Item: Life on the Murder Scene
Rating: 6
Author: rollingstone

6.0/ 10

“Just because the gothed-out jersey boys in My Chemical Romance can now fill arenas doesn't mean their hearts aren't still in the mildewed basements where they got their start playing DIY hardcore shows. As this live set shows, My Chem remain a punk band, and their flashes of reckless, claws-bared greatness tend to happen outside […]”

Just because the gothed-out jersey boys in My Chemical Romance can now fill arenas doesn't mean their hearts aren't still in the mildewed basements where they got their start playing DIY hardcore shows. As this live set shows, My Chem remain a punk band, and their flashes of reckless, claws-bared greatness tend to happen outside the studio, in front of the fans. Life on the Murder Scene, which also includes two DVDs collecting video diaries and performance footage, captures more than a few of those flashes, whether it's the way they barrel through "Give 'Em Hell, Kid" at breakneck speed without once checking the rearview mirror, or the way singer Gerard Way ad-libs, Gordon Gano-style, "I hope you know this is gonna go down on your permanent rrrrrreeeeeeeeeeecord" during "You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison." Way's voice is in top form, even when he's shrieking (because, seriously, even shrieking can be out of tune), and Life on the Murder Scene pulls all the right guns from My Chem's arsenal of songs. As live albums go, this one is A-O-fucking-K.