My Chemical Romance Wore Themselves Out, and It Was Glorious
Restless, angsty, pop-punk energy made them great—and is probably what ended them.
Their first show in Ewing, New Jersey, weeks after they formed, My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way and guitarist Ray Toro began to kick at each other onstage, thrilled by the music they were making. Toro, recalling the moment, told Kerrang! in 2011, "I'm a quiet dude but that music made me want to let everything out. My Chem felt different: We were making music I had never heard before. There was this kinetic energy."
On Sunday, My Chemical Romance broke up, unceremoniously, relegating the announcement even to . There were clear signals of decline. They hadn't released an album in almost three years. The energy had slipped away. Their final release, 2013's , can now be seen as.
