01/2004 - NME
“EXTREMORRISSEY!
Venue: Night & Day
Date: Tuesday January 13
Time on stage: 10pm
The backpacked and bespectacled gather - appropriately - in Manchester for extreamo Morrissey and his band
Usually Sadchester’s none-more-indie hangout and home to acoustic nights and members of Elbow, tonight the NIght and Day has been descended on by hordes of fiercely serious backpacked and bespectacled emo souls. Uncharacteristically for this venue, the atmosphere swiftly reaches fever pitch when a white projector screen (usually employed playing old art-house films) rises to reveal My Chemical Romance’s long-haired pretty-boy singer Gerard Way - clad in black gloves and jacket - in a typical mentalist pose.
Instantly unleashing a cocophany of ear-shredding screams on opener “Honey, This MIrror Ain’t Big Enough For The Two Of Us”, It’s clear that he didn’t gatecrash last year’s NME Cool LIst for nothing. Charging round the stage like a Ritalin-deficient toddler, Gerard permanently apperas to be on the verge of a nasty bout of projectile vomiting, pulling a range of comically camp facial expressions. Visually, any murmured comparisons with Morrissey seem more than little misguided. However, the emotional vulnerability laced in his lyrics - for example the way “Headfirst For Halos’ takes a melodramatic introspection of The Smith’s classic ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’ and mainlines it with a rabid punker fury - leaves him at least sounding like a extreamo embodiment of the Bard of Manic Misery. On other highlights such as ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’ and ‘Drowning Lessons’ - taken from debut album over here “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love’ - guitarist Ray Toro and Frank Iero more than match his feral vocal delivery, conjuring wave after thunderous wave of brutal guitar noise. While it’d be harsh to call My Chemical Romance The Gerard Show, tonight all he lacks is a cape and mask to stop him from transforming into a full-blown extreamo superhero. If the genre is to avoid the same swift fate as its spiritual cousin nu-metal, it needs more characters like this fighting for the cause. Tonight My Chemical Romance's star quality leaves the rest of the chasing pack choking on their dust. Rick Martin
Gig Report:
High Point - The beginning where Gerard appears from behind a screen, lapping up the adoration of emo geeks.
Best Song - ‘Headfirst For Halos’
In A Word - Gerard
Performance - From King: Bad Loser to Fordham: People’s Hero? Result is People’s Hero.“