My Chemical Romance @ Anfield Stadium, Liverpool – 30/06/26

My Chemical Romance at Anfield Review: Long Live The Black Parade Opens in Liverpool

There are a few things more surreal than standing in a football stadium in Liverpool surrounded by 50,000 people dressed like funeral is the dress code. If you got lost on the way to Anfield, you only had to follow the emos: black denim, black eyeliner, black boots; black everything. As people marched to the stadium for one of the UK’s largest and most anticipated events to day, the only words that came into my mind were ‘emotional devastation’ which is exactly what My Chemical Romance is all about.

Only MCR could transform an enormous stadium into something that felt like a funeral procession, a therapy session and the world’s most theatrical nervous breakdown. And boy, did they deliver. The opening night of the UK leg of the Long Live the Black Parade tour at Anfield was not built on nostalgia, even though it was everywhere. This was tens of thousands of people returning to the music that soundtracked their entire lives: whether that was heartbreak, rage, loneliness, survival or just anthems that carried entire generations through their adolescence and beyond. Fittingly, this mix of people made the perfect audience for the gig.

The opening sequence was theatrical, deliberate and very on brand for MCR: there was tension in the atmosphere and just enough drama to make everything feel just a minor chord away from collapse. When “The End.” Began, the reaction from the crowd was immediate (and I was glad I had my earplugs). The Black Parade had arrived with a drummer setting the beat and Liverpool was ready to follow. What made the whole show remarkable was not just the scale (though that definitely gave it a lot of cinematic weight) but the precision and sequence in which the band performed each song. MCR have always understood that performance is like architecture; every moment matters and every transition is a building block for the next beat and lyric.

Similarly, Gerard Way remains one of rock’s most compelling frontmen because he refuses to operate like one in the conventional sense. He doesn’t command attention through swagger or ego, but through intensity, banter and humility. Most of the time he is theatrical, unsettling and completely immersed in his role; the next, he is sincere, humble and absolutely impossible to look away from. His vocals were exceptional, sharp and full of emotion and yet he understood perfectly which moments he had to let the audience take over; and they did over and over again.

The band performed “The Black Parade” album in full, and songs like “Welcome to The Black Parade”, “Mama” and “Teenagers” got such massive singalongs, you could hear them all across the stadium. Ray Toro’s guitar work was phenomenal, whilst Frank Iero brought his usual feral energy and Mikey Way (as always) managed to be both understated and essential. The main stage got the best pyro show, the largest singalongs and the nostalgia was so thick, you could feel it in the air everywhere. And yes; the whole album was exactly as monumental as expected, especially as “Famous Last Words” came up. If there is a national anthem for millennials who survived the internet’s weirdest era, this is probably it. The song carries an absurd amount of emotional power two decades later, remaining dramatic and ridiculous at the same time.

Moving to the B Stage, the band was now ready to treat the audience with a lot of other songs beyond that album’s catalogue to treat their crowd. “Cemetery Drive”, “Na Na Na”, “Thank You for the Venom”, “Helena” and finally “The Kids From Yesterday” felt like watching a legacy act move an entire stadium to its core in a way that was alive. The band performed like people who still believe in what these songs mean, and the audience understood exactly why that still matters. Beneath eyeliner, military jackets and glorious theatrics, MCR have always understood people and how to make them feel seen and included. They connect people because of their honesty, rage, grief, fear, hope and survival. And this was exactly what made the night even more impactful. Watching them perform all these iconic songs as the sun set and the sky darkened, with people lighting up their phones to make a sea of stars around them was absolutely magical.

By the time the final notes rang out across Anfield, the crowd was euphoric and emotionally demolished. Liverpool got the first UK date of the tour but this felt bigger than an opening night. It was a statement that The Black Parade isn’t just back. The Black Parade has never left.

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