Now I’m tuned in… and I can’t look away! It’s down to a pretty real battle I’ve witnessed first hand. My Chemical Romance vs. Coheed and Cambria. No, I haven’t seen the members throw down. As far as I know, they’re totally cool with each other. The two have played plenty of shows together, stemming back to the early days. Pre-obscene make-up and comic books.
I first took note (and created a mental rivalry) back when Co&Ca filmed their Live at the Starland Ballroom DVD. Though MCR was a scene giant, Co&Ca had a slightly larger fanbase- fresh off their first headlining Warped Tour- selling out the show within minutes (I guess the tickets being $0.92 helped too… and I could swear one of the MCR dudes was biting off Claudio’s hair). That was August 20th, 2004. A few months later the two bands performed at the same venue, this time as a benefit for the victims of the massive Christmas Tsunami. January 12th, 2005 was the date. Taking Back Sunday headlined and My Chemical Romance performed second to last. Coheed and Cambria had the spot before MCR. Most felt Co&Ca’s set was a flop, since they utilized their half hour by sharing 3 songs no one had ever heard before. Soon as I realized this was happening, I hit the record button on my digital camera to capture some audio, shitty as it may be, to preserve the moment and share with my friends around the world. News from the band was few and far between and I felt the need to share my privilege. They’d been writing in Applehead Studio for their third LP, Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV | Volume I: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness and took a break for this worthy cause organized by Linkin Park’s Music For Relief and the new defunct 92.3 K-Rock. The line-up for this first concert was Like Yesterday, The Banner, Senses Fail, Coheed and Cambria, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday. Yeah, even though Coheed and Cambria headlined the same venue 4/5 months earlier with tickets selling out faster than this event, My Chemical Romance shot up in national fame and at this point were nearly as popular as Taking Back Sunday. The line-up for Sunday, January 16 was: Like Yesterday, The Youth Ahead, Gym Class Heroes, Silverstein, Underoath, MewithoutYou, Catch 22, The Early November, Midtown and The Starting Line. Overall $150,000 was raised and donated.
I had just volunteered to help out with a baby fansite with big dreams… and this was pre-youtube. Anyway, I sent the videos to Brian who sent ‘em to someone else to strip the audio and make it sound as decent as possible. AbsolutePunk.net recognized our “exclusive” and wrote about Cobalt and Calcium for the first time. A few weeks later Claudio Sanchez registered to post some silliness about the studio and figure out how to download the live audio sets we’d gathered from all the other failed/abandoned fansites and others’ harddrives. It’s funny how things work out.
I like “Helena” and all, but overall I feel Coheed and Cambria has better songs than My Chemical Romance. I hope Co&Ca wins. That’d be some poetic justice for sure. Especially after MTV’s review of CoCa’s set that show was nothing but negativity… about what blossomed into some of the best Rock songs of the decade. > MTV: Taking Back Sunday, MCR Unite for Tsunami Benefit
My Chem got to the championship by hammering Muse in the semifinal, winning 69-31, getting balanced scoring from the Way brothers and a triple-double from guitarist Ray Toro, who abused Muse’s Christopher Wolstenholme in the low post. Thanks to the fanatical support of their MCRmy, My Chem have knocked off not only Muse, but upstarts Panic! at the Disco, tournament favorites 30 Seconds to Mars, the mighty Pearl Jam and the upset-minded Gorillaz, and now they stand on the precipice of claiming their first-ever championship.
Of course, it’s not going to be easy, because standing in their way are Coheed and Cambria, who may be unstoppable at this point (they are definitely the Duke to MCR’s Butler), especially after C&C mauled Tokio Hotel in the semifinal, winning 62-38 (the actual numbers were 30,788 votes to 18,491). And yes, we’re aware that there were some, uh, shenanigans being employed by Coheed fans, but they don’t seem to have overly skewed the results, so Coheed move on! (Take heart, Tokio fanatics, the band’s defeat will not be in vain: We’re going to safeguard finals voting against any further chicanery using top-secret technology.)
So who will come out on top in our Musical March Madness championship game, My Chemical Romance or Coheed and Cambria? The MCRmy or the Children of the Fence? It’s going to be one for the ages, for certain.
> MTV’s Musical March Madness: Championship Matchup Revealed!
Polls are open until April 6th at 10pm (EST, I assume)
Vote here > MTV News’ Musical March Madness Championship Game: My Chemical Romance Vs. Coheed And Cambria
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