He did it.
The man of the hour: Min Yoongi, Agust D, SUGA of BTS, Army’s lil meow meow, Min PD. Enough personas and nicknames to fill a stage by himself – and that’s exactly what he did. For just under two hours, roughly 18,000 fans (in person) got to be the first to witness a historic moment: a member of BTS kickstarting his solo tour with 11 stops across the U.S.
And as it’s tradition with Army, the rest of us who couldn’t make it to the show in person relied on those who were present to stream live so we could also bear witness, even if through a screen and in 144p resolution.
Actually, this time around thanks to Gabriel (more on him later), our resolution standard as a fandom finally went up. Now let’s talk about all the unforgettable moments from the night!
D-DAY Concert Day 1 Recap
Calling this concert and tour historic is no exaggeration, as SUGA is the first K-Pop idol to go on tour without his bandmates and sell out 25 shows in arenas and stadiums across the U.S. and Asia.
The thing about making history is that there are a lot of firsts, but with an established fandom such as Army, we also got to see many moments that we’ve come to expect:
- EXPECTED: Selling out the tickets to the concert before they even go on sale to the general public (meaning registered fans got first – and only – dibs).
- FIRST: while with BTS concerts we typically expect to see the [let’s call them] *unofficial* live streams from concert-goers taken down in real-time rather quickly, D-DAY streams did not get the swift BIG HIT/HYBE ax. At the same time, none of us were that surprised because Yoongi himself is no stranger to finding an illegal stream in times of need, and so many of us feel like he told the BH team to look the other way (at least for night 1). The best part of the 4/26 livestream specifically is that it was carried by two main characters: Chris, a fan who was hilariously belting the wrong lyrics and melodies, and Gabriel, a fan (whose livestream we’ve caught before for PTD LV) who translated seamlessly between three languages, sang along accurately, and whose phone resolution upgraded us from the 144p days of the past. Chris and Gabriel are now hall-of-famers in Army lore. Also worth mentioning: Chris and Gabriel’s streams carried an online audience of roughly 200k combined. It’s impossible to know for sure how many were watching online considering all the other streams, but big numbers no doubt.
- EXPECTED: Armys camping out days in advance for barricade in the GA/VIP. Yes, that’s plural days with an s. Fans and onlookers caught the concert camping line on camera as early as Monday, April 24th, for the show taking place on Wednesday, April 26. Sure, newer Armys might not have seen it coming but the seasoned Adorable Representative MCs for Youth knew better.
- FIRST: A lot of concert attendees wearing wedding dresses to a show. A result of a long-standing inside joke between the fans and BTS, this actually became quite the polarizing topic among Army in the days leading up to the tour kick-off, and so we won’t be posting any pictures of the fans in wedding attire and you’ll just have to accept our source of “trust me, bro” on this one. But we’ll let you in on the joke for credibility purposes –
- EXPECTED: An absolutely amazing setlist (which we gathered for you on Spotify and YouTube) that kept fans on their feet and excited, as we traveled through Agust D and SUGA’s genre-defying discography, oscillating between acoustic heartfelt vocal showcases and high-voltage, sharp, syllable-stumping raps.
- FIRST: A trigger warning before the show. After the ‘Amygdala’ music video got age-restricted for the topics with which it deals, this wasn’t all that surprising, but it’s still a first for a BTS (adjacent?) show. After enjoying the concert virtually, we can see it was definitely the right call to give on-site fans a heads up.
- EXPECTED: A sea of Army Bombs. Although Armys make sure to remind each other not to call it by its misleadingly violent nickname during concert-related air travel, the BTS lightstick will always be a welcome sight at any BTS-related event. Whether X/7 BTS members are physically in the building or not (like during the Permission To Dance or Yet To Come cinema experiences), Army will take every and any opportunity to flex and flash their fandom light orb together. The fact that there was a coordinated light show for D-DAY made this feel like an authentic BTS experience. Although only one member was on stage, the lights made it feel like OT7 home.
- FIRST: Grown content. Yoongi said I’m 30 years old, and you’re NOT watching D*sney channel (but do go stream SUGA: ROAD TO D-DAY on Disney+). His D-DAY title track Haegeum is all about freedom and lifting the ban on non-sensical prohibitions, and he carried that concept throughout his performance. Fans cheered every time he took sips from a brownish drink (we know he likes Whisky), in support of his possibly drinking alcohol on stage. He threw his middle fingers up and the crowd went wild. He did his little suggestive hip thrust during Cypher pt. 3 (thankfully YTC Busan was not the last we saw of it. Rap line may be done with it, but Yoongi is carrying his verse to the end). He had a cigarette in his mouth during an intermission VCR, referencing himself in Haegum and in… ➡️
- EXPECTED: ➡️ The BTS lore. Yoongi may have been the only member of BTS on stage, but Army got plenty of Bangtan callbacks to feed our souls: the Y.K. lighter from HYYH era (SERIOUSLY Y’ALL WANT US TO LET IT GO BUT YOU KEEP BRINGING IT BACK?! ::TEARS::), shouting out j-hope as the creator of the People pt. 2 choreo, and of course, the guitar he used on stage which he got signed by all the Tannies specifically for the tour so they could be with him, at least symbolically.
- ?: This was neither a first nor expected, but Min Agustus Yoongi the First, Second, and Third (he covers all the generations by himself) decided to say “SLAYYYYYYYY” completely UNPROVOKED and things just got hazy for me after that…
There may have been a highlight or two we missed here as we’re still processing the whole event, but what matters is that SUGA officially started his tour, the first show went amazingly well, and we have 10 more shows to look forward to in the U.S. And speaking of looking forward…
We have to wonder:
- Will Jimin make an appearance at any of the shows for a surprise Tony Montana stage like they teased on Suchwita? He is stateside after all (for alleged commitments with Tiffany & Co. and maybe possibly for the Met Gala?).
- Could RM pop up in North America to fulfill a Bottega Veneta commitment at the Met Gala as well? Would this lead to a Respect/Strange moment on stage?
- Will Tae pull up to a show and live his y/n Cypher moment?
- Will Kookie come out of nowhere screaming YOONGIIIIIII and sing Stay Alive or play one of their guides together?
- Will Jin and/or j-hope be seen in the audience for the closing shows in Seoul?
- Will SUGA invite IU to sing People pt. 2 and/or _eight during his Seoul shows or will he be petty and not invite her since she didn’t ask him to her concert? 😂
- Will he have MAX at any tour stop to do Burn It live? Will he bring Psy for a That That rendition?
- Will he have absolutely no one join him and just carry the whole thing by himself for all 25 shows?
D-DAY Tour closes out the U.S. leg in Oakland, CA on May 17th, and Yoongi only knows what is planned for the remaining stops here and abroad. We do know Min PD is an orchestrator and loves nothing more than to shock and awe, so we’re sure every show will have something new to offer us.
And we will be watching – whether via Chris, Gabriel, or any stable stream available.
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