My Chemical Romance Bring World Contamination Tour to Grand Rapids

On Saturday, New Jersey's punk/alternative rock band My Chemical Romance treated a packed crowd at the Orbit Room in Grand Rapids to a powerful evening of music that touched on all of the band's discography.

The band began the day with a meet and greet downtown at Vertigo Record's where hundreds of fans lined up early in the rain to buy the band's special Record Store Day 7" picture disc release.

The first 100 people who purchased the disc gained wrist bands to come back to the signing later in the afternoon.

Fans also lined up early outside of the Orbit Room to try to secure their spots up front for the sold out show.

They were more than ready to see the band who had not toured in a few years as they worked on the follow up to their popular 2006 release The Black Parade.

My Chemical Romance actually recorded a album and then scrapped it when they were unhappy with it's direction.

After taking some more time, the band put together Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys
and embarked on their current World Contamination Tour.

Danger Days is a concept album built around The Fabulous Killjoys; a group of outlaws who are fighting against the evil corporation Better Living Industries in California in 2019.

The album immediately gained a following of old and new fans and the band's subsequent inventive music videos have had those fans eager to see the new material performed live.

Saturday night, the show was opened by Kansas City punk rockers The Architects, who ran through a animated set that included the hard hitting "Bastards at the Gate".

The Architect's enjoyable set was a nice lead-in to My Chemical Romance's heavily punk-influenced set.

Before My Chemical Romance took to the stage, there was a electric feel running through the crowd.

As the band entered the stage through a cloud of smoke and to their Danger Days' intro "Look Alive, Sunshine", the crowd went into a massive frenzy jumping, screaming and singing along as they launched into their first single off the new album "Na, Na, Na".

Their stage set was filled with items from their "Na, Na, Na" video including some of their Killjoy masks and was filled with a elaborate light show that helped set the pace for many of their high-energy songs.

The band ripped through songs off of all of their albums including "Give 'Em Hell, Kid", "Planetary (Go)", "Vampire Money", "House of Wolves" and "Teenagers".

Band members Gerard Way (vocalist), Ray Toro (lead guitarist), Mikey Way (bassist), and Frank Iero (rhythm guitarist) seemed to really be enjoying themselves and feeling their new music as they all moved across the stage.

Toro was particularly impressive since he had sprained his ankle at a previous date of the tour.

It was nice to see them perform rare older songs "Hang 'Em High" and "Vampires Will Never Hurt You" alongside powerful performances of new songs "The Only Hope For Me Is You" and "Summertime".

Throughout the evening, Gerard interacted with the crowd, thanking them for coming out and bearing with them as they took the time to record a album that they were proud, inviting them to dance along with him on "Planetary (Go)" and howling before "House of Wolves".

Their performances of "Welcome To The Black Parade" and "Ghost of You" stood out for their interesting intros but it was classics "I'm Not Okay (I Promise) and "Helena" that got the biggest reactions with Gerard using the song's verse "so long and goodnight" as a way to leave the stage, leaving the crowd chanting for me.

Gerard returned to the stage alone to perform "Cancer", showcasing how far his voice has come since the band's early days.

The rest of the band then returned to close the show with new song "Bulletproof Heart" which was proceeded by Gerard telling the crowd, "No matter how bad it gets, don't give up. Always keep running. We will always be there for you. Just turn up the speakers, sing like no ones listening, dance like nobody's there."

It is obvious My Chemical Romance has a special relationship with it's fans and the crowd was obviously more than satisfied with the show that the band put together.