almost be ruder not to. After all, they’ve been hosting gigs by the likes of Muse, blink-182, Oasis, and Elton bleedin’ John for the last twenty years – and, thankfully, they’re showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. What’s primarily known as one of the country’s foremost tourist attractions also happens to be one of its very best music venues; we can’t encourage you enough to head down and see it for yourself.
But, despite the majesty of the surroundings, there was only ever going to be one talking point from tonight’s show.
Ladies and gentlemen, My Chemical Romance are back. Like, properly, actually back. Not only are they a band who haven’t lost any of the raw vitriol that made them a hit with the angsty teenage crowds of the mid-Noughties, but they’re also a group whose riff-heavy descriptions of angry outcasts and weary weirdos alike are just as vital today as they were ten years ago.
So, welcome back, My Chemical Romance. We didn’t realise how much we’d missed you.