by Debra Au
Daily Lobo
The first time I ever saw My Chemical Romance, I was sitting in the SUB waiting for judging to begin at my high school science fair.
The music video for "Helena" was playing over the TVs scattered throughout the dining areas, and even though there wasn't any sound I knew I probably wouldn't like them. The whole emo music scene was just starting to emerge, and I wasn't too impressed by the lead singers with heavy black eye shadow, stage blood on their wrists and singing while giving a eulogy.
I didn't really look twice at the video. Back then I thought they were just a fly-by-night-band that would be washed up and in rehab before their video would begin to circulate twice on MTV2. Who knew my musical predictions could be so skewed?
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A year later, My Chemical Romance has a cultlike following in the United States and abroad. But for those of us who have managed to discount them and lump them into stereotypical emo bands, their new three-disc video diary exposes every possible aspect of My Chemical Romance from the childhood outcast days of lead singer Warren Bay and bandmate and brother Mickey growing up in New Jersey to the early days of touring to the painful moments of Warren's alcohol and cocaine addictions.
Think of the two DVDs and one music CD of live performances as an extended version of a VH1 special of "Behind the Music." In a little over two hours of home video footage, both fans and inquiring minds alike receive a powerful dose of how influential My Chemical Romance has been on the fans and even the band members themselves.
In just the few minutes of the DVD's opening sequence, teenage fans yell into the camera wearing homemade T-shirts that scribble "MCR Saved My Life." In an on-camera interview, Warren Bay vehemently agrees that such sentiments are the fueling power for the band and even confesses that the band had saved him not once, but twice from suicide.
Early on in My Chemical Romance's touring career, Bay was suffering from severe depression and taking more than a few anti-depressants for treatment. When mixed with a crazy touring life where alcohol is the breakfast of champions, suicide is the step some take when on the path to hitting rock bottom. Despite overcoming this, Bay soon became addicted to alcohol and cocaine and started down the same broken road again. Luckily, every time his bandmates and producers came to his rescue and helped him on the way to sobriety - which will be one year on Aug. 11.
Now the band advocates seeking help for those who suffer from depression or substance abuse. It's an influential message to many adolescents dealing with problems at school and at home. They also discourage the use of groupies, particularly because it demeans and dehumanizes females.
Overall, My Chemical Romance has had a wild ride of highs and lows - the euphoria of success both commercially and with a devoted fan base and the deepest valleys of personal turmoil - and it has all been caught on tape.
Even though I may not like the way members of My Chemical Romance present themselves onstage, they still promote an important message. If even just one kid watches the DVDs and sees how certain members of the band have overcome problems of all kinds, that one kid may realize that he or she can do the same. That makes My Chemical Romance worth its weight in gold.
