The Concept Of Performing A Concept Album
Anyone who knows me knows that at the beginning of September of this year, I saw the rock band My Chemical Romance in concert. And by anyone who knows me, I mean anyone. My parents, my coworkers, baristas, and even grocery clerks. Everyone heard that I was going to their concert, and I only became even more of a My Chemical Romance-themed nuisance after their performance.
While the vocals were amazing and the riffs were absolutely heartstopping, neither of these things was the reason I couldn’t get the show out of my mind (and lips!) for weeks. It was rather the theater-like performance of the concert that left me shocked in the best way possible.
“Long Live The Black Parade”, the name of the North American stadium tour My Chemical Romance just completed, featured a full performance of their 2006 concept album The Black Parade. A concept album can be defined as a musical album where the songs together contain a larger overarching plot or meaning that connects all the tracks.
The Black Parade serves as a good example of a concept album, with the tracks taking listeners through the story of a terminally ill patient to explore themes of life, death, and humanity, heralded by many listeners as a rock opera.
Many other famous artists have successful concept albums lodged in their discography, such as Badlands by Halsey, a hallmark of the grunge aesthetic that invaded Tumblr upon its release, and The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars by David Bowie, a tale of an alien that finds fame as a rock star on a planet facing impending doom.
If the concept of telling a tale through a concept album excites you, then you must understand how exciting the concept of a concept album being performed live is. Numerous musicians have used concert tours for concept albums as a way to keep building upon the themes and worlds they created when first publishing the record, pulling listeners in deeper.
My Chemical Romance certainly hasn’t failed to do this with their North American tour. Rather than honing in on the character of the terminally ill man they started their album with, they chose to paint a vivid image of the world the album is set to exist in. They immerse concert goers into the fictional country of Draag, complete with a national anthem and a set of national rules displayed before the actual show starts. Fans are gifted with signs to participate in a vote, introduced to a “grand immoral dictator”, and background visuals portraying what the fictional country looks like. Even the band themselves were decked out in uniforms.
This intricate performance lit fans up, leading them to draft up their own theories about the revisited story of The Black Parade, reanalyzing the themes of the original concept album and weaving in theories of how the lore provided in their performances could correlate to the record.
A live performance of a concept album is so much more than a concert. It's an experience. You don’t just walk away from the concert with a bunch of blurry videos and a full heart, but a connection to a new world you have never witnessed before. It is a way to transport yourself deeper into the music you love, and interact with artists and fans alike in the way you all become members of the world of these concept albums. What a concept!
Strike out,
Alara Ataman
Boca Raton
Alara Ataman is a Content Writer for Strike Magazine. An avid fan of fashion, this Pisces can be found scrolling through Depop or elbows deep in a thrift store looking for the perfect piece. If you can’t find her doing this, you may find her browsing numerous cafes in her endless quest for the perfect iced coffee. You can reach her at @leopard_fawn on most social media platforms.
