F  L  A  U  N  T

Four. That’s how many minutes it took My Chemical Romance fans to snatch up all 6300 tickets for the band’s Shrine Auditorium reunion concert.  Three. That’s how many days a slew of those Killjoys started lining up before the show.  Two. That’s how many minutes each person allowed to elapse between Tweets. Max. One. That’s how many marching bands that came out and played “Welcome to the Black Parade” for MCRmy’s entrenched advance division. (It was the USC Trojans btw, and they were fantastic!) There are other pertinent numbers to cite too: From the 100 “Devotion” blankets MCR passed out to early arrivers to the 22.6 million streams the lads earned in the first full week following their reunion announcement. The most pertinent number though has gotta be seven. That’s right, seven. Not just because it’s been seven years since MCR played anywhere. But because for the last seven years the band’s legion of fans fully believed they’d never see MCR play anywhere ever again. Imagine seven years of wishing and hoping and dreaming that some how, some way, some day, your time will come. And seven years of pretty much knowing it won’t. Makes for a helluva wind-up alright. It also makes for one of the most emotion-soaked shows each and every one of the lucky 6000+ will ever get to go to.   Photographed by Pooneh Ghana. Yeah, I mean tears. Real tears. Free-flowing and downright beautiful to behold. The kinda tears that spill when dreams come true, wishes are fulfilled and hope shows up on your doorstep with a sign that says “Today is that Day!” Not just happy tears -- _ecstatic_ tears. And this was a safe place to shed those tears. Nobody judged anyone for crying. Hell, half the time they were all boo-hoo too. Not to mention triumphantly singing along to every single song. By now you’ve undoubtedly have seen the set list. (After all, an onslaught of Tweets had half the songs trending on Twitter before the crowd even cleared the parking lot.) So you know MCR roared on to stage with “I’m Okay (I Promise)” and closed out the night with “Welcome to the Black Parade.”  You also know the band pulled out a fistful of other _Black Parade_ classics (including “I Don’t Love You” and “Teenager”), went live with _Conventional Weapons_’ “Make Room!!!” (for the first time ever), slugged out another fistful from _Danger Days_ (among them “Vampire Money” and “S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W”), and again tracked back to _Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge_ with blistering takes of “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid,” “Helena,” “Thank You for the Venom” and “You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison” (with Youth Code’s Sara Taylor). And since you know all that, then you know it was pretty much a Killjoys’ idea of a dream set. For me though, the real highlight was “Famous Last Words.” Of course “I’m Okay” and “Black Parade” kicked mighty ass (how could they not?); so did the other 17 songs in the scorch of a set. Yet, “FLW” was the exception to an already exceptional night. Why? Well, in addition to the fact that it happens to be one of the most powerful anthems to ever come out of the Oughts, there’s also the fact that the rock solid track encapsulates all that MCR so rock solidly represents. I’m talkin’ about hurting out loud, dig? And the power to be found in shouting about it from rooftops. I’m also talkin’ about stepping up, shredding labels, honoring heroes and never ever being ashamed for who you are or how you feel. Yes, all that and more is there in “Famous Last Words.” And as the roof blew off of The Shrine during My Chemical Romance’s roarful return, all that and more was heard clear around the world. Shows don’t get much more resounding than that.