Emo kids around the world imagined everything about a My Chemical Romance comeback – except for this. After the rock band announced their reunion on Halloween and played a massive comeback show in LA in December 2019, they were set to return to the UK and Ireland this year. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the band had to reschedule their reunion shows in Cornwall, Milton Keynes and Dublin for June 2021. But fans don’t have to worry about their favourite emo band disappearing from the surface again: When bassist Mikey Way was chatting to Radio 1 Newsbeat, he reassured that lockdown is only “a pause button” for the band.
“It’s easy for me to say we had a plan, but everyone had a plan, you know what I mean?”, Way says. My Chemical Romance’s reunion show in December was the first show the band played live together after their last show in 2012, which was followed by their break-up in 2013. But just as the iconic rock band was about to start performing together again, the coronavirus put their plan on hold. “Live music isn’t going anywhere, it’s just on pause for everybody”, the bassist says, but he’s trying to not let it get to him: “I’m trying to take myself out of a selfish place. Everyone I know was about to do something.” The current situation has caused everyone to pause, not only the music scene, Way admits: “Whether you’re in a band, you’re a director, you work a retail job, you’re a gardener – you had a plan, and now it’s been disrupted.”
What are the odds that my chemical romance break up for 7 years, decide to reunite and to a world wide reunion tour only for there to be a worldwide fucking pandemic?
— whatsername (@Nia_papaya_) May 18, 2020
Whilst fans still have to wait for musical news from Way and his colleagues, they can still expect some news from their favourite bassist: His music plans with My Chemical Romance might be on hold, but his other artistic plans aren’t. In 2019, Way published his first series of comics, called Collapser, and he just announced news about releasing another graphic novel in September. His newest piece of work is inspired by and named after his other band, Electric Century, with the band’s new album coming out at the same time as a soundtrack to the novel.
Even though we must wait another year to see the iconic reunion happen in the UK, it’s still something to get excited about – and bassist Mikey Way agrees: “I feel like people are waiting with bated breath. It’s a light at the end of the tunnel and I think there’s something really cool about that.”
