A song from the 2000s that you like or means something to you.

There are a ton of songs I could post for this prompt, but because of my son Jude’s newfound obsession, I have found myself listening to My Chemical Romance again lately. I’m roughly the same age as them and my (much less successful) band played a couple of shows with them at the very beginning of their tour cycle for Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and it was already apparent that they were on their way to big things. I remember hearing them play “Helena” and hearing the theatricality of Melon Collie era Pumpkins, the grandeur of Queen, the harmonized lead lines of Maiden, all wrapped up in the pop-punk/emo hybrid that would very shortly conquer TRL and Hot Topic and thinking, “These guys are gonna be big.” Of course, I never could have predicted just how massive The Black Parade would make them, but I’ve had a soft spot for them since swapping t-shirts with Gerard and talking ‘90’s Brit-pop with his brother Mikey outside the Ventura Theatre in 2004. And it doesn’t hurt that my very brief brush with them, right before they became famous, is currently winning me massive credibility points with my 14 year old music obsessed son. 🤘🏻

I’ve been enjoying listening to the 2025 mix of Three Cheers lately with Jude, and “Thank You for the Venom” might be my favorite MCR song. The last minute is perfect anthemic teenage angst captured to tape.