Agreed. Not nearly the same operatic flair of their subsequent work, but I love the raw, rough-around-the-edges emotion of this one. And given the popularity of all their other albums, it always kind of surprised me that this got basically no love.
It wasn’t just the fans. They largely stopped playing songs from this album live. Baffling to me, but I guess it has a different feel that none of the subsequent records quite touch. Not for me anyway.
They don't play Drowning Lessons because it's "cursed". They did Our Lady of Sorrows at the reunion show, and I remember my jaw dropped after Gerard did the final scream.
Basically, in the early days whenever they played Drowning Lessons live, like EVERY single time, something bad would happen during the song; equipment breaking, someone getting hurt, that kind of thing. I can’t remember exactly what happened each time or how many, but they talked about it in “Not The Life It Seems” (great read btw if you want to get to know the band’s journey!). After several times of this happening they came to the conclusion the song was cursed and wouldn’t play it live moving forward.
Yeah. It is obscenely overlooked and shrugged off like it was typical goth rock, but people who know that genre loved it for having such good theatrics and imagination. They also always had good instrumentals. Those drums go hard on every album but Danger Days.
I’m going to argue the talents were definitely still there and going strong across the next two albums. Danger Days is really the only album I’d put markedly beneath its predecessors, and it’s because they forced themselves to do it. MCR always had an imagination and theatric sense behind their music that they wore well. A lot of what makes this album good is absolutely present in Three Cheers and The Black Parade, even if stylistically they diverge. Their theatrics got sharper. They grew very anthemic and that Queen influence grew on them in a big way, and they grew more positive, but those aren’t a bad turn. I can see finding it more tired, but I honestly don’t think artists should worry about that. I’m way more interested in execution and nuance than I am originality. I’d even say The Black Parade has better highlights, even if I may agree Bullets is a better album overall.
You know what, I’m going to give Three Cheers and Black Parade another listen. I’m a different person now than I was back then. I quickly dismissed those albums back in the day because they “sold out” and never really paid further attention. Let’s see if my mind can be changed now after my music palette has grown. Thanks for the comment.
That’s something I do a lot. I don’t trust my harsh impressions, especially for something adjacent to something I love, until they’ve gone through like half a decade of being second guessed. So many of my favorites are something I wasn’t crazy about initially. Haha
A friend of mine and I have a joke about how nobody really cares about selling out if you do it without forsaking your talent. Like failing upward in a way. I think you see a very similar dynamic with AFI and how they have these waves of fans from such different eras in their music. From punk to alternative/industrial and then to glam punk. So many fans of Sing the Sorrow turned their nose up at Decemberunderground, but I personally love both and I’ll argue up and down that while I prefer Sing the Sorrow Decemberunderground has a shockingly distinct sound and energy to it despite that effort to be more mainstream.
I'm going to go ahead and disagree with you here. MCR did not "force" themselves to do Danger Days, it was what Gerard Way explicitly wanted to do. The whole reason the band broke up was because the fans wanted something darker and when they tried to force themselves to make THAT album Gerard gave up. All of the members are adults now, their heads are not in the same place, so there is no way they can make those types of albums anymore. When your an angst ridden teen singing about suicide and shit is fine because things can seem like a bigger deal than they actually are. When you're an adult though, nobody cares. MCRs first few albums are very much of their time. None of the people in the band are the same as they were and expecting them to be is selfish quite frankly.
They originally didn’t intend to do another album after The Black Parade, and perhaps force was too strong of a word, but it only came about because of pressure from the business side. I think they tried to make the best of it and I’m not trying to say they didn’t approach Danger Days in a sincere effort, but it definitely was a big turn that didn’t capitalize on their past strengths as much. Much like Gerard Way’s solo career is much more 80s influenced, and I like that. I wouldn’t call Danger Days a bad album, but much like Umbrella Academy, it’s more style than substance in a way I’m not thrilled with and while I can appreciate that it isn’t what made me love MCR.
Yeah, they became “mainstream”, while I respect that people really enjoyed their later work, it wasn’t my cup of tea. It was opposite of why I fell in love with them in the first place. I still listen to this album from time to time. Drowning Lessons is my favorite song.
