This was my first time seeing them and it was amazing! I have been waiting to go to one of their shows for years and I can’t believe that I finally went! It was the first time I’ve been to the Hollywood Bowl as well and wow it is huge! Luckily I was in the 3rd section from the stage so I got a pretty good seat. Although, I feel like I don’t even remember everything about the concert and My Chem. I think it was just the adrenaline and excitement of seeing them that was going on at the moment that I didn’t store it in my head properly. Luckily I took video and pictures to refresh my memory.
Matt and Kim opened up and they were entertaining as always. I saw them before at the Sunset Strip Music Festival and they were amazing! At one point Kim said she had to top their previous performance in LA (where she showed her vagina tattoo) so she wanted to have a Blink 182 dirty dance sandwich with Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker, but Travis hid backstage. So she dirty danced with Mark Hoppus. And believe me it was dirty! She was gettin very low, shakin her booty all up on Mark. She went so low she went under/in between his legs then started freakin him from behind. What made it even funnier was Mark was shaking his butt right back (it looked more like air humping though). After Mark ran off stage Matt and Kim finished their set and their last show on the tour.
After a short intermission, where I was freaking out from excitement in my seat (and I had to use the bathroom but was afraid I wouldn’t make it back in time), My Chemical Romance came on. At first the lady character from the Sing music video appeared on the big screen as the lights went out. At the end of her speech in Japanese the band came out with a fast and energetic Na Na Na! The crowd went wild! Everyone stood up out of their seats and I almost had a heart attack watching them, in disbelief they were there in real life, playing in front of me. I think I went weak in the knees when I heard Frank scream the line “LOVE give me LOVE give me LOVE!!” I love his screams! I’ve been waiting literally years to hear him scream! I was just like whaa?! Is this real life right now?! And Gerard’s voice was amazing! He also danced with that sass and attitude. My sister kept joking that he looked gay (she’s not a big fan of them, so she doesn’t know anything, don’t mind her) and I told her he was married (to a woman) and has a daughter. She told me, “Honestly though, if someone didn’t know that, it’s not that crazy to assume he’s gay, he is very flamboyant,” which is true. I just laughed at her comments. And the Killjoy uniforms didn’t help my defense, bright and colorful tight jackets. I personally think they looked badass! I was, although, kind of hoping that they would be in their Halloween costumes like in previous shows, but regardless they still looked awesome.
After Na Na Na they jumped right into I'm Not Okay with an enormous amount of energy. Watching recent videos of them on YouTube, I thought that they weren't as energetic as they used to be years ago, like in the Bullet or Three Cheers era for instance, but they had amazing energy. It was cool to see Frank still get wild during that song, jumping on the drums platform thrashing around. Ray also still did his signature head bang during the guitar solo. At that point the smile on my face wouldn't go away, unless I was screaming back the lyrics of course.
They continued on to play Planetary GO! And giant balloons filled with confetti were released into the crowd as everyone jumped to the beat. I loved watching them pop and see the surprise on people's faces when they were covered with shiny silver confetti. Then they played Our Lady of Sorrows, I think I gasped and thought "Holy shit and old song, hell ya!" I love their older songs; they are just so fast and make you want to kick someone’s ass lol. It looked like they were kickin their guitar's asses as they were playing the shit out of them running all over the stage.
S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W was next ...I think, I probably have the order wrong, but whatev. Everyone waved their arms back and forth singing the lyrics back, I did at least. Then it was Helena. Helena was the first song I ever heard from MCR, there is a special place in my heart for that song and hearing it live was amazing. I sang back every word. Another one of my favorite songs they played was Mama. I love Mama! I swear I was screaming at the top of my lungs for that song. I know the video I took of that song was pretty shaky because I couldn't help but jump to it! I went crazy for Teenagers too! (Okay I went crazy for every song). Everyone seemed to know that song and the fist pumping ensued. I remember my camera ran out of battery and my other camera's memory was full so I didn't get to record it unfortunately. It would have been awesome to record the thousands of people fist pumping in unison.
The Black Parade came on, and all it took was the beginning piano chorus for everyone, and I mean everyone, in the arena to recognize the song and go wild! The lame people who were sitting during their set stood up for that song! The whole place recited the lyrics to the epicness of The Black Parade. I could feel my throat burning from all the screaming I did, but I pushed my vocal chords still further to sing with them (that did result in me sounding like a 50-year-old chain smoker for the following days, but it was well worth it).
Finally Cancer came on. Gerard told everyone to light it up with cell phones or lighters and wave them back and forth. The rest of the band disappeared from the stage as the spotlight was put on Gerard. He began singing and I had my full attention on him waving my cell in the air until my sister shook me by the shoulder and told me to look behind me. And what I saw was unbelievable. Unbelievably beautiful. Thousands and thousands of lights glowed in the darkness; with such a big arena it seemed that the lights were endless. The combination of the melody and deeply emotional lyrics of the song, and now the beautiful thousands of glowing lights I saw behind me, I wanted to cry. I thought, I have been waiting years to experience this and now here I am. Before I realized it the song had come to an end, Gerard had stopped for the last word allowing the crowd to momentarily cheer before he raised him arms in silence as he sang the last word "yoouuuu." He then said "Good night California!" then walked out of the spotlight. It was over. I thought, it couldn’t be over! Aren’t they going to play a few more songs? But it was, I just didn't want it to be.
The stage lights came on and the crew began to set up for Blink 182. I sat down and tried to comprehend what just happened, I then turned to my sister and said, “I really have to go to the bathroom!" Haha comic relief, but I did really have to go. I hurried to the bathroom unsure of how long the intermission would be, and of course the stupid bathroom was packed. Luckily I made it back in time before Blink Started.
Oh and here’s my silly Blink Boomer mask :D
Blink was amazing! I love those guys, they are hilarious! In between songs they joked about penises and each other's moms’ lol. I know a lot of Blink songs but I just can't remember all their names, but my favorites that they played were Always, What's my age again? And First Date. The most awesome part of the show was when they came back on for an encore and Travis had a drum solo. Not just any drum solo, but a drum solo on a moving drum crane that suspended him over the crowd! It moved back and forth over the crowd then leant him down at about a 45% angle over everyone. It was just crazy and amazing!!
Overall, this was an experience of a lifetime! I hope to see My Chem and Blink again one day because this concert was truly unforgettable. And honesty, I think I’m hooked now, who would not want to see these incredible bands again and again?!
One last thing to leave you with, I managed to capture a photo of the lights during Cancer, and let me just say, this photo is great, but it does not compare to the beauty of seeing it in the moment.
<3 Love