My Chemical Romance - 24th October 2010 @ Manchester Apollo

Well, just got back from Manchester after the show.

What can I say? There seems to be very few words that could actually describe the incredible spectacle that I was 100% involved in last night. The beginning seems like a relatively good place to start.

My friend and I arrived at the Apollo at about 11:50 after catching two buses and a train to get there. There was already about 200 people there and some people had obviously camped out. There was no real semblance of queue, there was just a mass of people by the doors, some people around the side of the building, others sat around the massive tour bus that was parked up on the curb around the side of the venue and some people sat on a grassy bank opposite the actual building. The first thing was, I felt significantly under-dressed. I had gotten up at 6:20 that morning to catch my bus so naturally I hadn'y really had time to do all that much with my hair and make-up. Pretty much everywhere I looked there was hair-dye, crazy clothes, Doc Martins and facial piercings. It was awesome. I ended up drawing an X over my right eye in purple eyeliner just to look a little more weird so i felt like I fitted in a bit more. I also wrote FUN GHOUL down my arms... hehehe

Anyhoo, at about two o clock they formed us all into an actual queue around the side of the building and typically me and my friend ended up sat next to a bin, that evidently had dog shit in it. Lovely. So that fucking stank but you got used to it after a while. We made friends with four Liverpudlian girls who were sat next to us. That's one thing I enjoy about shows, you make friends with the people in the queue around you. Anyway, it was very cold and I have tried to block the waiting from my mind. There were ticket touts everywhere who were really annoying (NO I AM NOT SELLING MY GODDAMN TICKET!) and there was chavs across the road who were letting off fireworks without actually sticking them in the ground... idiots. It was less waiting than I did for Green Day at Wembley but it was still a bloody long time, by this point the queue behind us must have been at least a mile long. At about six o clock everyone started to get restless and then at 6:30 there was a sudden rush forward, everyone just stood up, dumped all their stuff on the floor and left it (quilts, rubbish and fag ends must have lined that street after we'd been there). They were letting people in a few at a time so there wasn't any crazy rushing and pushing... they needn't have bothered - that would come when we actually got inside. There was a £2 cloakroom charge, so I dumped my rucksack and leather jacket there before running to the front.

The venue itself was quite small (the smallest one I've ever been to) and we were about three people deep from the barrier on Frank's side. I had a small bag over my shoulder and it was digging into my neck which was intensely annoying. I can't really remember much as we stood there waiting for the support other than the fact that my feet were already aching and I was mentally cursing myself for not bringing any paracetemol (I always take some before the gig just so I can ignore any pain I'm in - I know it's probably a placebo but it works for me).

Then Twin Atlantic came on and they were actually really good, they had a lot of energy and got the crowd pumped well. My right contact fell out during their set so I only had one fully functioning eye throughout the whole show which was intensely irritating but oh well... shit happens. I was one of the only people near me jumping and dancing to TA and the lead singer seemed to appreciate it when me and this other girl started to dance. At one point they had a song where the lead guitarist started to play a cello, that was... interesting. They rocked though.

Then they went off and omg... that was when the crushing started. It was fucking insane, I had never been that crushed in my entire life. Even against the barrier at Birmingham (when I actually broke a rib) have I been that crushed. We were moved around in a large circle by people pushing and shoving and at one point I had my arms resting on the shoulders of a girl in front of me and another girl next to me asked me to my arms down because my elbow was in her face and I physically couldn't do it because I had no space. I practically became a conjoined twin with the girl in front... it was crazy. Three people around me had to go to the sides before MCR even came on because they couldn't take the heat. I got the people in front of me to pass my bag over to the barrier and dump it... looking back on that it was probably a stupid thing to do because it had my iPod, phone, purse and keys in it but at the time I was exactly thinking properly.