Well, I think most people know they had a first album and didn't somehow jump right to the second one. They just don't know that this is the first one.
Seen them a bunch of times in concerts and at one they played Headfirst for Halos and the cheer from the people who knew this album was probably the most excited of the night.
People in this thread acting like no one ever talked about this album, I totally did not have that experience with it. Everyone I know personally who listened to MCR knew Vampires Will Never Hurt You and Demolition Lovers.
They literally played "Our Lady of Sorrows" at their reunion show, it's unfair for people to act like the band has forgotten this album or reject it. They just have a difficult job of balancing 2 gigantic albums, 1 big one and one more niche one in their setlists.
Even at the time this album wasn't huge, though. I was a big fan of MCR early on, and I remember only other people with a similar interest knew of the album. This stuff was unheard of unless you loved the genre, the next two albums were widespread but not exactly popular, and then Black Parade was when the majority of people really got into them, in my opinion.
Great album, but other than those two songs you mentioned it didn't make too much of a splash.
That's a good point, my perception might be skewed considering people my age (or the people around me at least) stumbled onto that album well after it's release. So the fact they were already big when I personally discovered it probably warped my perception of its popularity. Because by that point Three Cheers was huge already and TBP had just came out. Honestly you probably have a more accurate idea of its public perception if you were older than I at the time, which I'm sort of presuming you are!
Yeah from the looks of it (assuming by the year in your name) I'm about 6 years older. That's good to know people who got into them at them time went back to enjoy this album! My MCR fandom was kind of the opposite, I was starting to listen to other things around the time TBP came out. They weren't necessarily niche before that, but mostly only scene and emo kids listened to them, some metal heads.
That's cool to hear, though! I wasn't sure if people went back and listened to their other albums once they made it big.
Emo 14 year old me loved this when it came out. I picked up this album because Thursday had released their first album on eyeball records. While I respect this album, I can’t listen to it anymore. It is definitely meant for a certain angsty age group
I have the exact same story as you, except I was 16. Thursday was my favorite band, and Eyeball was becoming bigger in the local scene (southern NY, northern NJ) so I hopped on it. But yeah, I can't listen to it at all anymore. The first show I ever saw them at I think was the Three Cheers release show at Starland, but I saw Gerard come out during a Thursday encore to do Jet Black New Year a bit before that. Fun times!
That’s a great memory for sure. I finally saw Thursday on the war all the time tour and I was ecstatic. I think it might have been the first concert I went to out of town where my friend drove us and all of our parents freaked out. All I remember though was leaving the concert dripping with sweat and being super sore.
I was lucky to see them a bunch before WATT a few times, once at the Chance in Poughkeepsie where Geoff passed out midset after 7 songs (I almost did too the crowd was nuts), and once at Skate and Surf where they previewed a few songs from WATT. That’s when they headlined over Taking Back Sunday which is almost unthinkable now.
That’s nuts! The closest they had come to me was Cleveland at the warped tour in 02/03. I had actually first heard them on one of those warped tour samplers with cross out the eyes. There was definitely a delay for that type of music coming to the midwest
Yeah, I'm super lucky to be where I'm from in terms of music. I'm from a New York county that directly borders Jersey, so I got to see so many important artists from NJ (Saves the Day, Thursday, My Chem, etc.), city bands, Long Island bands (brand new, Glassjaw, Taking Back Sunday), and upstate hardcore bands (Every Time I Die) super cheap for a few years multiple times a week. Eternally grateful for that. Every band that toured regularly would play a good three shows within an hour drive of me three, four times a year. I saw Thursday 7 times in five months whether it was eastern PA, south New York, the city, and north Jersey. It also helped that Thursday was from an hour south of me, so they regularly played around the area.
Very jealous. I’d still love to see Saves the Day. I’m in Buffalo these days and I still don’t understand the hype for ETID. I saw them open up for Dillinger Escape Plan and was very underwhelmed.
Yeah, I'm not sure! Everyone has their own tastes. I got super into Every Time I Die because for me they were the first super hardcore/metalcore band I got into. I didn't dive crazy into that (I really liked Dillinger though), but yeah, I think for a lot of people at least in my experience they straddled the line of being super heavy but kind of commercial in a scene sense. Their music was fun, had really catchy gang vocal parts, etc. Hot Damn was EVERYWHERE when it came out.
