My Chemical Romance - EARLY SHOW - Fireside Bowl, Chicago, IL 

this feels like an archeological discovery

I was the drummer for Brazil on this tour. We had just played. If you look off the side of the stage you can see us Brazil guys and all the UnderOath guys watching MCRs set periodically. We knew MCR was special. Every guy in each band on the tour were the nicest guys you could ever meet. This tour was a blast. All the bands had a snowball fight after this show, no joke.

For anybody wondering, this gig took place on December 2nd, 2002! The band played with Brazil and Underoath! 🙂

I filmed this video at the Fireside Bowl. Piebald was the headliner if I remember correctly. One of the 1st big tours MCR ever got on.... Glad this footage made its way out to the public, its about damn time.

I feel like frank is naked without all his tattoos This video is almost 20 years old,that’s fucking insane

love that mikey still has a sparkly bass after all these years

“Why are you guys so violent?” G: “it’s not violence bro it’s aggression. We’re not violent at all” 😇 G: “But we’re packing weapons” 😤

the camera mostly focusing on frank it's so funny

Wow these kids are talented. I’m sure they’ll go somewhere.

There's something unreal about watching this amateur band barely anyone has ever heard of belting out these new songs they wrote - song that were such an important part of your early teenage years, nearly two decades ago now - and knowing that just a few years after this video was filmed, they'd be blowing up on MTV and selling out arenas. That 5 years after this was filmed, they'd have have become a household name. That 10-15 years after this was filmed, they'd have become icons for an entire generation of adults looking back on their formative years. That 15-20 years after this was filmed, a whole new generation of kids would be discovering them for the first time and reliving that experience you had all those years ago.

I cant believe we're getting new bullets content in the year 2022, thank you!!

watching this video while knowing that tonight they’ll play in an arena is making me emotional

This show oozes raw punk energy. Seeing the early version of ‘It’s Not a Fashion Statement’ was so sick. The crowd was wild throwing water, snowballs and spitting. Frank’s screams are insane. ‘Vampires will never hurt you’ live is perfect. What an incredible relic and performance shout out mcr, the filmer, and the uploader :p

from what depths of hell did this come from lol

Idk who wore it better: rays TORO SAUROUS shirt, mikeys glitter bass, otters eraserhead shirt, franks overly baggy jeans or the duct tape wrapped around gerards pants.

Frank had no chill back in the days he was like an energizer bunny lol 😂and that girl in the crowd had the hots for all of them.

it's so rad to see Vampires, 20 years later still closing sets.

huge win for the no showers community

i remember my parents wouldn't let me go to this show cuz "it was in a bad neighborhood" but i caught them at the metro a couple months later

u have just sent a shockwave thru the mcr fandom u have no idea how much we appreciate it thank u

So funny how he is asking them to crowd closer back then and now he has to ask them to step back.

As someone who is about to start a band, this is really inspiring and makes me not wanting to give up.

I can't believe i'm hearing fashion statement in what looks like them from when bullets came out? insane it sounded perfect

6:48 “why is your band so violent?” “Its not violence bro, it’s just aggression. ”

You can hear Frank's screams even without microphone 😳 what an intimate show

I will never get tired of seeing Ray's fro in these early videos

Idk man, but I'm pretty sure a My Chemical Romance fan will create the time machine. Just imagining been there and witness this is the motivation needed to do it.

This is such an amazing find holy shit! Mikey still has his sparkly bass; the one that fell out of the back of their trailer after Frank didn’t close it properly! This would have been *right* before Frank got his scorpion tat because there are pics from later in the month where it’s fresh! AAAHHH HISTORY!

Bless someone for collecting fetus mcr pixels 20 years ago in a BOWLING alley on a MONDAY!!!

👏 to whomever usurped my claim of earliest recording of deathwish. keep 'em coming!

At 15:54 Gerard gets hit in the neck with a snowball and basically just smiles and moves on no questions asked✨

As much as I love their arena stuff, the intimacy of these early shows is just unmatched

I need this video broke down into one frame per minute and then all tatooed in sequence as an arroyo on my back

The weirdest thing to me, is that there were bands like this playing shows like this (vfw halls, garages, parties, etc.) across the entire country at the same time. Ya never know who makes it out.

And they're still standing in the same order as today

imagine being at one of their early shows. like being able to experience their energy that hasn’t changed a single ounce decades later, up close and talking to them between songs bc they can actually hear you. how raw and personal the early shows must’ve been. envious of elder emos, but soso glad they share their experiences w everyone else

Gerard's energy on stage is unmatched

I can smell this room

I live down the street from Fireside and we walked right past Gerard, but didn't know at the time that was him until we saw MCR at the Congress Theater a short time later and he was talking about Fireside.. If only I had known who they were gonna be..

It's crazy seeing a song from Revenge being played in a bowling alley

I want to go back in time and be born wherever this is and have Gerard screaming at my fucking face.

2002-2004 emo scene was unmatched.

And here I thought I’d seen it all. This is a fucking treat man

wow thats so crazy, frank didnt even have his scorpion tattoo yet

26:58 I fucking love Mikey's bass here

Deathwish has been around way longer than I thought!

This is so beautiful to watch, they grew so fucking much.

there is something about gerard way that is so magnetic that even back in these wild ass days, there are people professing their love. amazing.

