Danny ChaiJieun invited me to a BTS concert and I went. Here is my report. I realize there are a ton of BTS fans out there who will eye-roll my naïveté but this is not for you, it’s for the rest of us.
First of all, I’ll say I legitimately enjoyed it and was smiling for most of the concert. Which surprised me a bit because I’m not a fan. Even afterwards I’m still not a fan, but as Jieun’s been listening since 2018 I realized I knew a lot of their music by osmosis. They’re talented and work hard, it’s entertaining.
But what I was most struck by is how crazy BTS fans are. I don’t mean crazy in a pejorative sense, a lot of it is impressively good; it’s just not normal. For example, there’s a big culture of fans coming with a bunch of handmade BTS trinkets and distributing them for free to other fans at the concert. I haven’t seen that before, that’s cool. I myself was handed a dozen things – keychains, charms, stickers, temporary tattoos, etc. that I didn’t ask for but people were insistently generous. Cool.
Also very striking was how non-Asian the crowd was. I’d say it was only 15% Asian? That’s insane to me. I’m a broken record about this but it will never cease to amaze me how popular Korean influence is now to non-Koreans in America (and really the world). Growing up when I said I was neither Chinese nor Japanese, the frequent follow-up was a mystified “then what are you?” Even my Asian friends didn’t really know what Korean food was. Now today I was at Safeway and there was an entire section for frozen Korean foods – chapchae, kimchee fried rice, seafood pancake, Korean corn dogs. At Safeway! It’s just absolutely wild to me.
I’m digressing. The crowd at the concert was majority non-Asian, much less Korean, and that’s amazing. Plus it’s pretty diverse on top of that, lots of whites, latinos, I saw a couple of girls wearing hijabs. Plus a lot of old people, and by old I mean a generation above me, people holding signs like “Grannies For BTS” and looking like it. There was a couple near us, a white woman who looked to be in her 30s/40s and probably her mom. I mean, again, that’s crazy to me. It was actually confusing to me where all the Asians – especially Koreans – were. This is California we’re talking about, we’re around. Kinda weird.
Not a lot of guys though, maybe 10% of the crowd. The difference in lines for the bathrooms was comical. Even in the bathroom when I went, maybe 3 other guys there in a large facility? I almost wanted to fist bump them as a solidarity thing. Probably not in the bathroom though.
All right so the crowd is loud and they yell-sing the entire concert, I kind of couldn’t believe it. So like, it’s a large venue, pretty difficult to see them directly, you’re really relying on the big screens. The concert starts, and every time the camera shows an individual member of the band, the crowd goes nuts. OK, I’m thinking, that makes sense, concert just started, they’re cheering the video intro of each member. But then it doesn’t stop. About an hour in I realize, man, that’s just going to be the entire concert, every time a member comes on camera alone they’re just gonna scream, it’s not going to stop, and it didn’t. That’s crazy. Not bad, just crazy. I used earplugs, and I’m gonna say I didn’t need it for the music but for the crowd. Non-stop dancing too, Jieun kept elbowing me and I thought it was because she wanted my attention and nope, just dance jostling. I wish I were as passionate about anything in my life – anything – as these people are about BTS, it’s remarkable. This visible passion honestly was a big part of what made me smile. The Latina woman next to me was singing the entire concert, Korean lyrics included. It’s impressive.
So I had pregamed with a group that was all women besides me, 6 of them, and after the concert we met up again to debrief. Man. They talked a solid hour and a half. About the concert sure, including outfits and whatever. But alllll this ancillary info also, speculation about dating history, details about the live stream and how that might have affected the performance that I have no idea how they knew about – the concert had just ended, how did they do all this research? That’s how the convo came across to me, non-Army – this discussion where everyone had gathered in-depth intel and were talking a lot about it. Sitting there I was just thinking to myself, this is not normal. I’m not judging, it’s not bad, it’s just not normal. And that’s what struck me most about the concert.
I will also say with no judgment either way that the subject of Jungkook’s abs has come up a lot recently among many fans, young and old and I find that… curious.
Anyway, went, enjoyed it, they’re good, but I don’t think I can be a fan. The problem for me is that what I like about music is instrument forward – any concert I go to, the band is what I naturally focus on. BTS has no band, it’s all a DJ and backing tracks. To me that feels like glorified karaoke. Maybe the most incredible karaoke ever, but still, it’s not what I personally value in music. I actually found myself wishing they had a live band, I think it would add energy.
And that’s my report.