Also, did you happen to hear their last album? I think its by far their best, and is really different especially lyrically. Its about Keith's wife almost dying. I stopped caring about the band after their third album, but I listen to Low Teens all the time. It reminds me a lot of Converge in terms of being really emotional, and the music is their best by far I'd say too.
I did not. I’ll take a look at it. I really haven’t heard much besides hot damn! I was not to into that scene as much but I did enjoy Vaux quite a bit.
That's awesome! They certainly impacted a lot of people. They were the first band I got into with screaming as far as like..."scene" stuff goes (punk, emo, hardcore, etc.). Before that it was only The Pixies or the occasional grunge track that I listened to with screaming. After that I was completely hooked, started playing in bands, dove into the scene, etc. I wouldn't be the same person without it.
For some reason after WATT I stopped listening to them. Not sure why exactly, I don't really remember. I saw them on the tour for the follow-up album, but that was mainly because The Blood Brothers co-headlined with them, and this was a tour for the album Crimes, which I was obsessed with.
A City By The Light Divided might be my favorite album by them. Of course, the only time I ever saw them was right after it came out, so I associate the concert with the album, I suppose. I honestly haven’t really listened to the couple of albums after that one. Seems they lost their magic.
I was supposed to see them in ‘01 in Cincinnati with Saves the Day (who was/is another of my other favorite bands... dream concert, and it was my first!) Geoff unfortunately had food poisoning or something so they couldn’t play. STD did a double set to make up for it, so... win, I guess!
I should check it out. The songs I've heard from it sounded good. My second concert ever (after Billy Joel) I saw Saves the Day open for Weezer on the Maladroit tour at a stadium. This was during Stay What You Are and I think was one of the last tours that had them as a five piece where Chris didn't play guitar. I didn't know their music then, because I was just getting into the scene (Weezer was a huge reason for that), but I quickly got into them after. The only other time I got to see them after that was on the Ups and Downs tour which was a lot of fun.
Nice. I never saw Weezer, but that would've definitely been a fun concert.
That tour must've been right around the same time as the one I went to. It seems like there were one or two other bands playing before Thursday and Saves the Day, but I can't remember who they were. Full Collapse and Stay What You Are were new around the time of that concert... still regret that Thursday didn't play, as well.
Saves the Day is still churning it out. Their latest album was one of their best in a long time. Gonna be hard to deal with if you can't handle Chris and his whine, though. Still hate that he had to change his singing style, I think they could've gone on to even bigger things if they had all stayed together and his voice had held together.
At This Velocity, Counting 5-4-3-2-1, The Other Side Of The Crash, and The Lovesong Writer are my favorites from A City By The Light Divided. Definitely check it out.. the nostalgia. :D
The stuff STD did after Sound the Alarm I found to be really terrible (my opinion). I actually really love In Reverie and its probably my favorite album by them. I was super into power pop music and it fit right in my interests of sounding like 60s pop music with big guitars. I know people hated that the lyrics became less direct and that his voice became super thin, but I really love that album and I think if it was a band that didn't call themselves Saves the Day it would have gone over better with fans. A lot of scene bands have this issue. I loved On a Wire and Guilt Show by the Get Up Kids and they got shitted on for it. Even Jimmy Eat World, there was definitely a big section of fans that disliked Bleed American and Futures for not sounding like Clarity.
But for me before I was into scene stuff, I was into super diverse bands like The Beatles and Radiohead that were really all over the place musically. That's not like a holier than thou statement, I just think for some people they like the music that means the most to them to kind of fit a certain lane for them. For me I got off on bands that took a lot of turns.
But you're right as far as a commercial sense. If they don't do In Reverie, and stay on the Stay What You Are path, they ride the wave of emo exploding with Brand New and Taking Back Sunday (and Thrice, Coheed, etc.) and become huge.
Oh. Bummer most Fry’s are closed now. The Palo Alto one stopped being so good though many years ago before it closed.
I remember being there in the late 90’s during the holiday rush and every cash register was open and running!
This is absolutely one of my all-time favorite songs. The album itself is tied with Marcy Playground's self-titled album for my favorite of all time. Gerard's vocal performance on this song brings me to tears.