Watching them play Our Lady of Sorrows and knowing that I *SCREAMED* the lyrics last month when I saw them live exactly the way it was intended: like it was 2002 in a Chicago bowling alley 😌🥰

The more I watch old videos of both MCR and At The Drive-In, the more I notice Gerard and Cedric Bixler-Zavala move the same. The shaking, the crawling, the microphone spins, the jerky movements. So cool

these guys had NO IDE what was coming and its making me emotional man.

It's so easy to forget how fucking mind-blowingly amazing MCR were in the early days! Insane!

I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO EMOTIONALLY RECOVER FROM THIS

I wonder if this person realizes they literally filmed a super cool piece of history. Like this is a gem fr

I saw them for the first time not too long after this date, they were the most exciting band I'd ever seen live, and they still are today. My favorite band of all time. ❤️

The way he says “that was refreshing” right before Our Lady of Sorrows, after he got splashed? Amazing. What an absolute fucking legend

Oh my god they were BABIES

who was sitting on this for 20 years omg

SETLIST 00:00 - Soundcheck 2:58 - It’s Not a Fashion Statement, It’s a Deathwish 8:01 - Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for the Two of Us 12:50 - Our Lady Of Sorrows 16:00 - Headfirst for Halos 20:20 - This is the Best Day Ever 23:10 - Skylines and Turnstiles 26:55 - Jack The Ripper (Morrissey Cover) 31:20 - Vampires Will Never Hurt You

The quality is super good for a 2002 show wow

A fucking bowling alley?! I’m all in the feels right Now they are performing the SAME SONGS in an arena 🥰

bassline on jack the ripper cover was nuts

Dude you have no idea the impact you just had on this fandom.

So awesome to see a show with Matt, my favorite drummer. Loved his rawness and speed!! All around punk vibes that made those first two albums the gems that they are.

Hearing them play these songs for the first time ever on their first show back in LA last week was something I’ll never forget. Then I find this gem and it just brings me back to a whole other world of nostalgia. From being a middle school kid seeing the high schoolers wearing their MCR jackets not knowing who they were or what but knowing I wanted to know and being given a burnt CD with bands I didn’t know just lyrics I could google and find and finding their music and others will always be a staple point in my life I will always cherish. Music has and always will save me. This is why I’m alive and why I live. Thank you. Cheers.

I was JUST thinking about how I’d kill to see a bullets era set and then this is uploaded!! thank you so much!

Man that early Fashion Statement is amazing. I really hope they do a 20th anniversary deluxe edition of 3 cheers and we get some early demos

when the soundcheck is over and they start playing...... its just absolute ENERGY. WOW

They may be playing a smaller venue but they're were likely a cut above other bands playing similar sized venues. To play with that energy, tightness and musicality takes talent, charisma and passion. It's unsurprisingly someone noticed them.

Love that they closed with Vampires, that's one of my all time favorites by them.

that morrisey cover is sick

A RARE DISCOVERY. you have summoned the fandom thank you

Holy shit that nostalgic guitar tone

HOLY SHIT THIS IS AWSOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I saw Our Lady of Sorrows live this year, it’s insane to see the difference nearly 20 years apart.

Anyone know the story on this video? I'm curious where it came from after all these years. Regardless, thanks for posting this insane relic

Shout out to that one girl, she was very enthusiastic about the whole things

Lotta younger MCR fans gonna learn about the concept of The Scene watching fireside bowl videos

Fireside Bowl is legendary! So many awesome bands played there

Can’t believe this exists and we didn’t get to see it til now

Dude wanted perfect sound in a bowling alley 😂

I can't wait to watch this and ball my eyeballs out thinking, "I'm just so proud of themmmmmm".

covering jack the ripper at the fireside bowl!? this is wild

oh my god, seeing mcr back in the day like this just has awoken something in me

Thank you so much for posting this I'm so happy to see how much they've grown through out the years and it's amazing to see that Mikey till has his bass and ghat frank doesn't even have his scorpion tattoo yet

these guys played their first out of state show ever at a garage in my home town. rip planet of the apes.

My favorite MCR Era!! RAW!!

I helped put on the Atlanta show of this tour. I still remember it vividly to this day.

Frank was such a little punk 😭😭🥂🧡

Thank you so so much from the whole mcr fandom for this. This is history. It's an amazing relic and I'm so glad you shared it with us 🖤

i saw them play an arena 20 years the other night last night. they closed this show w vampires and the show just i saw :,) this footage is so good

I am experiencing some kind of psychic damage....an effect of some sort, Absolutely losing my mind.

2:57 - It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Deathwish 8:01 - Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us 12:58 - Our Lady of Sorrows 16:06 - Headfirst for Halos 20:20 - This Is The Best Day Ever 23:20 - Skylines and Turnstiles 26:55 - Jack the Ripper (Morrissey cover) 31:22 - Vampires Will Never Hurt You

im glad so many people are gonna know about the fireside after this video!! truly such an important place

The world is a slightly less shitty place because this exists.

from a bowling alley to sold out arenas.. amazing

I’m going insane over this, it’s so wonderful

I’ve heard of the fireside bowl hundreds of times but didn’t ever realise it was actually a bowling alley

It's hard enough to find video from this tour. Never thought I would see their fireside bowl show. This is sick as hell.

not Gerard enjoying getting spat on omgggg