My Chemical Romance Brings Its Reunion Parade to an Enraptured Philly Arena: Concert Review

Michele Amabile Angermiller Not long into her headlining set on the first day of the fourth annual Sea Hear Now festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Stevie Nicks had a question for the thousands stretched across the beach. “Is this the world of Bruce Springsteen?” she asked to enthusiastic cheers. “OK, we’re driving through, and there’s a street sign and I asked that same question and nobody really answered, at least like you guys just did.” Springsteen is certainly a part of the tapestry of the town, and was well-represented in photographer/festival organizer Danny Clinch’s art tent. But the city has an ever-evolving musical scene, and the beachside setting was its own draw on a weekend of warm, beautiful days and picturesque nights, with an ocean breeze enveloping Nicks and her flowing scarves, creating an ambience — or as she described it, a “fairytale” — only Mother Nature can provide. A red crescent moon peeking through the overhead clouds added to the mystique on the final weekend of summer and beginning of the fall season, or as Nicks — in a nod to her fans donning witch hats and Stevie-attire on the sand — framed it: “it’s almost Halloween.”

A.D. Amorosi Just over 50 years ago, on the same day, June 16, 1972, two albums were released that changed the landscape of rock and its sartorial splendor: Roxy Music’s eponymously titled debut and David Bowie’s “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.” While each album was conveniently tagged as part of the start of glam-rock and its slow movement from Britain to the U.S., “Roxy Music” was something that “Ziggy Stardust” was not, despite the latter’s grandeur: downright weird.  Dressed in a mix of ’50s greaser leather, silver spacesuits and more feathers than a revival of “La Cage aux Folles,” warbling crooner Bryan Ferry, saxophonist/oboist Andy Mackay, psychedelic guitarist Phil Manzanera, tom-tom heavy drummer Paul Thompson and slippery synthesizer player Brian Eno made a driving, sinister, suave brand of noisy avant-rock and Dadaist lyric-filled music like no other.

William Earl Right before the pandemic hit, Red Hot Chili Peppers fans were thrilled the learn guitarist John Frusciante had once again joined the band. He had left in 2009 to focus on solo work, and frequent collaborator Josh Klinghoffer took up the axe in the band for their next two albums, 2011’s “I’m With You” and 2016’s “The Getaway,” and the subsequent tours. While the band continued to deliver high-energy shows and released many solid tracks, things never meshed as during the Frusciante days. Yet Frusciante’s return to the fold has ushered in prolific new era for the band, as 2022 brought two lengthy new albums — “Unlimited Love” in April and “Return of the Dream Canteen” in October — and a global stadium tour. As rejuvenated as they’ve been in the studio, the sparks flying in this classic lineup is the best special effect in their live shows. The stripped down production of the band’s Sept. 13 SiriusXM Small Stage Series show at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem made it clear to the 1,500 frenzied fans that, even as the band members enter their sixties, they’ve never seemed closer or played tighter.

Yikes! Addison Rae is reacting to how her parents, Sheri Easterling and Monty Lopez, have been — very publicly — handling their recent split.

Thania Garcia La Macarena in Colombia has a long history of hosting boisterous energy. The stadium has served as a venue for both concerts and bullfights since 1945, but on the weekend of Sept. 9, the ring was populated by Medellín native Salomón Villada Hoyos, otherwise known as Feid.  The reggaeton singer-songwriter sold out three consecutive nights at the stadium – a feat that not even two other hometown heroes, J. Balvin and Karol G., can claim (yet). Feid also famously beat out the late “Ídolo de México” Vicente Fernández, who performed there for the last time in Colombia in 2012.  Tickets for all three nights of Feid’s “Nitro Jam” shows sold out in just two days, while tickets for opening night sold out in two hours, according to El Colombiano.  

Drew Barrymore and Justin Long had a tearful reunion! On Monday's, Long was the first guest to kick off the show's third season.The friendly exes, who dated on and off from 2007 to 2010 and starred in the 2010 movie, joked about being reunited on television. After Barrymore and Long both admitted that there were “a lot of laughs” during their time together, the 47-year-old host couldn’t help but get emotional when talking about their past romance. Long also got sentimental as he applauded himself and Barrymore for having a healthy breakup.“I love that we maintained our love, because, I know from my end, it will never go anywhere.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Freddie Freeman was hitting homers down in San Diego, so it was up to visiting superstar Lady Gaga to keep the on-base percentage exceptionally high Saturday night at Dodger Stadium, site of one of the last stops on her “Chromatica Ball” outing. Surprises were few, this many weeks into a mega-tour whose production values were already known among the legions of Little Monsters who’d long since put curious paws to Googling Gaga’s setlists and setpieces. Anyway, knowing what’s coming doesn’t quash the overpowering effects of a savvy performer who’s determined to look as cold as inhumanly possible while also, conversely, sounding like the warmest superstar you’ve ever encountered. Does that count, in ballplaying terms, as a slider?

