The 52nd regiment of the Black Parade, also known under the name My Chemical Romance, took the 20th anniversary of their record The Black Parade to the United Kingdom. The run through the British countries ended in three sold out shows at Wembley Stadium in London, on July 8, 10 and 11.
The legendary emo band treats the tour not just as a regular concert experience, but offers a more theatrical approach, building an entire world around the music so many fans found a home in. Every night in London stars with a different support act, with Wednesday having Skunk Anansie and Friday with Joan Jett & The Blackhearts. Saturday’s show would see Sunny Day Real Estate as the supporting band, but late after Friday’s show, they added on Anthony Green last minute as well, due to his tour with Alkaline Trio falling through.
The festivities surrounding the shows didn’t just start inside the stadium though, as thousands of fans came to the stadium dressed in black and red, each outfit more elaborate and creative than the other. The sense of community surrounding the New Jersey band is strong, and the record they’re playing tonight plays a huge part in that. The original storyline of The Black Parade gave all the fans here through this short residency a sense of belonging, when they didn’t feel like they fit in within their usual environment. The band uses this tour to rework the story a little, now being commentary on fascists regimes more, but the message remains the same; you need to persist, even if everything around you seems to work against you.
The band starts their show with a full play-through of the record from start to finish, incorporating a storyline about a fascist/authoritarian government that controls the ‘52nd regiment of the Black Parade.’ Since the tour started last July 11 (during Saturday’s show, Gerard Way is handed a card and states “it’s my birthday” as a nod to the tour going for a year now), the storyline has progressed over time. Every next show pushes the story forward a little, adding new bits of lore to the story with every performance they do, with added characters like Marianne, Sylvia and The Clerk (who ultimately transitions into a pierrot clown for “Blood”).
Since they play the record in order, we already get treated with “Welcome to the Black Parade” very early on in the show, and the crowd response never really dies down after this. Some of the songs got reworked a little, to fit the theatrical narrative, like adding strings sections or the “Dagger” bridge during “Mama.” There’s also some interactive elements to the show, as everyone is handed a ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ sign beforehand, to use before they get to “I Don’t Love You,” offering us a sham vote leading to four men’s executions on the B-stage.
The theatrics continue throughout the first half of the set, with burning men, pyrotechnics, overhead fireworks, confetti and ultimately, the burning down of the entire world on stage. While it ends in a ‘tragic affair’ for our main characters, it’s message of rebellion and resistance against forces beyond your control is abundantly clear.
On Friday the 10th, My Chemical Romance also released their reworked Danger Days record, which the brothers Gerard and Mikey Way celebrated with a DJ set on Thursday night. During one of the bits of the show, has Gerard read a newspaper about the Killjoys. This raises suspicions amongst fans that a Danger Days tour might be in our future as well. This also brings us to the second half of the set, with the band in slightly more ‘regular’ clothes on the B-stage in the middle of the stadium.
Every night, the second half of the setlist is wildly different, with guitarist Frank Iero mostly picking the songs to play each night, giving the fans certain deep cuts and rarely-played songs along the way. Friday’s ‘surprise songs’ featured the live debut of “Zero Percent” and “Demolition Lovers,” and Saturday had “Party Poison” and “Desert Song.” Obviously, the popular songs “I’m Not Okay” and “Helena” have to be played at every show, but there’s so much room for the band to play around with the order and theme. Friday’s set had a lot of Danger Days to it, while Saturday’s was very vampire-heavy.
The Wembley residency ends with a heartfelt speech from singer Gerard Way, saying how much they love playing together again and being in awe of the stadium, adding they never imagined playing on such stages when they were just starting out, before ending the set with “The Kids of Yesterday,” with Wembley Stadium giving us a massive fireworks show as a celebration of it in the process. This song clearly doesn’t just resonate heavily for the band playing it, but for the crowd as well, as so many of us in the stadium found this band and its music when we needed it the most. We all found a sense of belonging in this bands music, something we wanted to be a part of forever. The kids of yesterday might have grown up, but never grew out of their love for My Chemical Romance.
The tour continues with two more shows in Europe (Italy and Spain), before returning for the ‘third act’ in the United States from August until October, and a last leg in Southeast Asia for the end of the legendary tour. Long live the Black Parade!
GALLERY: My Chemical Romance at Wembley Stadium in London, England (July 10, 2026)
