#frerardology

[xexir]

*Frank hurrying towards G* "I love this song. We haven't played this yet, right?" *Frank calls them out* *G laughs* "What did I bring up? I know. He said I don't like–I said I don't like to talk about that shit, but I brought it up. (??)" *Frank feels smug* "When you're right you're right, Frank!"

[xexir]

Japan VMA's, 2007

[xexir]

do you really think frank was sober during pro rev? i thought they all relapsed

are you frerardology anon? well i'm gonna ramble anyways 🚬

so if i recall, mikey was the only one who really struggled with relapse during the black parade tour, but obviously we can't know for certain

frank, in his own words, has never been a big drinker. never been a typical user. his vices were overworking, pain medication, and people. i don't know if pain meds can make you hyperactive and horny (not my area but correct me if i'm wrong) but on the outside, he was full of energy and zest and a daring mischief that probably got him in a lot of trouble. so something was must have been making him particularly brazen.

some speculate/jest that maybe frank was on cocaine but it feels unlikely. we'll never know what the hell was going on during prorev, whether it was drugs or just pure adrenaline, but my theory, which is unpopular and controversial, is that frank was kind of...mad with love.

frank was newly married to the love of his life, and the honeymoon period didn't stop with the tour. the temporay loss of mikey probably also made gerard lean into frank more, and frank welcomed that with open arms, because he's addicted to certain people. the stage madness was a conduit for his horniness and honeymoon heart that was fit to burst!

with the sudden seriousness of g and linds, frank doubled down on his affection. maybe she spurred it on, like she was probably into it! lol i would if i was her. anyway. yeah. sex was in the air. you can tell there was a lot of sex on this tour. warped/2004 era was more rock and roll on paper, but in prorev, i think the height of marriages and relationships and the stage gay just wrapped up into a messy untethered knot of not knowing where the boundaries are drawn, especially as they were all in close proximity with each other all day long (save for a few hotel room splurges probably), leading to all this adrenaline-fuelled mating frenzy lol

some of the shows really just feel like foreplay for their respective partners and maybe each other. they really do

i don't think it was drinking and drugs but who knows. it truly was a frerard summer !!!

[xexir]

Do you think any of the band will come out of the closet in our lifetime? I'm losing hope

the use of 'in our lifetime' really implies a fun temporal/timespace aspect to this that kind of distracts from your original point. like maybe they'll come out posthumously or something

and to answer your question: yes, no, and they already did

[xexir]

frerardology (my new favorite word) anon, yes to everything you said. it is a miracle frank is still nice and prone to wear his heart on his sleeve. i think he got better at boundaries, at shielding himself a little bit and lowering his expectations when it comes to what he can receive from the current state of his rs with gerard (which i think has become nostalgically platonic, but the love will always be there, but the band couldn't exist without some compromise), and i think a lot of that came from finding another band where he can find his enthusiasm matched a bit more equally. thinking abt his voice message to anthony with like 8 i love you's at the end, thinking abt his comment of not wanting to feel like the annoying yappy dog in the band who's like "wanna listen to this riff?? wanna listen to this thing i wrote??" and yikes, oh frankie. not saying lsd > mcr (not for me anyway) but i think lsd gave frank an outlet. anyway. back to frerard.

what's really crazy to me is how much "proof" we have that feelings WERE being had. not that they were fucking, but that there was Something romantic, be it one sided or not. look at fucking ftwillz. i mean. come on. that alone is enough. frank saying "all i want is nothing" is about being sure you wanna be with someone but SHIT HAPPENS on the road? yeah huh i wonder who that shit happened with. and people will kill you if you say stomachaches is about gerard but fuck y'all it is LARGELY about the band and gerard. "i wasted time with a crooked spine" is the literal second line in the album. what else? the little kisses that were not for show or for political statements, like the one on the cheek when gerard was convulsing on the floor, the conan kiss after he cut to ads. those drive me nuts. and i'm not the kind of shipper that's like gerard's an evil mastermind bitch who broke frank's heart, cause if i were in gerard's shoes i wouldn't know how to match frank's intensity either. + all the other stuff. and in my 20s OF ALL THINGS!! i just find it easier to empathize with frank and see his point of view cause gerard is so enigmatic and layered, while frank is an open book. so yeah there's so much that can be analyzed when it comes to those two and i'll never tire of it

anon i'm gonna put this under the cut cos i knooow i'm bout to go crazy with it

it's glaringly obvious that stomachaches is about the band, the culmination of the breakup, and with his life being so intertwined with mcr and its sudden end. we joke about it being a divorce album but it kind of is. in interviews he emphasises that its all hes ever known, it's all he wants to do. we don't know if the others share the same exact sentiment, but stomachaches also reveals a bittersweet dynamic that's also mirrored in his personal relationships. it feels like when mcr ended, he struggled to seek out validation from his loved ones, especially since they knew the band was making him ill. when he gets pushback from family, he dives into music. when music kicks him out, he knows he can channel that effort into family. he can't live with one or the other. ^gerard was that bridge between both worlds, as his best fucking friend and his creative partner. losing gerard so abruptly was the catalyst to frank surfacing a lot of tough evaluations about life and love, which all wound up in stomachaches. so its not all about gerard directly but it's stupid to say that g wasn't involved in the process at all. not to delve too deep into it, but frank was falling in love with two people when he joined the band. and when mcr ended, and his marriage was strained due to constant touring and him missing his kids formative years, and now he's lost the other person he loved so deeply? yeah. i'd write a fuckin album about it too

