PERCEPTIONS of a gig between two people stood next to each other are an odd thing.

The missus and I caught My Chemical Romance for the Cardiff gig on Monday, a week after seeing them perform at Wembley Arena.

There was so much the same but considerable differences.

At Wembley they were excellent, a pure force of musicianship with a set that pulled in songs from the three very different albums of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, The Black Parade and the new Danger Days.

At Cardiff they started in similar impressive vein, but feeling slightly less slick (although not in a bad way) and with less interaction with the crowd than at Wembley.

By the end though, they were a little too ragged and the set was two songs shorter than in London.

The missus, though, was of the opposite view, feeling lead singer Gerard Way interacted far more with the crowd and the gig was overall better.

But we're arguing over different shades of excellence.

My Chemical Romance eschewed the dramatised theme of the tour behind The Black Parade in favour of just being a rock band giving their all on stage.

Danger Days is far more synth laden than previous albums but the band were more than able to accomodate that into the show.

They zip through their best songs, flicking between the old and new material.

Vampire Money is not a song on Danger Days I particularly like but live MCR really give it some welly.

And on Monday lead guitarist Ray Toro was putting his all into everything - especially at the peak of the show midpoint when MCR went through their hit (I'm Not Okay (I Promise) and into an excellent rendition of Famous Last Words.

Welcome To The Black Parade, the other burning highlight at Wembley, was undercooked and plagued by a poor opening few piano bars by their guest keyboardist.

But overall My Chemical Romance are a band that really delivers on stage.