The return to the stage of My Chemical Romance after their lengthy hiatus has stirred up plenty of emotions, and one of the more moving moments so far to come from the European leg of their reunion tour happened when Gerard Way displayed a memorial flag created by a fan honoring MCR fans who had died before getting to see the reunion shows.
The special moment occurred Thursday (May 19) at their first Milton Keynes show, with Way stopping the show to address the crowd. “So this is kind of crazy, this is our third show, we’ve played two shows and I think it was the first night where were fucking around having a good time and I was talking about how its been two and a half years and how does it feel and things like that,” he started.
“And it occurred to me later after the second show, that there was a bunch of people that were probably gonna be at these shows that aren’t here with us anymore. And I think it was yesterday, a friend of mine told me that there were some people on the internet that had gotten a list as best they could of names of people that were gonna come to the shows,” he explained, before then holding up the special flag that had a listing of names headline by the message, “Your memory will carry on.”
The flag displayed at the show came about after a fan named Emmy started to reach out with this specific goal in mind. “Two years ago when @MCROfficial announced their shows, I couldn’t stop thinking about MCR fans who have passed away and won’t be able to be there, so I asked people across Instagram and Twitter to send me the names of these fans, and I made this memorial flag,” she explained on Instagram. “I received over 250 messages and learnt about the lives of many incredible mcr fans who aren’t with us anymore. I am bringing the memorial flag to the Thursday Milton Keynes show and hopefully I can get it onstage to the band.”
With the help of fellow fans who had tagged band members in social media posts, Emmy was able to get her flag tribute to the band who then displayed it during that special onstage moment.
Though their tour just kicked off this past week, it’s already provided many a memorable moment for fans. They started off their tour by playing their first new song since they reunited, “The Foundations of Decay” as the set opener, giving it its live debut. There have also been numerous songs returning to their sets after a lengthy layoff and others such as “Mastas of Ravenkroft” being played live for the first time.
My Chemical Romance will finish out their run of shows at the MK Arena in Milton Keynes, England tonight (May 22) with still plenty more stops on their European tour ahead. Get ticketing info and see all of their scheduled dates here.
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