Enter Shikari

Are *My Chemical Romance *merely aping the career of Green Day, albeit in hyperspeed? It’s frightening, but that may possibly be the case.

The band only played their first UK shows in January 2004 and, having sold out two nights at Brixton last year, their current career trajectory indicates that they’ve only got another two albums in them before they finally retire. I’m just not sure if that’s meant to be a relief or a threat.

This show is a thinly veiled secret gig. Due to play the Carling Weekend, the band play the pantomime charade as an announcement suggests that a band called The Black Parade are to play tonight, instead of MCR, in this sweaty emofied hellhole. Obviously nobody believes it for a second, but it’s fun to play along.

Singer Gerard Way comes onstage with a newly cropped and bleached barnet, appearing slightly less hamster-cheeked than at the Give It A Name festival earlier this year. The band appears regimented but distant in their matching uniforms, and it’s not a welcome impression.

Part of the beauty of this band was that they had grown to supernova status because they were true outsiders. They never claimed to be punks, so they never could sell out. They never claimed to be good-looking, just part of a look. They played pop songs, but their sound was so rough around the edges. Everything about this band was contrary to everything everyone hates them for.

Now they look like a band that is there to be followed and they sound like a band that knows exactly what they’re doing. Every song they reel off, whether it be an old ‘classic’ or a brand new album track that may or may not have been lifted off the new album, is glossy and perfect and absolutely mesmerising.

With this new polished image, they seem to have lost some of their lovable magic and, with their newfound technical prowess, the music has sadly lost some of its warm comfort. Has something changed? Maybe, but it doesn’t matter one bit to anyone that’s in here tonight.

This band is still in pole position to take over this world, and it’s going to happen later this autumn. There’s nothing you can do. You’ve just got to let My Chemical Romance take their course.

_ Photo courtesy of Miss Modern Age_.