The pre-show
You know the feeling of waiting ten months to see your favorite band and the day finally comes? All of the excitement you’ve been holding bursts into blissful joy as you count down the hours until the show begins. For me, this happened in Tampa, Florida on September 13th, 2025 as I awaited the start of the final show of the Long Live The Black Parade Tour. If you are unfamiliar with this tour or who performed in it, this tour was announced on November 8th, 2024 by My Chemical Romance, an emo rock band from the early-to-mid 2000s. During their 12 years together, they released four studio albums: I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love; Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge; The Black Parade; and Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. If all of this sounds like nonsense to you, you are probably familiar with their biggest hit: Welcome to the Black Parade. Any MCR fan could probably tell you that the opening G note on the piano of that song could summon an entire generation. If you’re a die hard fan like me, great, you’re familiar with the basics. When the band announced their reunion tour, they announced the concert dates that went along with it, giving fans one week to decide between nine, yes nine, shows to attend. This concert was seen by many as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, with Ticketmaster comparing it to the selectiveness of The Eras Tour.
Now why was it extremely selective like The Eras Tour you might ask? There were two key reasons: first, the band had not been together in 12 years. For one Los Angeles show in 2019, they came back together, and they also released a single, The Foundations of Decay, and went on a small tour in 2022. Both of these momentary relapses in separation were short lived, until the announcement of the Long Live The Black Parade Tour in November of 2024. This tour, unlike their others, was not to promote a new album or single. Rather, it was to pay tribute to their best selling album, The Black Parade. If you are unfamiliar with the significance or story behind that album, allow me to give you some context. The hit song Welcome to the Black Parade reached number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2006 and as of July 2025, has reached 7x Platinum Status, meaning it has sold 7 million copies worldwide. The album itself as of now has reached 4x Platinum Status, meaning it has sold 4 million copies worldwide. Speaking of the album, its music videos and lyrics hold an incredible story behind them. The album tells the story of a boy who is dying from cancer and laying on his deathbed. Death then appears to him as The Black Parade, a dark version of the marching band from his childhood whom he went to see with his father. As he watches this band, he realizes his regrets of not living his life to the fullest. In the end, the boy chooses to fight and reject The Black Parade, leading to his return to the real world. This album resonated with a lot of people, especially those that were struggling with their mental health, and became a symbol of 2000s emo rock as a result.
Second, the tour was only stopping in nine locations. This insanely small stadium tour was meant to be exclusive for its die hard fans. When ticket sales dropped on November 15th, 2024, fans like me faced the great Ticketmaster battle, just as Taylor Swift fans did when they were trying to buy Eras Tour tickets. I chose the Tampa, Florida show due to its proximity to my home and my aunt’s home, who lives in the Tampa area. One hour and 36,000 people later, I finally made it through the queue to buy my tickets. Life was not kind to me though, as I spent another 30 minutes trying to buy tickets, only to be told every chosen ticket was already sold. I was even kicked out of the program at one point and had to rejoin the queue, but thankfully there were only 1,000 people waiting. Finally, the message I was waiting for appeared on the screen: Congratulations, you’re going to Raymond James Stadium to see My Chemical Romance. Now, the waiting game fell upon me, and ten months couldn’t fly by faster…
The Show
The day was finally here: showtime. A day that was supposed to be magical for me turned out to be…well…you’ll see. As an avid concertgoer, I assumed that every concert venue had some kind of day-of parking. Well, I was wrong, really wrong actually. If you ever go to Raymond James Stadium for a football game or concert, let me give you a little tip: Get your parking before the day of the show!!! There are only two day of lots, 8 and 9. My mom and I unfortunately did not see those lots, and in desperation, decided to park in a business parking lot that looked deserted. There was no signage indicating that towing was enforced, so we thought we were good, right? We’ll get back to this…
Here’s another small piece of advice we didn’t realize and learned the hard way. Raymond James Stadium has a very strict bag policy. No matter if you have a clear bag or not, it has to be within a certain, small size. My clear bag was unfortunately too big, and we had to walk to and from the stadium again so that I could drop my bag off in the car. So, here’s my advice: Measure your bag before you go unless you know a great hiding spot outside of the stadium. We FINALLY got to our third floor seats at 7:40, long enough to see Evanescence play three songs. They were absolutely amazing, but unfortunately, I couldn’t tell you anything else about their performance. Roughly thirty minutes passed by, and the stadium went black except for four big red words: Please Take Your Seats. The band took to the stage and the lead singer, Gerard Way, asked the crowd to stand for the singing of The National Anthem of Draag. This anthem, unlike any other national anthem you might have heard, expressed nationalistic pride for the difficult circumstances they lived in and praised the acceptance of their difficult existence. Sounds backwards as all get out, right? Well, that was the point of the show. From there on, they performed The Black Parade in order in front of the “dictator” of Draag in order to please him. After “Dead!” the lead singer shot and killed four prisoners who had violated the Draag laws in firing squad style. He stood up at a podium and spoke praise to the country in between songs and even had the audience clap for the dictator at one point. All of these theatrics were not enough to save them however, and “guards” of the government raided the stage after “Famous Last Words” and arrested all of the band members. Gerard Way fought back after being shot multiple times, bringing the perfect setting for the final song of the album, Blood. As the song famously says, “I gave you blood, blood, gallons of the stuff. I gave you all that you can drink, and it has never been enough.” To me, nothing sums up the end of that half of the show better. Gerard ran off stage at the culmination of Blood, and fans were left to wonder if that was the end of the show or only the beginning.
