“Teenagers” will take you back to wearing messy black eyeliner and a Black Parade Hot Topic shirt from 2008.
My Chemical Romance broke up in 2013. But with their cover of the band’s iconic 2007 track, “Teenagers,” fellow New Jersey rockers Save Face are here to help us relive the angsty glory days of third-wave emo. The rendition rages as hard as the original; Tyler Pavonda’s amazing vocals possess the same raspy quality as Gerard Way’s, but with a fascinating pop-punk flair.
“The Black Parade is one of my all time favorite albums,” said Tyler. “I was bouncing cover ideas off of friends, when Sam [from California rock band Just Friends] suggested I try ‘Teenagers.’ I did a lil demo and just went with it! Out of all the songs on that record, this one definitely made the most sense and felt right.”
Not only does it feel right, but its early 2000s energy is the perfect encapsulation of one of the larger aspects of the Save Face project: reckoning with being an outsider and expressing it in the loudest fashion possible. The track is a part of the band’s split with Graduating Life, a pop-punk group from Fresno, CA they’ve been friends with for years—and Save Face’s other track, “Bummer,” is similarly-explosive, making their whole side of the split an unforgettable experience.
Save Face plays Brooklyn Bazaar on October 4 alongside Just Friends, The Sonder Bombs, and Hotline TNT.