Written by Sophia Bronwyn

My Chemical Romance was always one of those bands I wondered if I would ever actually get to see live. The original Black Parade Tour happened in 2008. Five years later, the band announced their breakup in March 2013, seemingly closing the book on My Chemical Romance entirely. Then, in 2019, they returned. Now, all these years later, Minneapolis found itself standing in a completely packed Target Field for Long Live the Black Parade, a tour that feels like the resurrection of something that was never supposed to return. And that's what made the whole experience so strange: this wasn't simply a band revisiting an iconic album. The Black Parade itself was back.

From the moment the lights went down, it was almost impossible not to feel like a teenager again. I was giddy with excitement, covered in goosebumps as I watched the stage come to life, still trying to process that I was actually there, seeing My Chemical Romance perform The Black Parade live. Someone could have pinched me, and I still would have thought I was dreaming.

There is something powerful about hearing songs you haven't heard live in years, songs that once soundtracked bedrooms, bus rides, heartbreaks, friendships, and entire chapters of your life, and suddenly feeling like you're hearing them for the first time all over again. For a few hours, it was easy to feel like that kid again, standing in front of the mirror with the lyrics memorized and convinced these songs understood you better than anyone else could. And judging by the sea of people packed into Target Field, that feeling was shared by thousands.

While the original Black Parade was an album and tour, Long Live the Black Parade brings back the fictional Black Parade itself. According to the tour's strange and elaborate lore, the band "died" and disappeared in 2008, only to be brought back years later by the Grand Immortal Dictator of the fictional country of Draag. After supposedly spending years in the mysterious M.O.A.T. prison being reconditioned, the Black Parade is now being paraded around the world and forced to perform.

The story is bizarre, funny, and completely over-the-top, which somehow makes it even more entertaining to watch unfold throughout the night. The dictator slowly became more and more drunk on Coors before eventually being replaced with a mannequin, while the Clerk, the long-haired manager-like character who has developed quite the contentious relationship with Gerard Way, continued causing chaos onstage.

One of the best moments came during "Blood." Before meeting their apparent demise, the band lined up for a little kickline dance, an almost ridiculously cheerful moment considering what was about to happen. Then the Clerk, dressed as a clown, proceeded to cut their throats, leaving the band "dead" onstage as he danced around them. It's the kind of thing that sounds absolutely unhinged when described out of context, but somehow makes perfect sense at a My Chemical Romance show.

That attention to the story is part of what made the night so captivating. It made the show feel like more than a setlist. There was always another piece of the story happening around the music, giving the audience something to watch and follow even between songs.

Of course, at the center of it all was the music.

Hearing these songs performed in a stadium-sized setting was surreal. Songs that once felt intensely personal suddenly belonged to an entire crowd, thousands of voices coming together to scream every word. There was something almost overwhelming about realizing just how many people had carried this music with them for nearly two decades.

Gerard Way, meanwhile, was exactly the frontman you would hope to see for a show like this. He owned the stage and made it easy to remember why My Chemical Romance became so important to an entire generation. The band didn't simply recreate the past; they made it feel alive again.

Seeing The Black Parade come to life on that stage was something I genuinely never thought I would experience. Standing in a completely packed Target Field and watching this world unfold around me was a moment I'll probably never forget. These songs had been such a huge part of my teenage years, and suddenly I was hearing them live, surrounded by thousands of people who had grown up with them too. It was nostalgic without feeling stuck in the past. If anything, it showed just how much these songs have stayed with people all these years later.

This wasn't a concert I ever expected to see. For years, it was the kind of thing I could only imagine, and now it is a memory I actually get to keep.

From beginning to end, the night was incredible. The production, the story, the spectacle, and, most importantly, the music all came together to make something that felt nostalgic without simply trying to recreate the past. Sometimes all it takes is the opening note of a song to make the years disappear.

My Chemical Romance didn't just bring The Black Parade to Minneapolis.

They reminded thousands of people that the music we grew up with never really left us.

And if there was ever any doubt whether it really was just a phase, Target Field provided the answer: it never was.