The First March of ‘The Black Parade’: My Chemical Romance Philly Flashback Interview

One of the most captivating tours of the summer (so far as of this writing) takes place this coming Friday, August 15, 2025, in Philly. It is the return of some New Jersey natives known as My Chemical Romance. They're coming to proclaim: "Long Live The Black Parade" and celebrate their iconic 2006 record, The Black Parade. The record will be played in its entirety along with a massive stage production at Citizens Bank Park this weekend.

The first outing with The Black Parade here in Philadelphia happened on February 25th, 2007 at The Liacouras Center on Temple University's campus. The Grand Marshall of the group, Gerard Way, sat down for a conversation with Pierre Robert before their performance, and out of the gat,e was excited to be back in town. "... it's the first place we actually traveled to and stayed overnight back, and we were van band," explains Gerard.

At a glance, the album The Black Parade, as Pierre puts it, texturally is a "goth version of Sgt Pepper". Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance agreed with that sentiment and admitted it's ambitious. The concept album follows "The Patient" go through a mental journey of his life. Despite the gloomy, gothic imagery, there is a silver lining. As Gerard puts it, "The listeners left with a very positive message to really have a strong desire to live".

For most people, their introduction to this record was the lead-off single Welcome To The Black Parade. Starting with a simple piano arrangement and exploding into a bombastic rock piece, complete with a full marching band. It was certainly one that caught the admiration of Pierre Robert. When Pierre asked how exactly that piece came together, Gerard Way admitted it was the most difficult to craft. "That song evolved a million times...its last incarnation came about in a very magical way...It's 167 tracks".

Going to see a rock show is supposed to invoke all the senses. Physically seeing the musicians perform the tracks live and in living color, as opposed to a recorded piece, is nothing short of magic. When you have a concept record, that leads your live performance to invoke elements of theater, and Gerard Way really learned from the best: "I get up and I actually literally feel like Alice Cooper, you know? So it's awesome." In a remarkable sense of synchronicity, the opening act for MCR's Philly show will in fact be Ol' Black Eyes himself, Alice Cooper.

Pierre and Gerard also discuss the band being on the same label that was founded by Frank Sinatra, how the terrorist attack on 9/11 was the formation point for the band, and how they were able to get Liza Minnelli to perform on the record. Check out the full conversation below.