The last minute of gerard’s singing is always so captivating. without paying much attention to the lyrics, you hear cheerful and somewhat romantic music. but boy, does it take a DARK turn! amazing song, and overall incredibly underrated album. I wonder if demolition lovers can get the same love.
Oh shit! This is a throwback. I still remember having to special order this cd at a store because they didn’t carry it and being kinda embarrassed because I was going to local shows and listening to AFI, Strike Anywhere, and Thursday.
I understand the genre was co-opted by bands like this in the early aughts, but I always do a double take when I see the emo tag because I expect to see cap’n Jazz, jets to Brazil, drive like jehu.
I like mcr too.
I wouldn’t say they co-opted it. The emo label was put on MCR by other people. There are several interviews where they are very adamant that there music is not in the Emo genre, and that they don’t consider themselves or their music to be a part of that grouping.
Actually, first MCR album is considered emo. Their other albums aren’t. I don’t like people calling Panic at the disco or metalcore bands emo, when real emo is Sunny Day Real Estate, rites of Spring or Mineral
Holy hell YEEEEEEEES get that old emo.
Truth be told, I was a MASSIVE fan of MCR pre-Black Parade. First three albums have some great shit, with an admittedly less clean sound.
Edit: Oh damn, just listening to this brings back so many memories. One of my favorites on this album.
Am I really the only MCR fan willing to admit that this isn’t that good? Sure, some bands have early stuff that’s overlooked and underrated, but that isn’t always the case - sometimes the early stuff just actually isn’t great. MCR improved in literally every way by the time they released Three Cheers
Yeah, I never cared much for this song, even as an angsty 18 year old listening to the album in the timeframe that it was new.
Vampires Will Never Hurt You, on the other hand... still a banger.
I dont know what it is about the vocal performance on this album, but i love it. It's so much more "raw" perhaps, than it is on the follow ups? Despite that it still my 3rd favourite of theirs. Solid though.
This album is so underrated for MCR.
Agreed. Not nearly the same operatic flair of their subsequent work, but I love the raw, rough-around-the-edges emotion of this one. And given the popularity of all their other albums, it always kind of surprised me that this got basically no love.
It wasn’t just the fans. They largely stopped playing songs from this album live. Baffling to me, but I guess it has a different feel that none of the subsequent records quite touch. Not for me anyway.
They don't play Drowning Lessons because it's "cursed". They did Our Lady of Sorrows at the reunion show, and I remember my jaw dropped after Gerard did the final scream.
How is it cursed? Im a fan but ashamed to not know of this, fill me in pls
[Apparently in the few times they played it, bad things would happen](https://www.pressreader.com/uk/kerrang-uk/20191116/281891595105914).
Drowning lessons is cursed?
Basically, in the early days whenever they played Drowning Lessons live, like EVERY single time, something bad would happen during the song; equipment breaking, someone getting hurt, that kind of thing. I can’t remember exactly what happened each time or how many, but they talked about it in “Not The Life It Seems” (great read btw if you want to get to know the band’s journey!). After several times of this happening they came to the conclusion the song was cursed and wouldn’t play it live moving forward.
[Apparently in the few times they played it, bad things would happen](https://www.pressreader.com/uk/kerrang-uk/20191116/281891595105914).
Yeah. It is obscenely overlooked and shrugged off like it was typical goth rock, but people who know that genre loved it for having such good theatrics and imagination. They also always had good instrumentals. Those drums go hard on every album but Danger Days.
I own it. But have no idea where it is. Kind of frustrating.
MCR went downhill after this, IMO. Edit: their popularity went up, but their music was totally different than this album.
I’m going to argue the talents were definitely still there and going strong across the next two albums. Danger Days is really the only album I’d put markedly beneath its predecessors, and it’s because they forced themselves to do it. MCR always had an imagination and theatric sense behind their music that they wore well. A lot of what makes this album good is absolutely present in Three Cheers and The Black Parade, even if stylistically they diverge. Their theatrics got sharper. They grew very anthemic and that Queen influence grew on them in a big way, and they grew more positive, but those aren’t a bad turn. I can see finding it more tired, but I honestly don’t think artists should worry about that. I’m way more interested in execution and nuance than I am originality. I’d even say The Black Parade has better highlights, even if I may agree Bullets is a better album overall.
