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My Chemical Romance Live: My experience at The Black Parade 2026 Tour

Ok, so it's been almost a week, I think I can finally sit down to write about this without crying, so let's talk about it, okay?

Currently listening to The Black Parade 2026 Tour Santiago Setlist.

Read below for annoyingly detailed concert going experience.

I don’t even know where to begin. I woke up a little after 7 am because I just couldn’t sleep anymore. I was so excited that I could barely hold it in by then. I took a long ass shower, put on my favorite black cargo pants and a random t-shirt (I refused to get ready that early, but I was like ‘perhaps just halfway there’), and I tried to have breakfast. Tried being the keyword here. I think I ate some bread and had a cup of chamomile tea, but I don’t remember much. To be honest, I was feeling so many things that it was very hard to focus on anything that was not the concert.

I texted my friends. They were having a similar experience. I went to this concert with my three best friends. We’ve been friends since 2008, and we became friends in part thanks to My Chemical Romance. We have been through so much together that this particular concert felt like the conclusion of something beautiful. We bought tickets together and we spent the last 6 months hyping each other up about it. Whenever one of us was having a bad day, we’d be like “but MCR concert coming up” and suddenly everything would feel better.

Lunch time came and went, and I was unable to eat anything. My fiancé left for work, so I went upstairs to get ready. I did my makeup in the most extravagant way of the emo kids back in the day. The eyeshadow was darker than the future, the eyeliner was perfect, the lip combo was popping. I changed into my favorite MCR t-shirt. It was 3 pm by then, so I tried my best to do something, anything, to take the edge off (it was over 33°C in Santiago at the time and I was NOT going to go queue at that time). I ended up reading a really good Hollanov fic. At 4 pm, I couldn’t hold the excitement anymore, so I got my things ready (ID, money, phone) and went out.

It was almost a 90 minute trip to the stadium from my house and I swear to God it was the shortest subway-bus ride I’ve ever experienced. It passed in a blur. It almost didn’t feel like summer was trying to melt my face off.

I got to the stadium and stood in the queue for the main access. My friends were arriving at the same time from another access point, so we agreed to meet inside the stadium so no one would miss their spot.

At the queue, we received a postcard from Draag:

Click here to see the picture of the postcard I took at the queue

Then I finally met my friends as soon as I got inside (we were on separate queues, but we ended up going in at the same time). We bought some water to stay hydrated and then wandered around a bit before settling in. We had General Admission standing tickets so I was ready to spend the whole waiting time just sitting on the floor. It turns out I was so full of pent-up energy that all I could do was stand up and move around. We talked for a while with the girls. We took some pictures. We had a bunch of moments where we were like “oh my god this is happening we’re here after 18 years we’re finally here oh my god what if they play thank you for the venom holy shit”. Then The Hives came in for their show.

It was fantastic. The Hives are just so full of energy, and their music is so good to get your blood pumping. I loved it. I danced and jumped and headbanged and I was having an incredible time. I was also so nervous about the upcoming show that my tummy hurt and my hands were shaking. Still, wonderful show, so when it was over, I did feel a bit like I was missing something. Except. This was it. The final minutes before MCR live.

When I tell you that I spent the next 30 minutes completely losing it, it’s not an exaggeration. The rules of Draag appeared on the screens. I was way too excited to find my Keposhka image to try to translate, so I just took a couple of picture (that suck ass because I was shaking already).

9 pm hits and the lights change. The band gets onto the stage. They get their medication from The Nurse. The Draag anthem starts. The public is holding its breath. The End starts. The public loses it immediately. I lost it immediately. My friends and I are all screaming and singing and jumping and dancing. The transition into Dead! is flawless. I am jumping like I don’t have a whole concert ahead completely lost in the music.

This is How I disappear takes it to a new level. We’re jumping from the very beginning. The chorus drops and the whole stadium is dancing and jumping and singing. I can feel my throat telling me to be careful if I don’t wanna lose my voice. I ignore all warnings and scream louder. These are the songs I sang by myself when I was 12 and losing my mind completely alone. I swear I was in two places at the same time. My room at 12 years old and the full stadium at 30. I was totally lost in the music, and it was glorious.

Then came the turn for one of my favorite songs, The Sharpest Lives. I was hugging one of my friends and jumping and singing and screaming that chorus like this was the fucking end of the world. For all I knew, it could have been. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this type of high.

By the time WTTBP came, the stage had changed a bit. I’m not sure what happened first because I was clearly barely processing everything that was happening, but when Gerard started singing, the stadium almost came down with the roar of the public singing along. You have no idea how it feels in your heart when the chorus hits and everyone sings “we’ll carry on” together. It’s so surreal that I don’t even have words to describe it. My heart was pumping so fast, and I was so emotional that tears were streaming down my face as I tried to absorb every detail of the performance, but I was also jumping with the music and having an absolute blast. I swear the tears were happy.

Things became a little more emotional then with I Don’t Love You. I think the whole stadium took a moment to turn on their flashlights for this song. The sun had just gone down completely so it was a beautiful image, and we were all definitely being shaken to our cores with the performance. I think I turned around to hug one of my friends then, but I honestly do not remember if it was here or after the song.

House of Wolves was a return to dancing and jumping and moving around. It was honestly so good because I felt like after IDLY I was a little tender still. But then Cancer came. Understandably, we lost it, okay?

