i was dead tired yesterday. had 4 hours sleep. stressed all day. then had to drive 72 km down south to nottingham.

i had three extra tix. sold two to a member of the lab staff at work. sold the third to some scummy kid who had the cheek to ask wong if we’d part the ticket for a mere tenner. that’s fresh. the queue was pretty long. we wondered if all of us would fit inside the venue. i’ve not been to a rock city gig for yonks. four, to be exact, when i saw hoobastank. i had to surrender my finepix at the door. so, no pics in this review then.

the opening act was a london-based hardcore act reminiscent of atreyu called cry for silence. they were heavy as fcuk. the guitarist was playing a bleedin’ 8-stringer! a band like this opening for the likes of MCR? must be desperate! hehe.

i was pretty dazed throughout, despite the PA being the loudest that i’ve heard in a while. i stood at my regular spot, which is by the FOH console. best for both the unobstructed view and near-perfect sound mix. wong and kazman went down to the floor. me? i’m too old for this moshing shit. the heaving crowd was, as expected, the usual “emo”/goth (quotes because i think real emo has a different image, if you wanna call it an image) under-14s. the types that would scream their head off cheering when the roadie plays a single chord during the soundcheck. go figure.

MCR got onstage at half nine prompt with the end followed by dead, the opener from their sophomore effort, the black parade. i remembered watching gerard way being interviewed by zane lowe, discussing about the change in the bands’ sound. personally, apart from the occasional queen and pink floyd-like (the end reminded me a lot of in the flesh from the wall) references, they sounded pretty much the same as they did on three cheers for sweet revenge. apart from the obvious black marching band outfits, same old stuff. keeps the kids happy, i guess.

to my surprise, they played i’m not OK really early in the set. i was half expecting to hear them segue into since you’ve been gone after the “trust me!” bit of the song. wishful thinking. they played a pretty decent number of tunes from the black parade. ash would’ve been happy to be there – they played i don’t love you. ray toro’s guitar playing was decent enough. all i saw of him was this mop of maggi hair and one big thick-lipped mouth. i saw that they are playing proper les pauls now (what’s the point of playing USA-made elite series epi’s when the gibbos probably cost two bucks more). what else did they play? i could recall them playing welcome to the black parade (obviously), house of wolves, thank you for the venom, (the annoying) mama, famous last words, cemetery drive… i told you i was dazed all night long. this is someone who once slept on his feet jet-lagged at a placebo gig.

after a short encore break, they came back to play cancer. and finished the set with helena, one of their more decent tunes, in my opinion. whilst making for the exit, they played blood on the PA.

why the nonchalance? i did wonder halfway during the set if i am really too old for this shit. not just MCR (don’t get me wrong, but i had a blast covering one of their tunes at the gig in march), but all this. egads!

not to worry, i won’t be retiring just yet.

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the first two youtube vids are from the actual gig last night. disclaimer: the rock city gig videos ain’t from me.