The Black Parade

As promised, the post-mortem of the concert:

I awoke at about 10 in the morning and buzzed Calvin to see if he was awake. A missed call and no reply to my sms were indication that he hadn't woken up. And just as the thought of not going to the concert began to creep up in my head, my phone sounded. 1 message received. A good sign, perhaps. Unfortunately the message was from Zong (Harvey) saying that he will not be joining us. Ah well...he was never a fan of MCR so there was no real lost for him.

Anyway, it was about 11am before Calvin finally messaged announcing his "wake-up". As we had not bought our tickets yet, I suggested we head down to Stadium Merdeka by 1pm; and so we did. We arrived at the stadium clad in black and made our way to the ticket booth. We both stood there staring at the ticket chart until we were both covered in a thick layer of dust, and yet, we still could not make up our minds. Or rather, I couldn't make up my mind. So I decided to check out the stadium by peering through the gates and was surprised to see that the stadium actually looked quite small. With that in mind, we settled for the RM103 tickets (Green Zone). But as a Celcom user (my parents both are), I got 30% off 2 tickets. So we only needed to pay RM73. Sweet, eh?

Having spent quite an amount of energy buying the tickets, we had almost forgotten about our stomachs that had been growling for a long period.

So we WALKED down to Petaling Street which was a 10-MINUTE-WALK away. Swt. Tiring, I swear! Bleh. I'm just not a fan of walking. We grabbed our lunch at McDonald's. I was constantly checking on the time as I wanted to hurry back to start lining up. With my impatience getting on Calvin's nerves, we finally headed back to the stadium. It was already 4pm then. I wanted to make sure I left with a souvenir, so I bought a T-shirt for RM30. From the price I am sure you can tell that I did not purchase the original merchandise. It was just too unreasonable to spend RM80 on a tee. We headed back to the car one last time to dump all unnecessary things in the car and got ready to queue up by 4:30pm. Calvin suddenly had an urge to use the men's, so off he went scouting for a toilet. He came back 10 minutes later, still with a full bladder as he could not locate a toilet anywhere, but instead, he bumped into his friends who had bought tickets of the same zone as us, so they joined us in line. There weren't many people yet but the crowd started to pour in by 5pm. A concern was also hovering above us as black clouds started to paint the sky. Nonetheless, we patiently stood in line and waited for the gates to open up at 6:30pm. However, as expected, it started to drizzle but it did little to dampen our spirits. I, for one, was pumped! Soon enough, my watch hands read 6:30pm and the gates were open! The moment I stepped foot into the stadium, I rushed to the best seats and beat everyone to it. I was in all my glory and started to feel that the RM73 I had paid was an insignificant amount for an experience I know will become a memory I will cherish for a long time to come.

One Buck Short kicked off the opening acts which was then followed by Pop Shuvit. Nyeh. Nothing to shout about. Sorry la, but I really don't know how to appreciate our local music. How can bands like One Buck Short ever compare to MCR??!!

It was 7pm already and the stadium had yet to fill up. I was starting to worry that the response had not been good, but I was thankfully proved wrong. Anyway, Pop Shuvit wrapped up by 7:30pm; and then, the waiting game began.

As I had successfully snuck my camera in, we cam whored to kill time.

45 minutes later, my watch showed 8:15pm, but still no sign of MCR! The crowd were becoming restless and soon chants of 'M-C-R' began to echo throughout the stadium. Fans were getting impatient with the long wait and turned rowdy, but still MCR showed no signs of appearing anytime soon. It wasn't until another 15 minutes later that the backdrop started to unveil.

With a loud bang and flash of bright lights, MCR burst onto stage! They wasted no time and dived straight into their opening number 'This Is How I Disappear'. The songs that followed soon after:

• Dead!
• I'm Not Okay (I Promise)

• Give 'Em Hell Kid
• The Sharpest Lives
• Mama
• Cemetery Drive
• Welcome to the Black Parade

• I Don't Love You

Playing 'I Don't Love You' immediately after 'Welcome To The Black Parade' was effing AWESOME!

• House of Wolves
• You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison
• Helena
• Teenagers
• Sleep
• Cancer

• Desert Song
• Famous Last Words

That's 17 songs they played in total! It was simply AMAZING! On top of that, Ray Toro had a guitar solo which was effing WICKED!

Ray Toro's Guitar Solo Part 1:


Ray Toro's Guitar Solo Part 2:


All in all, the performance and singing were abso-effing-lutely flawless! And Gerard was oh-so-effing-SEXY!

Mikey & Gerard Way
(Picture courtesy of The Star newspaper)

After the concert, Calvin, Joanne, Pacita and I went to Damai in Ampang to chill out before retiring for the night.

9 December 2007 was definitely, without a doubt, the most exciting, most splendid night I had all year.

I *heart* MCR!!!