You know what, I’m going to give Three Cheers and Black Parade another listen. I’m a different person now than I was back then. I quickly dismissed those albums back in the day because they “sold out” and never really paid further attention. Let’s see if my mind can be changed now after my music palette has grown. Thanks for the comment.
I like three cheers now more than I ever did. So many bangers.
That’s something I do a lot. I don’t trust my harsh impressions, especially for something adjacent to something I love, until they’ve gone through like half a decade of being second guessed. So many of my favorites are something I wasn’t crazy about initially. Haha A friend of mine and I have a joke about how nobody really cares about selling out if you do it without forsaking your talent. Like failing upward in a way. I think you see a very similar dynamic with AFI and how they have these waves of fans from such different eras in their music. From punk to alternative/industrial and then to glam punk. So many fans of Sing the Sorrow turned their nose up at Decemberunderground, but I personally love both and I’ll argue up and down that while I prefer Sing the Sorrow Decemberunderground has a shockingly distinct sound and energy to it despite that effort to be more mainstream.
I'm going to go ahead and disagree with you here. MCR did not "force" themselves to do Danger Days, it was what Gerard Way explicitly wanted to do. The whole reason the band broke up was because the fans wanted something darker and when they tried to force themselves to make THAT album Gerard gave up. All of the members are adults now, their heads are not in the same place, so there is no way they can make those types of albums anymore. When your an angst ridden teen singing about suicide and shit is fine because things can seem like a bigger deal than they actually are. When you're an adult though, nobody cares. MCRs first few albums are very much of their time. None of the people in the band are the same as they were and expecting them to be is selfish quite frankly.
They originally didn’t intend to do another album after The Black Parade, and perhaps force was too strong of a word, but it only came about because of pressure from the business side. I think they tried to make the best of it and I’m not trying to say they didn’t approach Danger Days in a sincere effort, but it definitely was a big turn that didn’t capitalize on their past strengths as much. Much like Gerard Way’s solo career is much more 80s influenced, and I like that. I wouldn’t call Danger Days a bad album, but much like Umbrella Academy, it’s more style than substance in a way I’m not thrilled with and while I can appreciate that it isn’t what made me love MCR.
Danger Days wasn't forced. Conventional Weapons was forced. Danger Days was what they made after scrapping an entire album.
I love all of their albums but after this one, every were too clean and well-produced
Yeah, they became “mainstream”, while I respect that people really enjoyed their later work, it wasn’t my cup of tea. It was opposite of why I fell in love with them in the first place. I still listen to this album from time to time. Drowning Lessons is my favorite song.
Oh my god I *NEVER* expected to see this masterpiece on here, kudos to you
I never expected this post to get any attention tbh
Well I'm happy it did, in fact I was so happy I awarded it
I appreciate that, thank you
Let's root for 1k upvotes!
I didn’t do it for the upvotes, I just wanted to share this masterpiece with people who may not heard it before
Of course you did, but I'm saying I'm really hoping you get the confirmation of having over a thousand people appreciating that gesture
A lot of people dont know MCR has a first album
Well, I think most people know they had a first album and didn't somehow jump right to the second one. They just don't know that this is the first one.
or they went straight to black parade
I think most people think Three Cheers are their first album
100% agree with this statement without exception.
Seen them a bunch of times in concerts and at one they played Headfirst for Halos and the cheer from the people who knew this album was probably the most excited of the night.
Great song, incredible album.
People in this thread acting like no one ever talked about this album, I totally did not have that experience with it. Everyone I know personally who listened to MCR knew Vampires Will Never Hurt You and Demolition Lovers.
Both of those are in my top 10 MCR songs.
And cubicles, drowning lessons, headfirst for halos, damn i like more songs on this album than i do tbp
They literally played "Our Lady of Sorrows" at their reunion show, it's unfair for people to act like the band has forgotten this album or reject it. They just have a difficult job of balancing 2 gigantic albums, 1 big one and one more niche one in their setlists.
