My Chemical Romance Brings The Black Parade To The Mile High City
by Caitlin Dennis | August 27th, 2026
Photo by Caitlin Dennis Via Point & Shoot
Tens of thousands of fans flooded Coors Field on Thursday to welcome The Black Parade to Denver. My Chemical Romance is currently on their second US leg of the Long Live The Black Parade Tour, in honor of the 20 year anniversary of their studio album of the same name.
Photo by Caitlin Dennis Via Point & Shoot
If you follow alternative music at all, you of course know MCR. If you are a fan, you know that this tour has been incredibly unique. The whole tour centers around the ‘lore’ behind the album. The band has created an entire world that the album takes place in, called Draag. If you dont know much about it, to explain everything would take days. To make a long story short, ‘The Black Parade’ is a group of brainwashed soldiers sent out to spread the propaganda of the fascist dictatorship government. There is a whole lot more to it than that, and I am not the most versed in the entirety of the story line, but one truly doesn't even need the backstory to enjoy their show.
The Breeders warmed up the crowd for the night. The Breeders are an alternative rock band from the 90s, and boy did they still bring energy to the stage. Their sound is more mellow than MCR, but still lively. After their short lived initial run back in the 90s, it looked like the band was happy to be back on the stage!
Photo by Caitlin Dennis Via Point & Shoot
After The Breeders exited the stage, the suspense began. The ‘rules’ or laws of Draag cycled on the big screens on the sides of the stage, including things like: Those born in August are subject to additional search, and medications are only to be given at designated times. Fans started buzzing and before we all knew it, the lights went out. Now, before I go on, I had the privilege to see MCR on the first leg of this tour, and the show I saw last year was completely different. Out of curiosity, I did some digging after the show, and it looks like there are actually two versions of the show. One where the Black Parade is out and about in Draag singing to the citizens of the country, and a second version, where they are in what fans are calling the Moat, a prison where the leaders of Draag reprimand and retrain The Black Parade when they misbehave. Denver’s show appeared to take place in The Moat, after the characters in this story had previously ‘misbehaved’ at an earlier show on the tour where they misbehaved while out in Draag.
There is a whole theatrical production as the band plays ‘The Black Parade’ front to back. The show that takes place in the Moat, walks through the Black Parade soldiers being watched closely to make sure their show is ready to go back out on the road. It appears that Gerard Way’s character had become lucid and was misbehaving which landed them in the Moat in the first place. There is so much more to be explained, but Im not sure I even understand it all, it is such an intricate story line, so lets move on to the music! As a long time fan of this band, the nostalgia of this performance was overwhelming. Gerard Way is quite the performer, and his vocals have stayed beautifully in tact. The man was running around that stage and putting on quite the show. He is quite the screamer as well, really bringing the rock music alive. The whole stadium was singing along the whole show, and the energy was buzzing through the air the whole night.
After the album was played, they walked to a B Stage where they sang some of their other hits, and we got to see MCR as themselves instead of their Black Parade characters. Seeing the band perform under the lunar eclipse was truly an amazing experience. The moon was a vibrant orangey red and who knows, maybe it brought out the energy in the crowd of fans. They put on an insane show, and were full of energy until the very last moment on stage. I will definitely be looking out for how the tour ends, as Im sure the story line they are portraying in these shows is going to come to a fiery conclusion!