Thursday 20/01/05 Taking Back Sunday, My Chemical Romance, Communique @ Leeds University

January 24, 2005 by Pete Charles

Tonight's emo-core double header sees Leeds University Union packed to capacity following the mini media frenzy surrounding My Chemical Romance's appearance on the scene. Headliners Taking Back Sunday are almost veterans of a genre which is rapidly evolving, and which has been known to draw inspiration from metal, punk, straight-edge and, in the case of tonight's openers, Communique, unashamed pop.

This Frisco Five-piece (cringe!) take us through a lively, infectious collection of tunes, aware of their place on the bill, but no less entertaining because of it. The keyboards and synths carry their songs and offer a different take on the guitar-based college rock churned out by so many bands these days. Tunes such as 'Perfect Weapon' and 'Evaporate' are excellent pop songs - not particularly challenging to the imagination, yet practically flawless in their own right.

Hailing from way over on the other side of Uncle Sam's fat ass are goth-popsters My Chemical Romance. They appear on stage to the sheer rapture of several hundred pubescent disciples in poorly applied eyeliner with accompanying self-mutilation scars. After teasing the impatient punters with the opening riff from Iron Maiden's 'Number of the Beast', they power through recent single 'I'm not Okay (I promise)'.

Subject matter is one of the many constants in MCR's repertoire - their dark spiteful lyrics somehow discredited by catchy sing-a-long choruses. From a technical point of view, they are more than adequate and give a stellar supporting performance, so much so that they could headline this tour with ease, given their steadily growing appeal. Every disenfranchised teenager's supposed salvation and Radio 1's Mike Davies' fave band, MCR teeter perilously close to mainstream success. That said, such comments are swiftly retracted when we hear what frontman Gerard Way has to say:

"Do you guys wanna run...like...like frightened gazelle? Or do you wanna hold aloft the spine and skull of your enemies!"

Not something CD:UK would approve of, but a nonetheless sound way to scare the cold hard shit out of your average school bully.

Taking Back Sunday's opening slot at last summer's Leeds Festival 2004 left this hack decidedly nonplussed. Fitting then, that TBS have a song called 'You're So Last Summer'. In fact, they're so THREE summers ago it's untrue. Further still, the song contains the line "you're a touch overrated" (Gigwise wickedly pauses for a moment to consider the delightful prospect of ruthless sarcasm..."huh?...objectivity eh?...
Well I'll give it a go...).

In all seriousness, Taking Back Sunday are frustratingly bad. Sure they look as cool as the next band, enjoy what they do and get an impressionable crowd on their side, but it only takes a few songs for them to show that they have absolutely nothing special about them to speak of. All their whingey choruses sound the same, and vocalist Adam Lazzara struggles to make up for this by turning his whinge dial up to eleven. Band / audience interaction is minimal, stage presence average, and the songs? Well, they get progressively worse. All this is a crying shame of course, simply because: a) nobody's told them all this yet, and b) they're probably all thoroughly nice guys.

An hour in and boredom takes over. A quick glance around reveals that people are actually enjoying these snivelling, angst-ridden wailings.

What's that? "A bit harsh", you say? Hear this, TBS: Write me some constructive songs, and I'll write you some constructive criticism. Deal?