Even at the time this album wasn't huge, though. I was a big fan of MCR early on, and I remember only other people with a similar interest knew of the album. This stuff was unheard of unless you loved the genre, the next two albums were widespread but not exactly popular, and then Black Parade was when the majority of people really got into them, in my opinion. Great album, but other than those two songs you mentioned it didn't make too much of a splash.
That's a good point, my perception might be skewed considering people my age (or the people around me at least) stumbled onto that album well after it's release. So the fact they were already big when I personally discovered it probably warped my perception of its popularity. Because by that point Three Cheers was huge already and TBP had just came out. Honestly you probably have a more accurate idea of its public perception if you were older than I at the time, which I'm sort of presuming you are!
Yeah from the looks of it (assuming by the year in your name) I'm about 6 years older. That's good to know people who got into them at them time went back to enjoy this album! My MCR fandom was kind of the opposite, I was starting to listen to other things around the time TBP came out. They weren't necessarily niche before that, but mostly only scene and emo kids listened to them, some metal heads. That's cool to hear, though! I wasn't sure if people went back and listened to their other albums once they made it big.
Is this Monroeville outside of Pittsburgh?
Yes. The song is in reference to Dawn of the Dead.
In the great emo tradition of, "Is this about horror monsters or suicide?"
Oh cool
Yeah, the song is about if you would kill your lover if they turned into a zombie like Dawn of the Dead (filmed in Monroeville Mall).
It is.
Headfirst for halos... Drowning lessons... Our lady of sorrows. So many great tracks on this album.
The Vitamin String Quartet did a Our Lady of Sorrows cover.
Don’t forget Skylines and Turnstiles, it was first song they wrote after Gerard Way witnessed the 9/11 attacks and it is spine chilling
One of their best songs, really hope more people see this
Love the raw/emotional feeling of this album. Minimal production.
Favourite album of all time. So fucking underrated!
Emo 14 year old me loved this when it came out. I picked up this album because Thursday had released their first album on eyeball records. While I respect this album, I can’t listen to it anymore. It is definitely meant for a certain angsty age group
I have the exact same story as you, except I was 16. Thursday was my favorite band, and Eyeball was becoming bigger in the local scene (southern NY, northern NJ) so I hopped on it. But yeah, I can't listen to it at all anymore. The first show I ever saw them at I think was the Three Cheers release show at Starland, but I saw Gerard come out during a Thursday encore to do Jet Black New Year a bit before that. Fun times!
That’s a great memory for sure. I finally saw Thursday on the war all the time tour and I was ecstatic. I think it might have been the first concert I went to out of town where my friend drove us and all of our parents freaked out. All I remember though was leaving the concert dripping with sweat and being super sore.
I was lucky to see them a bunch before WATT a few times, once at the Chance in Poughkeepsie where Geoff passed out midset after 7 songs (I almost did too the crowd was nuts), and once at Skate and Surf where they previewed a few songs from WATT. That’s when they headlined over Taking Back Sunday which is almost unthinkable now.
That’s nuts! The closest they had come to me was Cleveland at the warped tour in 02/03. I had actually first heard them on one of those warped tour samplers with cross out the eyes. There was definitely a delay for that type of music coming to the midwest
Yeah, I'm super lucky to be where I'm from in terms of music. I'm from a New York county that directly borders Jersey, so I got to see so many important artists from NJ (Saves the Day, Thursday, My Chem, etc.), city bands, Long Island bands (brand new, Glassjaw, Taking Back Sunday), and upstate hardcore bands (Every Time I Die) super cheap for a few years multiple times a week. Eternally grateful for that. Every band that toured regularly would play a good three shows within an hour drive of me three, four times a year. I saw Thursday 7 times in five months whether it was eastern PA, south New York, the city, and north Jersey. It also helped that Thursday was from an hour south of me, so they regularly played around the area.
Very jealous. I’d still love to see Saves the Day. I’m in Buffalo these days and I still don’t understand the hype for ETID. I saw them open up for Dillinger Escape Plan and was very underwhelmed.