Toronto International Film Festival, has been shrouded in secrecy for months. About all we knew going in was that the movie is based on the famed director’s own life, and stars Williams, Paul Dano and Seth Rogen. Running time: 151 minutes.

There is definitely a trend of late for film directors to take a look in thinly disguised cinematic memoirs of their early influences that shaped the artist and person they have become. Kenneth Branagh with Belfast and Paolo Sorrentino with The Hand Of God did it last year. Of course there is Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, others over the years. Sam Mendes, while not drawing a portrait of his younger self revisits the movie palaces of his youth in another 2022 offering, Empire Of Light, which premiered last weekend at Telluride and will also hit the Toronto International Film Festival. TIFF is also where the man I recently described as the GOAT, Steven Spielberg, has chosen to debut his own story where the names have been changed but the story is  clearly his. The Fabelmans basically chronicling his early Jewish family life and infatuation with making movies  had its World Premiere Saturday night, the first of Spielberg’s directed movies ever to premiere at a film festival. This one seems entirely appropriate, and it has been gestating in the director’s head ever since he and his co-writer Tony Kushner started kicking it around during the making of Lincoln over a decade ago. He says he finally made it primarily as a way to bring his late parents Leah and Arnold (to whom the film is dedicated) somehow back to his life. Movies can do that, and no one knows it better than Steven Spielberg.

Every director, it seems, has a deeply personal coming-of-age story to tell, from Francois Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows” to Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari” to Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma.” And lately every Toronto International Film Festival has made one of those films a centerpiece of its lineup. Last year, it was Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast,” which won TIFF’s audience award and went on to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture; this year, it’s Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans,” which had its world premiere on Saturday night in the Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre.Based on Spielberg’s childhood in New Jersey (briefly), Phoenix (longer) and Northern California (for a stormy stretch in high school), “The Fabelmans” is a sweet look back at a boy who was transfixed by the movies from the moment he saw “The Greatest Show on Earth” in 1952, and who started his own adventures in filmmaking with the help of his dad’s camera and a Lionel train set in the basement.

Netflix has dropped a trailer for its upcoming limited series “The Watcher”, featuring Jennifer Coolidge as a realtor anxious to unload a house.

Celia Cruz’s musical and historical legacy continues to impact the Hispanic and Latino community. Although Cruz was born in Cuba, Colombia adopted the salsa singer as a native; therefore, to honor her contributions, the Salsa Museum of Cali will showcase a dress donated to the institution by her representative, Omer Pardillo.On September 9 at 6:00 p.m., the director of the Salsa Museum, Carlos Molina Jr., will officially present one of Celia’s iconic outfits as a cultural exchange.

Netflix has unveiled an unconventional teaser for Ryan Murphy’s upcoming limited series The Watcher. It’s also the streamer’s first official confirmation of the series.

Andrew Barker Senior Features Writer The phrase “this one’s for the fans” is usually delivered from a defensive posture. But in the case of “Clerks III,” it’s practically a statement of purpose. Now nearly three decades removed from the microbudget indie that made him one of the most unlikely major auteurs of the 1990s, writer-director-podcaster Kevin Smith has once again returned to the New Jersey Quick Stop where he first staked his claim as a filmmaker, bringing his now-fiftysomething slacker heroes back to confront the listlessness of middle age. But the real focus of “Clerks III” is not really Randal and Dante at all, but rather the film “Clerks” itself, and Smith aims this third installment straight at his diminished but still rabid fanbase, for whom the film remains a touchstone.   

A.D. Amorosi Jay-Z waxed outraged, last Thursday on social media, at having been called a ”capitalist” for his diverse business ventures and their wild fiduciary successes  — this after having once famously said, “I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man.” But watching the fruit of Hova’s labors where his Made in America music festival was concerned, if making money and bringing together crowds for prime hip-hop and chart-topping Latin artistry is wrong, who needs to be right?

