battles in the dark
Last night I went to see Gerard Way at the Fillmore in San Francisco.
I got annoyed right at the start of his set, because when he came onstage and the crowd screamed, he started doing "more, more" gestures, and it felt manipulative and unearned to me. I will cheer when you've given me something to cheer about. I was also underwhelmed by his patter about how sad it is that people don't think they're beautiful, how can we make them believe they're beautiful? Answer: tell them they're beautiful! It's not even that I disagree with any of that, as such - it just felt very rehearsed. By contrast, there was a lot more sincerity and engaging humor in his admission that he was embarrassed to turn his back to the photographers because he'd split a seam on his pants early in the show, but that he would continue regardless because "I am a professional."
In the past I attached a lot of personal memories to certain My Chem songs, which made going to My Chem shows something of an emotional rollercoaster for me in a way that was only tangentially about the band themselves. I haven't done that with Gerard's new songs, so it was interesting to watch him emoting with all his flair from a bit more of a remove. I do really like about three-fourths of his album just as music, though, so I enjoyed the set a lot.
Finally, here are a few photos. They are very fuzzy, but since fuzz is a big part of Gerard's aesthetic for this album, I won't make any further apology for that. :D
I got annoyed right at the start of his set, because when he came onstage and the crowd screamed, he started doing "more, more" gestures, and it felt manipulative and unearned to me. I will cheer when you've given me something to cheer about. I was also underwhelmed by his patter about how sad it is that people don't think they're beautiful, how can we make them believe they're beautiful? Answer: tell them they're beautiful! It's not even that I disagree with any of that, as such - it just felt very rehearsed. By contrast, there was a lot more sincerity and engaging humor in his admission that he was embarrassed to turn his back to the photographers because he'd split a seam on his pants early in the show, but that he would continue regardless because "I am a professional."
In the past I attached a lot of personal memories to certain My Chem songs, which made going to My Chem shows something of an emotional rollercoaster for me in a way that was only tangentially about the band themselves. I haven't done that with Gerard's new songs, so it was interesting to watch him emoting with all his flair from a bit more of a remove. I do really like about three-fourths of his album just as music, though, so I enjoyed the set a lot.
Finally, here are a few photos. They are very fuzzy, but since fuzz is a big part of Gerard's aesthetic for this album, I won't make any further apology for that. :D
