Although it doesn’t appear to be a contractual obligation, it sometimes seems as if any major act playing New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium has to acknowledge the setting. Both Coldplay and Zach Bryan brought out Bruce Springsteen during recent shows there, and this weekend, My Chemical Romance continued the tradition by covering what frontman Gerard Way referred to as “what may be the New Jersey state anthem”: Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer.”
At the band’s show Saturday, part of its Long Live the Black Parade Tour, MCR played its entire The Black Parade album in its entirety. But to close out the show, the band launched into the Bon Jovi fist-pumper, which, astonishingly, turns 40 next year. Way, who told the crowd it was one of only two karaoke songs he’s sung in his life, may be the first musician to sing the song in Army fatigues. He seemed to trip up a bit on the second verse (“so fuckin’ high,” he said, with a laugh), but the band did a pretty faithful take on the song, from replications of its grunting rhythm to Richie Sambora’s guitar squeal. (Factoid: MCR opened for Bon Jovi at a Jersey venue in 2007.)
The show itself was already noteworthy long before the cover version. It marked MCR’s first headlining gig at the 80,000-seat stadium in its home state, and during the concert, the band was presented with a key to the city of Belleville, where three of the band members, including Way and his brother Mikey, were raised. Adding to the surreal moment, Belleville mayor Michael Melham informed the crowd that his city was also home to the Four Seasons and the recently deceased pop singer Connie Francis.
“The dedicated My Chemical Romance fans loved every second of the show, and welcomed their hometown heroes with their wide open arms,” Rolling Stone wrote in a review of the show. “Even as My Chemical Romance played out as the rock gods they’ve become on the main stage, their star power was truly underlined during the latter half of the show. From a B stage situated near the center of the stadium, My Chemical Romance commanded their hometown stadium with songs from the rest of their catalog and a raw, effusive energy that was contagious. Gone were the marching band uniforms and outsized production; instead, the band stood as New Jersey-bred rockers taking in the preternatural full-moon that hung above them.”
The Long Live the Black Parade tour, which launched last month in Seattle, wraps up in Atlanta in late September before relaunching in South America early next year. Today, the band announced two surprise shows at London’s Wembley Arena in July.