🎄 My Chemical Romance, 2002-12-18, Trocadero, Philadelphia, PA, US [EARLY RECORDING]

Happy Solstice! Here's some coal for the naughty.

Live recording of My Chemical Romance on 2002-12-18 at Trocadero in Philadelphia, PA, US.

I was really hoping that this would've been the earliest known recording of It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's A Fucking Deathwish. Alas, the rug was pulled out when ‪@plentyoflegs‬ posted their video of the Fireside Bowl show that happened 16 days before this show. At the very least, the audio quality here should be much better! This is the first time I heard the song.

There's a LOT of fun banter in this one. Some of the old boardies are called out by Ray. Gerard dedicated Our Lady Of Sorrows to the members of the street team that were present and requests to see "you guys dance it up, but nobody gets hurt!"—ever concerned about the safety of the audience, even in 2002. Frank dedicated a song to himself. Gerard had no story when one was needed. Oh, and just you wait you hear what happened between Frank's mouth and Gerard's hand. 🤣

Lore time: sometime back in April or May of 2003, I shared the Deathwish recording with the street team website Unleash The Bats. [1] Originally, I mislabeled the filename as "thisisntafashionstatementitsafuckingdeathwish.mp3" (go easy on me!) and had them update the website to link to a newer, properly titled, file directly from my server. This time the file was named "my_chemical_romance_-_it's_not_a_fashion_statement,_it's_a_deathwish.mp3" and I received a credit on the website! [2]

It was always very exciting to have these recordings used for official promotion or release. A true honor.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/200305021...

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/200305250...

00:00:00 - It's Not A Fashion Statement, It's A Fucking Deathwish
00:04:30 - Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough For The Two Of Us
00:09:08 - Our Lady Of Sorrows
00:11:45 - Headfirst For Halos
00:16:07 - This Is The Best Day Ever
00:19:38 - Jack The Ripper [Morrissey]
00:23:34 - Vampires Will Never Hurt You

Recording: Sony ECM-717 / Sharp MD MT-90
Transfer: Sony MDS-PC3 / iRiver H120 (Rockbox 3.10) (optical)

Recording by @spaceyraygun
Transfer by @deadhoarse