kwanzaa

The MCR concert was amazing. They are performing the entire album of The Black Parade, but they've turned it into a weird theatre show with a different storyline than the usual album. The theme is kinda-sorta a fever dream of cold war Russia? With the band being state ordered performers to distract the masses? There's a mock election that the audience participates in, there's a "state official" who comes on stage to hand Gerard some sort of papers that Gerard rips up, there's fire, there's flashing lights, and it's all very weird and fantastic.

The band themselves were obviously having a fantastic time. Ray Toro (lead guitar) kept smiling all night, and Gerard was glorying in his punk rock theatre kid dream. And the sound for the show was some of the best mix I've heard at concerts. 

After they finished with The Black Parade, the encore was songs from their other albums, letting them flail around even more. The high points for me were "Heaven Help Us" (a b-side from The Black Parade), and my two favorite songs from their first album, "Our Lady of Sorrows", and "Vampires Will Never Hurt You". MY SONG THEY PLAYED MY FAVORITE SONG. I was hoping for "Thank You for the Venom", but the other three songs made up for it.

In other words, MY G-D the show was amazing, and I am ecstatic that I'm going to SF this weekend to see them a second time. 

(Oh, and Gerard is still cute. My precious rock star crush object!)

On Sunday night I ordered pork spring rolls from my favorite place with the idea of having one for dinner, and one for lunch the following day. As I was taking the second bite of my dinner, the Stroppy One turned to me and said that it had way more garlic than usual. He was right, because as he was saying that, I noticed my mouth and lips were burning and felt like welts were rising. I got a refund from DoorDash, and gave the Madwoman in the Attic the second spring roll. Sooooo apparently I'm even more sensitive to garlic than I thought, and I'm really mad about it.

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My Chemical Romance alert! There's a post on Tumblr that's about the runup to the show with details being constantly added. Apparently setup for the concert has already started, which is unusual. I wonder if that's why there's more time between concert dates; I'd assumed it was because the band finally learned they need to rest between shows, but maybe not. The band has been hinting on social media that these concerts are "so much more than just playing The Black Parade". Needless to say, the fandom has collectively been losing our minds. 

(THE CONCERT IS THIS FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY!!!)

Yes, looking forward to this concert is one of the few things helping me cling to sanity right now.