It doesn’t matter how long ago your emo phase was, I bet you still remember every single word to "Welcome to the Black Parade." We all know that feeling. You hear the first notes and no matter where you are, who you’re talking to, or what you’re doing, the emo middle-schooler resting inside of you stirs.
On July 20, 2016, that emo middle-schooler was awakened in all of us. It was the G-note heard 'round the world when MCR released a 34-second video on every single one of their social media accounts, with just one cryptic message: 9/23/16.
For those of you who don’t know, this is exactly one month before the 10-year anniversary of MCR’s famous album, "The Black Parade," which was released on Oct. 23, 2006. And suddenly every 20-something around the world felt their inner emo child stir. Black eyeliner appeared around our eyes, side-bangs grew out of our foreheads, 50 rubber bracelets from Hot Topic appeared on our wrists, and all of us, in perfect harmony, exploded.
Along with this mysterious video, new merch appeared on their website, they took the 2001-2013 out of their twitter bio, they redesigned their logo. Theories started coming out of the woodwork and the only answer to all these questions seemed to be: REUNION.
At least, that’s what I thought. I even wrote an entire article about the possibilities, because they were endless. And by endless, I mean there were, like, five. Actually, more like four. But they were possibilities nonetheless. My original guess, and I really thought this was the most plausible, was that they were going to announce a 10-year anniversary show.
Here were the initial possibilities that I had written out:
1. New music:
They have been making music together secretly and are releasing a single or dropping an album on this day. I find this to be unlikely because of the 10-year anniversary of "TBP." So, my guess was that whatever we’re waiting for on Sept. 23, 2016 is an announcement of some kind. And when the band ended, it seemed pretty clear that they’d never reunite to make new music. So, next:
2. Limited-edition vinyl:
I thought they could be hyping us up just to release a limited-edition vinyl of "The Black Parade," which would be really disappointing, let’s be honest. I thought to myself, “They can’t disappear for all this time and then come back with something as weak as that.” But right now it seems that’s the direction we’re going in. Now, onto the better possibilities (that are now only fleeting dreams):
3. Reunion Tour:
Announcing a reunion 10th-anniversary "Black Parade" tour would be a lot of work, so this was probably a long shot. But, come on, how awesome would that be? And bands reunite for tours all the time. Because money. And boredom. And midlife crises.
4. Reunion show:
I mentioned this earlier in the article, but let me go into a bit more detail. This was the possibility that I was most banking on. I was so sure that this was going to be the big announcement: a "Black Parade" 10-year anniversary show in their home state of New Jersey (similar to what The Wonder Years did in Philly back in 2014); one show where they perform the entirety of the "Black Parade." It would be groundbreaking. Breathtaking. Absolutely legendary. Can you imagine it? All those people gathered in one place to see one of the most influential bands of their adolescence for what would probably be the last time? I can practically feel the sheer energy of that crowd, the passion, the love, the literal blood, sweat, and tears. I got chills just imagining it, only to be greeted with a giant wall of disappointment.
That wall of disappointment looked a lot like this:
This statement was released July 21 for the sole purpose of crushing the dreams of fans everywhere. Maybe it was just a publicity stunt by Warner Bros Records to sell T-shirts, but I still call it a missed opportunity. Not only would a reunion (even just for one show) have made countless fans deliriously happy, but the sheer amount of money they would have raked in from it is uncountable. A lot more than what they would make from T-shirt sales.
All this says to me is that MCR is over for good and that I was partially right that this would be something for the 10-year anniversary. I just thought, since "TBP" meant so much to so many people, it would be a bit bigger. In conclusion: we can officially add this to the list of why 2016 is one big disappointment.
