By Ellis Clark

My Chemical Romance (MCR) are halfway through their Long Live the Black Parade tour and are taking a break until the new year and have announced support acts for the 2026 half of the tour.

There has been lots of discussion surrounding the tour, from being crowned one of the most theatrical live music shows of all time to the choice of opening acts.

The first half of the tour (the USA leg) had many famous names such as Alice Cooper and Evanescence. The North American dates for 2026 were also announced and included big names such as Franz Ferdinand and Jimmy Eat World, some fans felt this was a biased choice leaving the USA dates with the best opening acts.

Following the announcement of the UK support, there was conversation, confusion and controversy by their seemingly random eclectic choice of opening bands.

With the Liverpool show being opened by new wave band Echo and the Bunnymen, the Glasgow show by indie rock band Idlewide, the London shows by alternative metal band Skunk Anansie, punk rock singer Joan Jett and post-hardcore band Sunny Day Real Estate.

Sunny Day Real Estate are one of the acts supporting MCR in 2026

The two Europe dates also had their opening acts announced, with Florence being opened by post-punk revival band Interpol and Madrid's show by post-rock band Mogwai.

There has been plenty of confusion amongst fans surrounding the seemingly random mix of bands and especially genres when it came to pick the opening acts, with majority of the opening acts being completely different genres from each other, let alone from MCR.

With MCR being one of the biggest emo bands of all time, it seems strange decision to have other genres and bands supporting them, despite this they chose bands featuring completely separate music genres this is leaving fans with the question, how and why did MCR pick this seemly random mixed bag of openers?

A quote from the band's bassist, Frank Iero about the opening act for London night two, Sunny Day Real Estate, gives us an insight into their process.

“I discovered Sunny Day Real Estate when I was in eighth grade before I had started singing in a band. At the time, all I did was listen to punk and hardcore, so when I heard the songs and the melodies, it cracked my mind right open in the best way.”

This can only lead us to the conclusion that the members of MCR are picking their opening acts based on their own taste and not based on their own genre or what would typically be their audiences' taste.

This method of picking opening acts is incredibly rare in the music industry, typically a bands record label chooses a band tailored to the audiences assumed music taste, usally the band members have little to no say.

The real question is, will this approach work? Will this choice further secure My Chemical Romance’s place as scene superstars, and will this unique choice create a trend for other artists on future tours? Fans final verdict might become clear when the tour wraps up once and for all at the end of 2026.

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