Babymetal is my favorite band of all time. Before discovering them, my favorite band was My Chemical Romance. So a year ago when they announced they were going to be doing a show together, there was no way I was missing the opportunity to see my two favorite bands on the same night in what is certainly a dream lineup for me. This outing would also see me traveling from Florida to California for the third time to see Babymetal, and in the end, the long trip was certainly worth it.
We arrived at the Petco Park early, where there was already an hours-long line formed up just for merch. The outside merch stands were only selling My Chemical Romance merchandise, and I was able to acquire a tour shirt from the band. Once they let us in the venue, we had to traverse to the far opposite end of the venue in order to find a merch stand that was selling Babymetal merch, and even then, they weren't selling nearly everything that was initially advertised as being available. I still got a shirt, even if it wasn't the one I was hoping for, but that holdup concerning the lack of Babymetal's merch was really my only complaint of the event.
I had my group of Babymetal fans I was in attendance with, and there were many more of us throughout the venue, though we were much further and farther between compared to My Chemical Romance fans, this being an away game for our girls and all. So that was an interesting dynamic I hadn't yet experienced before at a Babymetal concert, being a part of the minority of fans in attendance, but it was fun spotting the Babymetal fans in a sea of MCR fans as we waited for the show to begin.
The show started promptly at 7:00 as fans were still filing into the venue, and Babymetal made their way out to the stage with the sun still shining in the night sky. Being in a baseball stadium, our seats were still quite a ways away from the stage, even though ours were among the closer ones in the stands. Thankfully though, they had a number of giant screens that broadcast the performance for everyone to see everything clearly. I took a lot of video throughout the concert, but seeing as I spent most of the show watching the concert on the big screens as opposed to the stage, I didn't feel too bothered about filming so much.
Being the opening band, Babymetal's set was an abbreviated one. They played eight songs, typically consisting of their bigger hits, but the show was outstanding. My group was into the whole thing, screaming and singing along to all of the songs, dancing in our seats, and getting low for Metali. It was interesting though how much the crowd came alive during Gimme Chocolate, as suddenly we weren't the only ones in our area singing along. The resident MCR fan in our group mentioned that he noticed quite a bit of Babymetal fans around the venue interacting with the songs throughout their set, but we didn't even notice because we were so locked in on the epic show. (He was also particularly impressed by their song From Me To U, and asked me to send him that song after the performance!)
It may have been a shorter set, but honestly, this was one of the most fun times I've ever had watching Babymetal, even with this being my eighth time seeing them live. We had a blast from start to finish, but up next was the main attraction of the evening, and we were in for a theatrical treat. My Chemical Romance's performance of their album The Black Parade was a straight up stage production. There were recurring characters, vignettes between songs, elaborate costumes and shows of pyrotechnics, and a whole story playing out as they performed the album start to finish, as a massive deafening crowd screamed and sang along throughout. Welcome to the Black Parade was a huge highlight to experience live, but honestly, the biggest shocker was probably their performance of Mama. They went all out with this performance, and put on an absolute spectacle.
I was a little concerned going into the show that it was going to grow exhausting, as I had caught wind of how long My Chemical Romance's set was. Thankfully, after they finished performing The Black Parade in its entirety (including a reprise of The End right at the tail end at that!), they actually included an intermission, in which we still got to hear live music being performed. That was a nice breather. Afterwards, MCR came back on the center stage among the crowd on the floor, now dressed in more casual attire, where they essentially gave us a second concert, consisting of various songs from their other three albums. Helena was was especially thrilling for me, as it's my favorite song of theirs, so it was awesome to see it live. My MCR buddy and I were both screaming and singing along throughout, and my Babymetal pals were grooving to the music as well. The band closed out strong with a performance of their hit song I'm Not Okay, and they sent us home satisfied with huge grins on our faces.
All in all, this show was excellent, and is up there among the best concert experiences I've had. And as I had mentioned before, it was totally worth the travel. Afterwards, I attempted to go to a 24 hour tattoo shop across the street to get a MCR/Babymetal tattoo to commemorate the occasion, an idea that I had literally dreamed about sometime before the show, but the shop was tied up at the time. So I booked an appointment for the next day instead, and got my tattoo to act as a memento for such an awesome trip, where I got to see my two favorite bands live.
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