also no i don't think g was callous, but i'm brazen enough to specluate gerard is autistic (sue me) and is a polarising avoidant. we don't have a decent ground truth for g's personal values and morals because they always fluctuate, due to demanding pressures to say the right thing, but i think g is more averse to pda- only when it suits them. he's a control freak. but gerard was also insecure and needed to be recieved well at all times. frank was a booster for this, but not a necessity. to frank, gerard was a necessity to bridge that gap between his need for to love and be loved and his need for music... i think. or idk maybe gerard just gives good head.

anyway consider how many times frank initiated vs. gerard. it's definitely outweighed in frank's favour, despite gerard being the careless and sexually ambiguous one. the gentle kisses fall under the category of love rather than stage antics for sure, but i've always felt that frank used mcr as an outlet to minimise any embarassment or shame with showing that affection. i think it was mack awsugar who said the stage was a conduit. i honestly don't think frank was doing it that much behind closed doors–despite now we see that frank is open with his friends (the i love you's to anthony and that whole group of people bringing down the walls of masculinity). in early days, i think frank would have used the stage, interviews, photoshoots to execute this behaviour. and alcohol too! in private, gerard was a lot more closed off to that thing. because he just wanted to read comics and write more music. i could be wrong though... they could have been spooning silly.

anyway, i think there's a lot to unpack here and we're climbing a huge tree with hundreds of different branches of possibility looped in the tight tendrils of proof and theory. so yeah is frerard real? i mean sorta. its something weird and wonderful and beyond what we can speculate. that's all we know.

[xexir]

I’m asking you about your theory regarding Frerard Hoboken prison moment. You can’t put that in the tags and expect me not to ask

LMAOOO i was kind of asking for it right.

there. were. NO. homophobes. at that show. for them to piss off. there was no incentive for them to their usual skit of 'we're trying to make a safe space for queer people by doing bizarre gay theatricals' because it was a fucking tiny close knit show! what people do they have to alienate there? this was mostly family, friends, hardcore fans ??

sure, Gerard does weird stuff in the heat of the moment. they both do! but it was POINTED. it was direct. and there were SO many signs that something was wrong in that show ("know that i'll (never marry)" gerard checking on Frank, "lie to me" etc) and G was messing with frank in a way that is hard to tell if it was mean cunt behaviour or if he was winding up to some sort of of backhanded apology. some people think it was an interesting version of 'sorry' lol.

I don't think Frank was 'nodding' per se, I think he went to headbang to try and recover his reputation LMAO but he did look at gerard for a long time.

i think G was referring to what they used to do, and not offering it. i think G was going full cunt and was gesturing to Frank that those days are gone now, and isn't it funny ha ha hee hee, and Frank didn't find it funny. even if they were open before, i doubt in their new marriage that G would continue to service Frank like he used to lmao

Gerard was just being a cunt and he knows that Frank was hurt abt it, cos he likes to tease. Gerard loves to fucking tease! i wish we could pretend that G was 'offering it' for later as an apology but i think he was referring to old times. anyway that's my theory. maybe we live in a world that Gerard was actually offering it and they sucked him silly style later in a new york hotel room balcony

[xexir]

There’s something so special to me about the recent sharpest lives frerard moment… like Frank is just sort of hiding at the side of the stage and Gerard basically beckons (or begs) him closer and then when Frank drops to his knees there’s a second before Gerard notices and then the SECOND they notice him they start banging their head and rocking back and forth with the energy of an excited dog when you pull out a treat bag. Idk I guess I’m just saying it felt lowkey primal the way Gerard reacted to seeing Frank be on his knees for him again and you could literally see the immediate power trip of it all lmao. Especially with how G starts rocking back and forth and singing directly down at Frank. Mentally transported back to their mid 2000s dynamic fr

i think we undermine stage adrenaline.i know that was their excuse way back when, but there really is something primal that takes over when you're up there. not that i've ever played to more than like, 30 people. but sometimes your inhibitons tend to shut off. it seemed for a while, that they were more careful about opening that particular vent, with a tighter grip on letting loose. they both let loose individually but sort of denied each other that old school chemistry you mentioned.

but it's definitely made a comeback, almost immediately and back to back shows as well. i know g's in character so we'll see less of it on b stage (for now..) but that character creates a safety net for both of them to play this dance. there was some hesitance from frank in wttbp last show, before he just stomped his foot literally and figuratively and leaned into the mic with g. really does feel like old times.

idk if power trip is the right sensation of the moment but it certainly looked that way

[xexir]

Do you think frank and gee talk between tour legs? I'm trying to settle a debt

i don't think you should use me for your gamble but also absolutely. frank sends rambling voice notes about the setlist and g responds 'right on' then weeks later frank accidentally forwards an image of his garden turtle to gerard and gerard says 'Ha.'

another 3 weeks pass and they eventually have a quick phone call that somehow lasts 94 minutes