The stage lights went off at about 9 and the crushing intensified as MCR stepped out onto the stage: first Ray who headed off to the other side (I barely saw him for the entire gig), then Mikey and then Frank and Gee came on together (I think). It was incredible. I know it's probably very fan girly but I have looked up to these guys for four and a half years and then to see them in the flesh was a very surreal experience. Anyhoo, they went straight into NA NA NA and the place just blew up. The heat was driving me crazy and yet I was hollering every word at the top of my voice, jumping, dancing and screaming in equal measure. You'll have to forgive me because the set list for me has sort of melted together into one big mess of awesomeness and colour but I know after Na Na Na they played Thank You For The Venom, so naturally nothing whatsoever slowed down. It was one big crush of people all there for the same reason and regardless of how hot I was and how crushed and shoved I was getting, that just made it incredible. The new song called Planetery GO! forget your preconceptions that you got when you heard it was a "dance" song, it is nothing like Good Charlotte, don't worry. It does have a very strong beat and yes, it is amazing to dance to, but I would never ever describe it as dance. It is all types of awesome.

The time I was aware there was any sort of slowing down was during I Don't Love You which was so intense and I know it may sound stupid but it's almost of it could have been like there was nobody else there, I felt like I was simply there for myself and every word I was saying mattered. Guess that just how some bands make you feel. Every word that Gerard spoke to the crowd felt like he could simply be saying to me, it didn't matter that 2,000 other people probably felt the same way. I sang every word to every song (that aren't off the new album) and one of the highlights was Our Lady Of Sorrows. Wow. That's been my favourite song off Bullets ever since I first heard three years ago (along with This Is The Best Day Ever) and when that started to play the crowd just went fucking nuts. It was amazing. By this point I had got split up from my friend and was slightly worried about her because she is five foot nothing and I couldn't see her anywhere!

If someone asked me to pick a highlight I simply couldn't because the whole show was incredible and intense. Gerard dedicated the song The Only Hope For Me Is You to a girl called Sophie who was in seating, I don't think he said why or if he did I didn't hear him over everybody screaming. Welcome To TheBlack Parade was sung like everybody's life depended on getting the whole of Manchester to hear that anthem, the opening notes were played and the place went crazy and the girl next to me burst into tears. They pulled a boy called Kieran up for Honey This Mirror Isn't Big Enough For The Two Of Us.... which was cool. I couldn't really hear him over everybody else though (and Gee obv.). For most of this my eyes were fixed on Frank (because he (along with Gee when he came down near us) was the only one I could see clearly all the time)... that man has so much energy it is insane. I could barely keep my bouncing and dancing for one song before having to have at least a thirty second break, I have no idea how he does it. Other highlights were Famous Last Words, You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison (fucking love this song) and Cemetry Drive. As I said, it was just one big melting pot of colour, noise, dancing and insanity. Famous Last Words was again an anthem that the mcrmy clearly thought that the whole of Manchester needed to hear... again I know it might be stereotypical but I am so getting the words "I am not afraid to keep on living, I am not afraid to walk this world alone" tattooed somewhere on my person. Other songs played were Mama, To The End, Sleep, Dead! (insanity), Teenagers (Gerard: "This is about all you fuckers", he also said that we were all dirty ass criminals and he felt dangerous when he played in Manchester)... you'll have to fill in other songs they played because right now I can't be bothered to check Setlist.fm to find the actual one.

The last song before they went off the first time was Cancer. Gerard sang it on his own and pretty much everyone burst into tears, including myself. It was so emotional and I guess song like this really doesn't help the whole mcr "emo" label but oh well. It was amazing and every word was sung with such commitment from everybody. Then he went off and after about two minutes they came back on for the encore where they played a new song, which was awesome but it was a bit sad because I couldn't sing along to any of the words. Oh well.

Then it ended. I couldn't talk. I was bruised, I felt used (hehehe) and I was coughing a lot. But I felt amazing. My heart was pounding, my blood was singing and it felt like I could have done the impossible right there and then. Forget (if you had any) any things you have heard about mcr not being good live, it was bloody amazing and urgh. My vocabulary has come down to fivewords (as I'm sure you noticed): awesome, insane, incredible, intense and amazing.

Fill in the gaps.

Anyway, that was my experience last night.
Fucking awesome
Bryony.
xxx

p.s can't wait for March when the arena tour is here (maybe!)