Thankfully, it was only the beginning. A cellist performed on the center stage for about 15-20 minutes while the band changed and moved their instruments. She was incredibly good, and definitely kept the ominous vibe with her music. Finally, the band took center stage, and the second half of the concert began. They played all of their other major hits, Helena (So Long and Goodnight), I’m Not Okay (I Promise), Na Na Na, Destroya, and The Ghost of You, among others. The second half of the show lasted another hour and fifteen minutes, so they played for a total of two and a half hours. Let me tell you, they absolutely killed it. I left that stadium on such an incredible high that nothing could’ve prepared me for what happened next.
The post-show
Remember how I said that we would get back to the parking situation? I genuinely thought that the concert was going to be the end to a mostly incredible day and I stupidly thought I was going to get to go home and sleep for a couple of hours. I was wrong, oh boy was I wrong. After walking another half-mile back to the parking lot, my mom and I realized that our car was nowhere to be found. We approached a couple sitting on the sidewalk and they asked perhaps the most dreadful question I’ve ever heard: “Did your car get towed too?” They showed us where they were parked and sure enough, it was right next to our car. The worst outcome had come true, our car had been towed. As luck would have it, I saw a tow truck pulling out of the parking lot with the name of the towing company we thought towed all of our cars. I ran up to the car in hopes of stopping them, but to my dismay, they didn’t see me. However, what I did see was a different phone number than the one given to me. I immediately called the number, told the guy who picked up almost immediately what our car looked like, and they confirmed that they had our car. To quote the famous TikTok sound some of you might know well, “Now pause the movie, because what I’m about to say to y’all, is so damn twisted.” The company not only wanted $247 to get the car out of impound, they wanted the money in cash. I’m sorry, but how does one expect to get that kind of money when all of your debit cards are in the trunk of the car? To everyone’s dismay, two more girls my age came up to us and realized their car had been towed too. Neither my mom nor I wanted to leave the girls there alone, so we agreed to call an Uber to get us to an ATM and the towing lot. Now maybe you’re thinking everything ran smoothly after this. The Uber came, we got the cash, we got our cars, and we drove into the night. Words cannot express how wrong that assumption is.
The Uber pulled up around fifteen minutes later, but what I did not realize was that if you want to make two stops in an Uber, you have to book that in advance. Sorry to the Uber pros out there, this was my first time. As we’re telling the driver our dilemma, he accidentally cancels the ride on us and is forced to take another ride in order to stay in good standing with Uber. Ten minutes on the phone with Uber support did nothing to help our problem and he eventually kicked us out of the car. That’s $38 I’ll never see again. In desperation, I called my aunt at 12:30 at night, who lived 45 minutes away, and asked her to come get us and take us where we needed to go. She agreed and brought my stuff with me since there was no time for me to go back home. After sitting outside of a 7/11 for 45 minutes, she and my uncle finally pulled up and took us to an ATM. Unfortunately, the ATM wouldn’t give me any money, because life’s just that kind. We gave up and drove to the towing lot, only to find two boys my age standing outside of a closed gate. They told us that they had called the guy and he was on his way. Not even a minute later, the guy pulled up. He asked for each of the three drivers and the four of us walked into the tiny office building. One by one, each of the drivers came out and claimed their cars. Thankfully, the guy made a deal with my mom to take Zelle instead of cash. The nightmare was over, almost…
After saying goodbye to everyone, my mom took me to the airport and dropped me off. For three and a half hours, I had to sit in the main terminal and stay awake to watch my luggage. If you ever go to Tampa International Airport, you definitely won’t be disappointed, it’s actually a very nice airport. When the time came, I went to my terminal and hopped in the TSA line. I put my luggage in the bin, walked through the scanner, and waited for my stuff to come through. For some unknown reason (at the time), my luggage went to the other side of the conveyor belt. A TSA agent walked over, asked me if it was my stuff, and said they needed to do a deeper inspection. Great, lovely, did someone slip an e-cigarette into my suitcase? Nope, turns out, four of my toiletry items were too big. As someone who is not used to not checking a bag, I forgot that liquid products have to be 3 ounces or smaller. She gave me two choices: go back to the main terminal and check my bag and go through TSA again, or give her my stuff and count my losses. With 50 minutes left until I had to board, I decided to take a picture and count my losses. Feeling heavily defeated and tired, I finally walked to my gate and waited to board. I was able to fly home safely and get back to my dorm without any more troubles.
So with that, that is everything you missed (at least from my perspective) at the final concert of The Long Live The Black Parade Tour. It is a night I will never forget, for more reasons than one, and I wouldn’t trade my time at the concert for anything. I hope this article gave you a sense of what it was like to be there, and a little advice on how to navigate Tampa, Florida if you ever decide to go down for a concert.