these reflections are based on all four ptd on stage shows.
if there was one refrain from bts’ seven members during the korean group’s four-night residency at los angeles’ sofi stadium, it was: “i missed you, army.” this probably wasn’t a surprise to fans present or, on the final night, watching at home. though the group has dropped an album, released new episodes of run bts and in the soop, and broken records with their online concerts during the pandemic, the members have consistently spoken about how much they want to be back in front of their fans, performing in person.
there’s a reciprocity to live music, or at least there should be, and this is a reciprocity bts and their fanbase known as army has been mostly missing over the past two years.
perhaps this was more startling for the members of bts than it was for members of army as there are fans of the korean group who—for reasons like geography, money, etc.—may never have the opportunity to see the band perform in person. prior to the outbreak of covid-19. however, performance as a reality of bts’ working life.
on multiple occasions during the four-night residency, the members were visibly moved by the experience of being back in a stadium with tens of thousands of their fans. bts may be entertainers and variety show stars, but they are musicians and performers first and foremost. their music is meant to be shared, it’s meant to be felt, and for that feeling to be reflected back at them. For more than two years, since the final stop on the love yourself world tour in october 2019, that process had been impossible. for more than two years, BTS had been singing and dancing to empty rooms and vacant stadiums—a physical and often temporal distance between the bts call and the army response. for four nights in inglewood, however, that changed. for four sold-out nights in inglewood’s sofi stadium, bts and army were together.
there’s nothing like being in a stadium filled with 50,000 passionate fans—not just listeners, but fans; it’s like going to a class for which everyone did the reading. one does not accidentally end up at a bts concert—not with an unnecessarily stressful ticket-buying process controlled by industry monopoly ticketmaster that many used squid game and hunger games memes to describe. there was not an abundance of tickets available in the stadium for any of the shows, with fans flying in from across the u.s. and internationally, bringing in millions of dollars to the local economy during their time in los angeles in the process. in the hours leading up to each of the concerts, there were only hundreds and then only dozens of resale tickets available, with that number dropping incredibly low in the hour before the show. if there was an empty seat in the house, it was not because someone didn’t desperately want it.
bts has more than 200 songs in their discography, and they had a very long time to think about which ones they wanted to perform and in what order once back in front of a crowd. for permission to dance on stage, as the la-based mini-residency was called, bts prioritized songs that included all seven members. in the past, when on a stadium tour, the group has broken up the group performances with solo stages and subunits. it’s a way for different members to showcase their skills and express themselves, but, practically, it’s also an opportunity for the others to rest. however, for ptd on stage, they only performed group songs, using VCRs (interstitial videos that play on the screen between performances) between sets as a chance to change, rest, hydrate, and prepare for their next sprint. “we made sure that this concert was going to be all seven of us, from the start to the finish,” said RM on the final night. “and I think each song and each stage feels especially special tonight.” let’s talk about each song and every stage…