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Nick Lowe and Shakespeare were wrong, about having to be cruel to be kind. A tour stop Tuesday in Anaheim that had Lowe supporting headliner Elvis Costello as an opening act before eventually joining him for three climactic duets was kindly and 100% cruelty-free, reuniting the two former studio workmates in a fashion that made it seem as if no 40-year intervals had passed at all, except for the incidental actually-getting-better factors. (You’re not getting older, you’re getting Basher, etc.) Not that the show at the City National Grove of Anaheim — one of several SoCal appearances this week by Costello, with and without Lowe in tow — needed its crowning dream-teaminess to come up aces. Costello’s current sets with the Imposters represent the best example rock ‘n’ roll has at the moment of a vast catalog of classic material played with improvisational vigor by one of the great bands the medium has known, augmented by fresh material that can stand proudly alongside the vintage. “Indoor Fireworks” was one of the quieter songs performed Tuesday, but it’s an apt description of what’s occurring on this can’t-miss outing (with apologies to the shed stops where the group pyro happens outdoors).

My Chemical Romance’s ‘The Mad Gear And Missile Kid’ EP has finally been made available on streaming, 12 years after it was first released.The three-track record was originally released in 2010 as the soundtrack for the fictional Killjoys who inhabit the cartoonish, post-apocalyptic world of My Chemical Romance’s ‘Danger Days’.Now ‘F.T.W.W.W.’, ‘Mastas Of Ravenkroft’ and ‘Black Dragon Fighting Society’ are available to listen on streaming services.Announcing the news, My Chemical Romance’s Frank Iero said: “Originally released back in 2010 as part of the ‘Danger Days’ universe, ‘The Mad Gear And Missile Kid’ EP is now available to stream on Spotify. You and your friends can now conveniently add the Killjoys’ favourite band to all of your playlists and such.”A post shared by frnkiero (@frankieromustdie)‘Mastas Of Ravencroft’ was given its live debut earlier this year, as My Chemical Romance kicked off their reunion tour at the Eden Project in Cornwall and has been making regular appearances ever since.Earlier this month, My Chemical Romance kicked off the North American leg of their reunion tour by playing two rarities for the first time in over 15 years.

Lily Moayeri The Brookside Golf Club at the Rose Bowl has seen a lot of foot traffic over the last few months, much of it unrelated to the sport. The expansive course has become a convenient setting for several music festivals and cultural events, including This Ain’t No Picnic, which touched down in Pasadena this past weekend. The all-ages, family-friendly, two-day festival — named after the Minutemen song — boasted a bill that read like an NPR playlist. A clear replacement for Los Angeles’ defunct, and sorely missed FYF Fest, This Ain’t No Picnic had a musical something for everyone — pop, hip-hop, dance, punk and rock were well-represented genres — and featured the sort of left-of-center artists who’ve become darlings of the indie scene, like Phoebe Bridgers, Wet Leg, Beach House, Courtney Barnett (pictured above), and of the last 20 years, as represented by Le Tigre, Caroline Polachek, and headliners the Strokes and LCD Soundsystem.

My Chemical Romance played their 2013 track ‘Burn Bright’ for the first time ever at their North Carolina gig last night (August 26) – see footage of the performance below.The returning group kicked off their reunion tour in the UK and Ireland earlier this summer, with the tour then moving onto Europe, before hitting the States and then going on to visit New Zealand and Australia in 2023.At their gig at the PNC Arena in Raleigh last night, the band debuted the song which appeared on their 2013 compilation album ‘Conventional Weapons’ alongside hits from across their career.Across their reunion dates so far, the band have played a mix of hits, fan favourites and deep cuts, also performing two other songs for the first time ever. Earlier this week (August 23), the band played Nashville, Tenessee, and their show in the city saw Gerard Way perform while wearing a cheerleader’s outfit.Watch them perform ‘Burn Bright’ for the first time ever in Raleigh below.My Chemical Romance kicked off their run of live dates in mid-May at the Eden Project in Cornwall, marking their first UK show in 11 years.In a five-star review, NME said: “They’re now safely one of the biggest rock groups to emerge in the last 20 years but if the band are worried about their new found status, they don’t show it.

L.S. Dunes – word of whom first emerged when they appeared on the Riot Fest poster back in May – have revealed themselves to be a supergroup comprised of members from some of the most iconic emo and post-hardcore outfits.The five-piece band is fronted by Circa Survive vocalist Anthony Green, who’s flanked on guitar by Frank Iero (of My Chemical Romance) and Travis Stever (of Coheed And Cambria).