My Chemical Romance dressed dancers as Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (the real ones have gone to court)
At the first of five sold-out Hollywood Bowl nights on 21 October, dancers in DCC-style uniforms performed during Teenagers and were 'shot' in a staged gunfight. Pro Silver Star, which owns the brand, wants a restraining order and damages.
The company behind the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders has taken legal action against My Chemical Romance. Not over a song. Over an outfit.
On 21 October, the first of five sold-out nights at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, the band played Teenagers with a line of dancers dressed exactly like the cheerleaders, in what the filing calls the DCC Uniform. They danced, picked up rifles, joined a staged firefight and went down, shot for show.
What the brand wants
Pro Silver Star, which owns the cheerleader brand, is asking for a temporary restraining order and a temporary injunction to keep the uniform off the stage, plus damages in an amount it has not specified. Its case is that the uniform is protected trade dress that nobody can use without permission, and that the band refused to stop.
The argument it leans on hardest is confusion. According to the filing, people in the crowd and commentators online believed the dancers were the real cheerleaders, which it says degrades the brand and threatens lasting harm to its reputation.
The company is careful to say it has no problem with the music, the message or the staging. Only the clothes. It also describes itself as not the litigious type.
No word from the band yet
My Chemical Romance has not responded publicly. The Black Parade 2026 tour rolls on: after the 21, 23 and 24 October dates, the band closes its year at the same venue on 30 October and on Halloween night, according to the Hollywood Bowl’s own listings. If a judge sides with Pro Silver Star, the Teenagers routine needs a costume change before then.
Teenagers comes from The Black Parade, the 2006 album the tour is named after. Borrowing an image everyone recognises is an old pop trick, and this year even Charli XCX put Scorsese on the cover of her new album. The difference is that Scorsese did not send lawyers.
By Lucy Bennett
Image: Michael Spencer / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
