When you wake up knowing that in just a few short hours, you’re going to be seeing one of your favorite bands live and in-person, the day just feels different. The sun is brighter, the birdsong is cheerier, the coffee is stronger… Well, the need for coffee is stronger anyway, especially when you’re running on Central Time while the rest of Vegas is grounded solidly in Pacific Time. Ugh! Why does 06:00 come so early!?
Despite my horrid brain’s incessant need to wake me up at 06:00, no matter where in the world I actually am, the day started off as well as any day could. Having experienced so much of what Vegas has to offer the day before, my friend and I agreed there was absolutely no reason to rush out and do things, especially not when we had a concert looming before us. Taking the morning to chill, listen to music, and get ready, we finally made our grand appearance in the world right around lunchtime.
Staying at Park MGM meant we had a wide variety of food options available to us but with this being a trip of firsts for me, we decided the best place to find sustenance was the Hard Rock Café. Being the music lover that I am, it’s a little hard to believe that I’ve never been to a Hard Rock in my life, but I have to say, the experience was pretty neat, even if the food was overpriced. (Though I will say that 20% off for K-Pop fans with concert tickets was nice!) Having finished our meal, we were invited to wander around the restaurant, which we were more than happy to do. Seeing little bits of music iconography, right in front of us, was pretty cool! The place had everything from a drum set that once belonged Bon Jovi’s Tico Torres, one of Kurt Cobain’s acoustic guitars, several animation cells from The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine,” stage outfits for everyone from Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. to Elvis, to David Bowie and KISS, and an entire display of guitar picks that ranged from John Lennon to Joni Mitchell to B. B. King and so many more! Having a bit of a weakness for guitar picks (and the players who wield them) this particular display almost made me cry!
After a quick trip through the gift shop, it was off to buy water and batteries, because spending any amount of time in the desert requires copious amounts of water to survive and also because I am a weak-willed fangirl who, after spending more than a month resisting the temptation to buy ridiculous amounts of concert merch, finally caved and bought a lightstick. Finding the only Walgreens in town that actually had batteries in stock, it was clear the K-Pop gods were smiling upon us. With our necessities secured, it was back to the room to work on concert signs!
I’m gonna be honest with you, I never remember that signs are a thing you can actually bring to a show. Usually, I’m so caught up in the excitement of just being there, that the existence of signs flies straight outta my head. Lucky for me, my friend is a veteran fangirl who never forgets such things. With craft supplies aplenty, we got to work!
Being my own worst critic, I’ll be the first to admit my sign wasn’t stellar, but it got the job done and it did it so well, that as we were headed over to the pre-sale merch pickup, we were actually chased down by a couple of younger fangirls who wanted nothing more than to tell us they loved our signs and give us a couple of freebies. Apparently being old, or at least OG ARMY, has its perks??? When I showed them the “DJ, Spin” side of our signs, they cheered, so I’m guessing they approved of our choices. In all honesty, this entire experience was just adorable and it made me unexpectedly happy. But isn’t that usually how it goes when you run across fellow ARMY in the wild? There’s something about being around people who love the same things you do, it just makes you feel good!
Now that I think about it, that’s probably why this time in Vegas was so much fun. It wasn’t just because I got to see BTS again (though that was definitely a big part of it), it was because I was in a space that was absolutely overrun with fellow ARMY. Seriously, everywhere we went, ARMY were there, soaking in this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Though we didn’t always acknowledge each other, there was just this collective sense of belonging that made the city feel both alive and welcoming. It was truly incredible.
Incredible is probably the best way to describe the rest of the day. From the merch pickup, we somehow managed to wander into a massive freebie swap that left several of the casino employees in awe. Standing on the outskirts of this absolutely insane spectacle, we were approached by one such employee who asked us all sorts of questions about where we were from and what all of this was about. It was really fun, having a chance to share a little bit of K-Pop concert culture with him, especially when he was so visibly in awe. He couldn’t believe that people actually went out of their way to make things for total strangers and then give them away for free. Having never experienced anything like this before, he thought it was one of the coolest, nicest, things he’d ever seen in his life and honestly, I couldn’t agree with him more.
With my friend’s supply of freebies exhausted and our bags absolutely overflowing with all the freebies we’d received from others, it was finally time to head to the stadium. Joining the throng, we made our pilgrimage over the Hacienda Bridge, somehow managing to find a place in line directly under one of the only trees in the area. See? I told you the K-Pop gods were smiling on us! We spent our time waiting talking to pretty much everyone around us, because what else are you supposed to do while you wait? Part of the fun of going to concerts is meeting new people and with 70,000 ARMY waiting to get in, there was no shortage of people to meet!