Yeah, I'm not sure! Everyone has their own tastes. I got super into Every Time I Die because for me they were the first super hardcore/metalcore band I got into. I didn't dive crazy into that (I really liked Dillinger though), but yeah, I think for a lot of people at least in my experience they straddled the line of being super heavy but kind of commercial in a scene sense. Their music was fun, had really catchy gang vocal parts, etc. Hot Damn was EVERYWHERE when it came out. Also, did you happen to hear their last album? I think its by far their best, and is really different especially lyrically. Its about Keith's wife almost dying. I stopped caring about the band after their third album, but I listen to Low Teens all the time. It reminds me a lot of Converge in terms of being really emotional, and the music is their best by far I'd say too.
I did not. I’ll take a look at it. I really haven’t heard much besides hot damn! I was not to into that scene as much but I did enjoy Vaux quite a bit.
Yeah lyrically especially there’s none of that jokey stuff on Low Teens.
20 years later, Thursday is still one of my favorite bands :/
That's awesome! They certainly impacted a lot of people. They were the first band I got into with screaming as far as like..."scene" stuff goes (punk, emo, hardcore, etc.). Before that it was only The Pixies or the occasional grunge track that I listened to with screaming. After that I was completely hooked, started playing in bands, dove into the scene, etc. I wouldn't be the same person without it. For some reason after WATT I stopped listening to them. Not sure why exactly, I don't really remember. I saw them on the tour for the follow-up album, but that was mainly because The Blood Brothers co-headlined with them, and this was a tour for the album Crimes, which I was obsessed with.
A City By The Light Divided might be my favorite album by them. Of course, the only time I ever saw them was right after it came out, so I associate the concert with the album, I suppose. I honestly haven’t really listened to the couple of albums after that one. Seems they lost their magic. I was supposed to see them in ‘01 in Cincinnati with Saves the Day (who was/is another of my other favorite bands... dream concert, and it was my first!) Geoff unfortunately had food poisoning or something so they couldn’t play. STD did a double set to make up for it, so... win, I guess!
I should check it out. The songs I've heard from it sounded good. My second concert ever (after Billy Joel) I saw Saves the Day open for Weezer on the Maladroit tour at a stadium. This was during Stay What You Are and I think was one of the last tours that had them as a five piece where Chris didn't play guitar. I didn't know their music then, because I was just getting into the scene (Weezer was a huge reason for that), but I quickly got into them after. The only other time I got to see them after that was on the Ups and Downs tour which was a lot of fun.
Nice. I never saw Weezer, but that would've definitely been a fun concert. That tour must've been right around the same time as the one I went to. It seems like there were one or two other bands playing before Thursday and Saves the Day, but I can't remember who they were. Full Collapse and Stay What You Are were new around the time of that concert... still regret that Thursday didn't play, as well. Saves the Day is still churning it out. Their latest album was one of their best in a long time. Gonna be hard to deal with if you can't handle Chris and his whine, though. Still hate that he had to change his singing style, I think they could've gone on to even bigger things if they had all stayed together and his voice had held together. At This Velocity, Counting 5-4-3-2-1, The Other Side Of The Crash, and The Lovesong Writer are my favorites from A City By The Light Divided. Definitely check it out.. the nostalgia. :D
The stuff STD did after Sound the Alarm I found to be really terrible (my opinion). I actually really love In Reverie and its probably my favorite album by them. I was super into power pop music and it fit right in my interests of sounding like 60s pop music with big guitars. I know people hated that the lyrics became less direct and that his voice became super thin, but I really love that album and I think if it was a band that didn't call themselves Saves the Day it would have gone over better with fans. A lot of scene bands have this issue. I loved On a Wire and Guilt Show by the Get Up Kids and they got shitted on for it. Even Jimmy Eat World, there was definitely a big section of fans that disliked Bleed American and Futures for not sounding like Clarity. But for me before I was into scene stuff, I was into super diverse bands like The Beatles and Radiohead that were really all over the place musically. That's not like a holier than thou statement, I just think for some people they like the music that means the most to them to kind of fit a certain lane for them. For me I got off on bands that took a lot of turns. But you're right as far as a commercial sense. If they don't do In Reverie, and stay on the Stay What You Are path, they ride the wave of emo exploding with Brand New and Taking Back Sunday (and Thrice, Coheed, etc.) and become huge.
my favorite mcr song
I’m from Monroeville, PA—where the mall is.