There was a bit more performance on the stage here but like, don’t ask me for details because Mama started and I literally just let go? Like I just started singing and dancing and jumping at the chorus like I was an insane person. It was amazing. (I could have been a better son really hit hard.) We got the “fetch me a dagger” intermission here and well, I was too enthralled by Gerard Way to do anything else but look in awe at the stage. Not that I could see everything that was happening because there was this really tall dude right in front of me at this point, but the screens were helpful. The Nurse sang the ending of the song. Gerard looked like they had lost it with the rest of us really. It was so good, I don’t think I can adequately let you know how it felt to watch Gerard’s performance during this song.

Sleep felt a little like being suspended in time, waiting for something but not knowing what. It was very strange to go from the spell from Sleep to Teenagers. That was some insane whiplash. And the crowd! They did not let you forget they’re some of the best crowds in the world because holy shit, the way everything got crazy during Teenagers. We were all so keyed up and excited and singing like we were fucking teenagers in our rooms again. It was perfect. And Gerard knew this song was sending us into a frenzy because they really played it up.

Then we all knew we were nearing the end when Disenchanted came. Flashlights on again. Gerard sang like their soul was in the crowd and the crowd answered in the same fashion. I think this is where I started crying again. I’m sorry the chorus hit so hard that I forgot for a minute how to be anything but present in that moment.

And we got to the end of The Black Parade with Famous Last Words. Here’s where words fail me and everything I’ve written so far becomes almost meaningless because how can I explain what it felt like to be there with tens of thousands of people singing about how we’re going to keep on living? And I know that we were all thinking about it in that moment: we made it, we survived the worst of our fucking lives and we’re standing here with the band that helped us hold on for all these years. To say the stadium was filled to the brim with emotion is an understatement. I hugged one of my friends as we jumped to the chorus, singing our lungs out. I see you lying next to me, with words I thought I’d never speak, awake and unafraid, asleep or dead! Fuck man. Do you have any idea how that last chorus felt? I think this is exactly where I lost my voice that night.

The Black Parade is over. But Blood starts playing and Gerard is stabbing The Patient and there’s fake blood and guts everywhere and then there’s a loud bang and it’s over. At least, The Black Parade is over. They take a few minutes to regroup and I’m over there having a bit of a panic because now come the last few songs and the concert will be over and who knows when I will experience this again, right?

Well, considering what happened just a couple of minutes later, I don’t think I’ll ever experience anything like this again.

So, one of my favorite MCR songs ever is Thank You for The Venom, a song they haven’t played live in a while, so of course, earlier that day when I said “oh my god I hope they play thank you for the venom” I was actually dreaming a little bit. One of my best friends also loves this song. We were both really kinda wishing for that song but then.

Fucking.

They start playing Thank You for The Venom.

They fucking. They played the song.

When I tell you that the entire stadium knew this was a fucking treat, it’s because we knew. Circle pits started. I was on the edge of one of those pits jumping and singing and screaming like my life was on the line. To be honest I don’t fucking know if I can explain the absolute frenzy this song caused. Try to catch some videos from the show on youtube and perhaps you’ll get 10% of the experience I had when it came to this song. Definitely an experience that I’ll never be able to emulate. I think I saw God in that circle pit. It was sublime.

At this point of the show, I was floating in the concert high and details become a bit fuzzy. I’m Not Okay, Give ‘Em Hell kid, Summertime, My Way Home is Through you, and Planetary (Go!) passed in a bit of a blur. I must admit that by this point I was starting to flag, especially because some really tall dudes ended up in front of me again and I was feeling a bit faint. I didn’t want to actually faint, so I asked one of my friends if we could move a bit to the back for the last few songs. I was having trouble finding cold air (again, it was really hot on that evening in Santiago) and I was also a little pissed that after that circle pit a couple of really tall dudes ended up in front of me. So we moved back.

And The Foundations of Decay started.

Besties, when I tell you that this was unexpected and totally out of the realm of possibility and yet it was happening… unparalleled experience. I didn’t think I’d ever listen to this song live to be honest. I wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t ready. It was so good. I wish I could have seen the stage a little better at this point because I truly love this song and I wanted to see Gerard lose it while singing. I mean, I got to see it on the big screens but it’s not the saaaaame. So yeah, I got to see MCR performing The Foundations of Decay live. What did you get to see in January 2026 that was not in your 2026 bingo?

Then came the last 3 songs of the show: Na Na Na, Skylines and Turnstiles (hello??? We won!!!!) and Helena. It was one hell of a ride and by this point all I could do was hug my friends and jump and sing and go generally crazy. We all knew that Helena was going to be the last song and we all definitely sang it like we were about to get graded on it. There were multiple pits going on as we all enjoyed our last moments with MCR. I don’t think I’d ever seen a crowd as wild as the one on that fateful January 29th.

I kinda cried a little when the song was over and the stage went dark. I turned around to hug my friends one more time. We did it. We survived. We saw them live. We did it!!!

We walked out in a weirdly orderly fashion. The exits were not very well coordinated (we had no option but to walk in one direction even when we needed to go somewhere else), but we eventually dropped one of my friends close to where her dad would pick her up. The rest of us walked to our vans that were waiting for us to take us home. It took me like 40 minutes to get home, where my fiancé was waiting for me awake. I took a shower, and we ate papapletos and then I went on to sleep for at least 11 hours.

If you ask me for pictures or videos, well, I have a bunch of what my friends recorded and the pictures we took before the show. But to be perfectly honest, none of them encapsulate the feeling I had (the feeling I still have) after that concert.

All in all, it was an otherworldly experience. I would 100% see MCR live again. I really hope I get the chance.