Getting into Allegiant Stadium was a lot easier than I thought it would be and having club access meant finding our seats was a breeze. Once inside there was nothing to do but chill, which is exactly what we did. With all sorts of delicious food calling to us, finding something to eat was easy. Happily settling on a Korean-inspired pulled pork sandwich my taste buds were delighted and my tummy was full. Is there really any better way to kick off your night of fun? I mean, I suppose I could think of a couple of ways that might be better, but realistically how often does one run into the members of the band you’re about to see, right before the show? (Though now that I think about it, that did actually happen to me once…)
Naturally, all of the excited butterflies I’d been trying to suppress for over a month hit me in full force as the minutes to showtime ticked by. I’d tried sooooo hard to keep my composure on the outside, but inside, I was an absolute mess! Luckily, I had quite a few friends, from all over the place, who I was surprised to find were also at the show that night. Even more convenient was the fact that most of them were very near where I was sitting! Again, the K-Pop gods were so kind! Running over to say hi to as many friends as I could find made the minutes to showtime fly by and before I knew it, IT WAS TIME!
There is absolutely no way I can give you a play-by-play of the concert itself. I was so caught up in the moment, I think I transcended to an entirely different plane of existence. I remember the lone runner, carrying a smoke flare that filled the stadium with a gray haze, signaling the time we’d all been anxiously awaiting had finally arrived. I remember the insane eruption of the crowd as our beloved BTS took the stage, back after too many years away. I remember being so happy I thought I might actually explode. And the way my brain broke when I realized that despite sitting in the 100 section, once he shed his jacket, I could clearly see Jimin’s pecs and deltoids and traps and lats and biceps and triceps and abs and… and… OMG, just thinking about it is making my brain melt again. HELP! He said all the protein he’s been eating has been going straight to his hair BUT HE LIED!!! That flimsy little tank top left absolutely nothing to the imagination! God bless his stylists and all their descendants for many generations to come! (I told you I had a problem processing muscles in real life, for whatever reason, they just break my brain!)
I remember Hobi’s bright smiles and Suga’s little wiggles and RM’s dimples and Tae’s little ab flashes and Jungkook’s ridiculous everything and Jin’s blown kisses. I remember my heart swelling to near-bursting when they sang “Like Animals” and I felt that call to abandon all external expectation and live your life as the truest version of yourself, in the very depths of my soul. I remember my absolute freak-out and my friend shedding tears of joy when they played “Attack on Bangtan” as one of the surprise songs. I remember the show being over far too soon and the overwhelming feeling of euphoria that seemed to permeate the entire stadium as we all tried to gather our collective senses and find a way back to real life.
Walking out of the stadium after the show, I was definitely riding a post-concert high which was convenient because the evening’s activities weren’t over yet! Making our way back to the hotel to ditch signs and SO. MANY. FREEBIES, we immediately headed for the MGM Bridge to take pictures of the city in all its BTS glory. OH. MY. GIDDY. FLIPPING. AUNT. Talk about a sight to behold! The entire strip was lit with BTS everything! Every billboard, every marquee, the Sphere, the Observation Wheel, the Eiffel Tower, the Luxor, Rio, and Mandalay Bay, you name it, it was red and it was AMAZING!
A couple of friends from NYC were in town for the show and since we didn’t have a chance to meet up at the stadium, we met up at one of the BTS-themed after parties held off Fremont Street. Since one of my friends had some sort of connection with one of the party organizers we not only got in for free, but were given the VIP treatment, which was totally wild and completely unexpected. I mean, it’s not every day you get escorted to a green room full of snacks and drinks and have a chance to chit chat with one of BTS’ dancers. To be fair, I didn’t really say anything to him because I’m a socially awkward weirdo who hates small talk and mingling, but my friends did, so go them, I suppose.
In all honesty, I’m not really a club person either (I know, huge shocker there) and it really is an absolutely awful place to try to catch up with friends you haven’t seen in over a decade because dangit, you can’t hear anything when the music’s poundin’! Still, we spent a couple hours boppin’ around acting like we weren’t all too old for this shit when in reality, I am 100% too old for that shit! (Have I mentioned how much I hate mingling?) Also, it was super weird to have the club photographer camp out on our side of the venue. I don’t know if he actually thought that having VIP status made us noteworthy or what, but he took way too many pictures for my liking (including one on the way out… blegh!). All I can do is hope the favor the K-Pop gods showed me earlier in the day carried over into the 02:00 part of Thursday because I really don’t want to be trapped on some stranger’s camera roll!
After partying like it was 1999, it was finally time to call it a day. Happy, exhausted, and overwhelmed by pretty much everything, collapsing onto my bed was nothing short of glorious! If I’d had any mental power left, I might have taken a moment to marvel over the fact that I’d get to get up and do the whole thing over again tomorrow (or later that day, as the case may be) but the truth was, my brain had already melted so many times that day, sleep claimed me before I even had a chance to heave a happy sigh of contentment.