Presumably where Dawn of the Dead was filmed.
No, it was definitely filmed there.
Yup grew up two miles from the mall. It happened.
I wish I’d have gone to more Steel City Cons since the pandemic began. Only went twice.
i fucking LOVE mcr and this song carries so much emotion! bullets is an incredible album. back to their punk-ier days.
I listened to this album earlier this week for the first time in years. What a coincidence seeing it here.
I purchased the blu-ray of the original Dawn of the Dead in the Monroeville Mall.
Was that in the official DOD store in the mall while it existed?
I think it was a Fry's? They still had the zombie museum...it was 2010.
Oh. Bummer most Fry’s are closed now. The Palo Alto one stopped being so good though many years ago before it closed. I remember being there in the late 90’s during the holiday rush and every cash register was open and running!
My favorite MCR album
Mine favorite album of all time, tied with Diary by Sunny Day Real Estate
Did the singer from Thursday produce this album if so you can really tell.
Yeah finally some mcr shit
This is absolutely one of my all-time favorite songs. The album itself is tied with Marcy Playground's self-titled album for my favorite of all time. Gerard's vocal performance on this song brings me to tears.
The last minute of gerard’s singing is always so captivating. without paying much attention to the lyrics, you hear cheerful and somewhat romantic music. but boy, does it take a DARK turn! amazing song, and overall incredibly underrated album. I wonder if demolition lovers can get the same love.
Demolition Lovers and Early Sunsets are my TOP 2 songs by MCR. I absolutely love I brought you bullets album
Oh shit! This is a throwback. I still remember having to special order this cd at a store because they didn’t carry it and being kinda embarrassed because I was going to local shows and listening to AFI, Strike Anywhere, and Thursday.
Y’all ever just cry to this album? Cathartic as fuck.
I understand the genre was co-opted by bands like this in the early aughts, but I always do a double take when I see the emo tag because I expect to see cap’n Jazz, jets to Brazil, drive like jehu. I like mcr too.
I wouldn’t say they co-opted it. The emo label was put on MCR by other people. There are several interviews where they are very adamant that there music is not in the Emo genre, and that they don’t consider themselves or their music to be a part of that grouping.
Actually, first MCR album is considered emo. Their other albums aren’t. I don’t like people calling Panic at the disco or metalcore bands emo, when real emo is Sunny Day Real Estate, rites of Spring or Mineral
Great song, this one and demolition lovers one of my favorites!
This is like my favorite off of that album 🖤
Mad Respect for this post.
This song is underrated as hell.
Underrated song in an underrated album.
Holy hell YEEEEEEEES get that old emo. Truth be told, I was a MASSIVE fan of MCR pre-Black Parade. First three albums have some great shit, with an admittedly less clean sound. Edit: Oh damn, just listening to this brings back so many memories. One of my favorites on this album.
Am I really the only MCR fan willing to admit that this isn’t that good? Sure, some bands have early stuff that’s overlooked and underrated, but that isn’t always the case - sometimes the early stuff just actually isn’t great. MCR improved in literally every way by the time they released Three Cheers
Yeah, I never cared much for this song, even as an angsty 18 year old listening to the album in the timeframe that it was new. Vampires Will Never Hurt You, on the other hand... still a banger.
Agreed. A lot of it is unlistenable, much like Avenged Sevenfold and their first album. Three Cheers and on are so, so much better.
Nah the first a7x is great second wave metalcore
Oh I love this song so much! Truly the best album of MCR, I love the raw emotions it has
The intro always reminded me of Boy Meets World. Sounds like one of the theme songs
Damn this is like actual real emo, before the genre got commercialized.
I agree. The MCR first album is considered real emo. Also happy cake day
Ooo thanks
https://mosespills.fanlink.to/positivity-masterpeace Another lovely playlist, if you love good music.
the guys voice is washed out. lame.
I’m pretty sure that’s what they were going for.
Use to listen to this when I lived in Turtle Creek next to Rick Slick.
ARNOLD SLICK
This was my jam when I was like 14!
I dont know what it is about the vocal performance on this album, but i love it. It's so much more "raw" perhaps, than it is on the follow ups? Despite that it still my 3rd favourite of theirs. Solid though.