Our podcast today is about our first in-person BTS Concert experience this past November at the Permission To Dance concert series at SoFi StAHdium in LA. It was a shitshow and a half and if you want to find out the real tea and know why I just said stAHdium, keep listening! 

Listen here!

(Or scroll down to the bottom of this blog post for the video version)

Where do we begin? Oh yeah, Ticketmaster.

BTS had announced that they were doing an online concert on October 24th, 2021, to which we were planning on buying tickets OF COURSE. Then, they dropped the bomb we had all been waiting for: they were also going to be holding their first OFFLINE, in-person concert in TWO years a month later in LA at SoFi [Insert clip of Suga saying stAHdium here]. We already were planning on going to LA for HITC in early November… but what’s another stripe on a tiger? We were going to do anything and everything to go. 

And yes, if Suga says it’s stAHdium, then Merriam Webster can get with the program. 

Ticketmaster tiers: 

1. MOTS VIP
2. MOTS Regular
3. Army Membership
4. Ticketmaster Verified Fan Presale 
5. Regular sale

We both tried signing up for the 27th and 28th. We panicked for days about the text letting us know we made it into the 3rd access grant. We got access for buying on the 28th. We frantically sent each other screenshots of our places in line. Spent two hours in digital queue. We got tickets. At face value. We were HAPPY!

A word to scalpers & trash sites

Scalpers are the worst. SoFi is also the worst. They gave access to season ticket holders who don’t deserve tickets to concerts with intense fandoms. We would’ve given a kidney to get access to buy a soundcheck ticket at face value. We hate everyone. Do you blame us?

We got tickets to Day 2 at face value, and we were ready to risk it all for Day 1 resells. With the AMAs and the boys appearing on James Corden, we knew waiting meant risking the prices going up even higher (they were ranging from $500 in nosebleeds to $35,000 for barricade/soundcheck), so we pulled the trigger right after the AMAs and no one will ever know how much we paid for those tickets. Just know we were willing to spend even more, but we’re not totally fiscally irresponsible.

Scalpers, Ticketmaster & SoFi staHdium can all choke on a piece of fruit.

Finding our people: Madi & Armys Who Travel

We wanted to have a “going out” night because we hadn’t in a long time. So we were trying to find tickets to Army parties in LA. We got lucky with Armys Who Travel, or AWT for short.

Laura was scrolling through TikTok when she found Madi’s first post announcing her events. It said they were sold out but she followed just in case a new event popped up. Miraculously, they had opened spaces for a party on the 26th. Game time!

Signing up was easy and we got the required info as per scheduled. It was $25 dollars for the tickets, which included a drink, and admission at a super chic gallery.

We started our night by stopping at our favorite KBBQ place in Koreatown – Park’s BBQ – and then headed to the AWT event. There were around 80 Armys in attendance, broken out in demographics of 79 women and one brother who was heavily Army, in town with his sister. We had the absolute best time, drank entirely too much soju, and Kathy debuted as an MC by getting on stage to be the hype woman of her dreams and lip sync to “Ddaeng” for her life.

It was everything we wanted and more.

Permission to Dance On Stage LA, Day 1

We’d like to classify this under life experiences that gave us PTSD. 

There are 10 gates to get into SoFi stAHdium and they had four lines at each gate. FOR 50,000 PLUS PEOPLE. With each person having to go through FOUR individual steps: bag checks (everyone had to have clear bags), vaccine/PCR test check, metal detector check, and ticket check. 

They started letting us in around 5:30pm, we were in line before 5:00pm. The lines became funnels, and if Laura hadn’t pulled us in through a side, we’d still be there trying to get in. 

BTS concerts start on time. It’s not like Miami where it’s 2 hours late with openers to appease. 7:30 was getting closer, but the gate couldn’t seem farther from us. We finally got in at 7:10 and we knew the concert wouldn’t start on time because 70% of the audience was still outside. We saw videos of how just minutes after we got in, they decided to LET EVERYONE IN with no checks. It was CHAOS. We know it was the members who told the staff to let everyone in, and we thank our lucky stars everyone there that day was real Army fans and no one trying to cause harm, because we would’ve been royally fucked. 

After going to the bathroom, getting a beer and finding our seats, we finally were able to take in the moment. Our seats were pretty good, all things (Ticketmaster) considered. We screamed our larynxes into oblivion. We didn’t feel the urge to cry, but neither did the members (during the concert). The ambiance truthfully didn’t lend itself to the crying we were all meant to do that day of the long-awaited reunion. We heard they teared up during soundcheck and we curse everyone who got in the way of us having access to buy those tickets fairly.

The concert was magical, and we couldn’t wait to do it again the very next day.

Permission to Dance On Stage LA, Day 2

Sunday morning Kathy woke up sure she needed to go to the ER. Couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak, it was bad. A CVS trip and a strong organic ginger tea with mint, lemon and honey got us both back on our feet, ready for day 2. We promised ourselves we wouldn’t scream. 

We got super lucky that we had split up for Kathy to get merch while Laura was in line. The merch was sold out and as Kathy headed back to find Laura, a new gate opened, Laura chaotically found Kathy, and we got in before 6. Had plenty of time to chill and relax before the concert started. SoFi increased the metal detectors to a whopping six from the four they started with on day 1, and got their general shit together. What a concept. The concert started at 7:30pm on the dot, as it should. 

We were pretty good about not screaming up until Meg Thee Stallion showed up. Kathy cried during Spring Day because it was unexpected. And maybe because we weren’t going to be there for the other 2 concerts. We just want to be a witness to their mundane day to day for the rest of our lives.

The tea

The stAHdium went into uproar every time Suga was on the screen and Kathy felt both validated and enraged with jealousy all at once. He’s “hers” and she wants everyone to love him but also not look at him. Laura would give her kidney to see Jin up close. We hear you can live on only one.

Totally normal behavior.

Laura sat next to two very different people on both days and it was just the cherry on top:

• Day 1: a husband who wanted to die cause he was just there for/with his wife. He flat out walked out for a good chunk of it because he couldn’t take it anymore.
• Day 2: a Korean boy Army who did not expect to be standing up the whole concert. In Korea, if a concert has assigned seats, people will sit. What a concept for chaotic Americans.

Day 1 we also sat in front of a girl who screamed every 5 minutes from deep within her soul. It wasn’t a ‘WOOHOO’ type of scream, rather one that came from inside her guts. She sounded like she was in pain. She probably was. 

It’s great to be 32 and not 12 and not need to ask anyone for money to spend on this. Still bitter that the only PTD merch we wanted – the berets – were sold out. 

If anyone is keeping track of how many times we enjoyed PTD On Stage Offline and Online, here you go:

• Watched the PTD online concert twice (Oct 24th and VOD replay)
• Saw the concert in person twice, day 1 and day 2
• Kathy watched the concert footage from her phone (basically recorded the whole thing both days) on the flight back.
• Day 3 and day 4 were watched online.

And we’d watch it again.

This was one of the best concert experiences of our lives. We went to see Carlos Vives the following week with our families and we don’t know if it was the lack of lightsticks and choreo but it just wasn’t good. Carlos himself went up to the audience and said they looked bored at some point, so it wasn’t just us. And we both left early. The vibe at a BTS concert is just something else.

The post-BTS concert depression is REAL. We were both down for about two weeks after.