i've been watching a bunch of old interviews lately and gerard over and over again has said
1) the end of the black parade tour narratively always made the most sense as an end to the band itself
2) they over-toured and over-indulged in the theatrics and characterization of the black parade in a way that became borderline dissociative for them (you'll hear them talk a lot about sort of losing themself in all of that, especially in the darkness of the whole concept) and
3) that conventional weapons was a rebellion against themselves in that regard, resisting the urge to go high-concept and instead just make a straight ahead rock album; in turn, danger days was another rebellion against that impulse because it bored them to death. danger days became a middle ground between their theatrical, character-driven impulses & desire to just fucking make and play great live music; it's obviously got a concept and they came up with the killjoys, but didn't actually represent them on stage
and i just think this is all so interesting in light of the LLTBP tour and its A/B stage format. it feels like they've found the perfect solution for making my chem sustainable and doing everything they want with this. at both boston and tampa gerard essentially said "i was enjoying the A stage but actively looking forward to B tonight". it all amounts to They're too weird to just do a normal rock concert, and too rock and roll to JUST do their conceptual brutalist stage play. also as @ambulancelivedebut just posted - it's all about the balance, not just of their artistic instincts, but of fame itself- "A is about the worst parts of being famous and B is the best parts".
i think the plot of A is still loosey-goosey-er than theorists would like to think- gerard is a lot better at going "wouldn't it be cool if x" than he is at explaining what that means and why it's happening lol - but i think the most clear statement of the entire show is the violence of them being wrestled into the parade marcher uniform. it's been almost 20 years since that tour and still, that's how the band is crystalized in the minds of like a million people. by putting the jacket back on only to be repeatedly stabbed to death and eventually blowing themself up in it, then going right on to the B stage - they're forcibly dragging this past idea of my chemical romance into the present. they're not some dead thing. they're the fucking here and now baby. and no way do i think they can walk away from it again now that they've found this balance
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