#idk man there's thankfully been a few rounds of merch every once in a while

[dnangelic]

@toadmiretoweepover asked: "ah, i didn't realize the great phantom thief would limit himself to just face on jeans." [ mercutio, as if the ph series isn't getting some nendos in this unholy year of 2024. ]

he doesn't see your face ANYWHERE , ( the fact he's not at all looking irrelevant ) so who are you supposed to be again ?

[popliar]

BTS in Sydney 170526

Hey look it’s the only half-decent photo I took all night, during Jin’s Awake stage. Once again using tumblr like an actual blog, how shocking, bc if I don’t write it down I’ll forget.

ETA: @proteinscollide has a write-up here!

I had psyched myself into thinking I was gonna be late and miss the start of this show, haha, but all went well. Shouts to @proteinscollide and @blindmouse for the fun night!

I usually try to have more coherent thoughts and reflections on what a show means or what it represents, on its own or within the genre, but I don't think I have much of that this time. I think maybe I'm just too close to it? Like when you're standing so close that you can't pull back and see the forest for the trees. I haven't actually been to a show where I was Actively Stanning Hardcore for the band in question for a relatively long time. Stanning distorts everything. I can leave meta at the door if I'm just that into it.

Overall I was just - really, really into the songs and the dances and the visuals and everything. They're so talented and charming and hardworking! They dance really good! Their English is darling! If they had done multiple Sydney shows, or at least one other show like in Melbourne, I would DEFINITELY and gladly seen them again! As is I hope they are gonna have a couple of solid days off between now and Japan. And I hope some of those long breaks in the Japan tour are solid rest days...

I liked that the VCRs once again continued the theme of building on the MVs and other visual pieces they've released. It ties into the idea that if you stay on the journey with them (lol and aw at Dylan's "how many roads must a man walk down?" used in some of the onscreen quotes) then the more rewarding the journey will be.

Since this is the end of the trilogy, is this also the end of this round of #The Unified Vision Theory of BTS? Maybe the next phase won't be about the Boy, but about the Man (shades of Britney's Not A Girl Not Yet a Woman haha) and will start again with new imagery. Will be interesting to see.

Some notes and things:

Organisation for this show was somewhat haphazard. Tickets went on sale just 1 month before.* Then the day before the show, it was announced by the promotor IME that there would be no merch on sale, WHAT. Then glowsticks (though not lightsticks, thankfully) were banned. It's possible security issues (given the recency of the Manchester tragedy) and Customs were the causes of this, but also possibly IME is just not very good at organising tours. Just saying.

[* ETA:  it has BELATEDLY occurred to me - maybe the reason they waited so long to sell Australian tour tix was bc they were waiting on an invite from the Billboards. If they had scheduled say a Melbourne date a couple days before - that would have nixed the Vegas trip.]

The ban on glowsticks unfortunately nixed one of the Army fanprojects, but BTS-Trans and AusArmy got banners printed for every seat which was great (the same ones they're holding in the official photo) and there were sections of the crowd wearing light-up headbands to form hearts. There was also a big standee outside the venue, which people were signing and leaving messages on. And there were a ton of fanartists at the venue hours beforehand, giving out stickers and fanart and showbags - which is not something I ever encountered in any other pop fandom before kpop. Kpop fans are organised as FUCK, and I respect that. [ETA 2: Oh ok. So it wasn’t as neat as all that. Gosh!]

So we got inside. Even before it started, the crowd was INTO it, as you'd expect, screaming for the MVs from the start and going wild for Blood Sweat & Tears.  They kicked off with Not Today and it was lit! I am not gonna go through every song but I do remember the first one at least!

Then some intro ments. Seokjin introduced himself as "worldwide handsome" WHAT A MEME oh my god. Hoseok's intro has indeed changed to "I'm your hope, you're my hope." Sobsob! Jimin saying "make some noise!" and then looking surprised/delighted whenever we did, indeed, make noise, was so cute.

At one point some fans threw some little paper thingies on stage? I was waaaayyyy too far away to see what they were but the band did pick them up and I think Hoseok and Jimin were showering Namjoon with them for a bit while singing the "mani mani mani!" line from BST, and I saw Taehyung pick up a whole handful and very carefully leaf through them. Would love to know what they had printed on them.

Some super quick thoughts on the solos:

Jungkook's Begin was a lot better than I expected? He can dance! He can dance really, really good! Gosh what breaking news haha. But yeah. The song isn't my fave but he was so charismatic and watchable.

Jimin's Lie was amazing. Blindfolds and being lifted up in the air and Jimin just doing his thing. He has such stage presence.

Yoongi's First Love, with a string quartet, and a piano he didn't play - this also isn't my favourite song but I found this visually really striking with the fire effects, and I could listen to Yoongi rap a phone book.

Namjoon's Reflection had such an interesting backdrop - the WHALE? And then the walk up the stairs into the phone booth - relatively little dancing made it seem quite unaffected and somehow, hmm, direct?

V's Stigma - I love that he emerged from the same phone booth. FASCINATING. Not my favourite song on record but like Begin, I was into seeing it live.

Hoseok's Mama - the intriguing VCR with the colours and the butterfly, and then sliding into the familiar opening of Mama, with the backdrop of Hoseok photos from childhood onwards - gosh, my heart. I know I'm a J-Hope stan through and through but REALLY it was so good.

Seokjin's Awake - the string quartet was back and this was just really simple and beautifully staged. I love Awake a lot, Idky because it's not my usual style. But I really like it and I love him.

Hoseok's Boy Meets Evil - I LOVE HIM SO MUCH OMG.

Also really loved Fire, Blood Sweat & Tears, the medley of older songs, CYPHER PART 4 YESSSSSS, Save Me, uhhhhh, I guess I liked everything.

At the ending ment, Jin referenced "worldwide handsome" AGAIN! How dare he! He also DRAMATICALLY REVEALED two heart wristbands and blew so many handkisses and smouldering looks to camera, good lord. Jin is a delight and KNOWS it.

Namjoon and Yoongi saying the crowd was "LEGIT" and repeating it a few times, very darling.

Namjoon saying it was a special show because it was their first after winning the Billboard - SO MANY SCREAMS AND EMOTIONS.

Namjoon doing the old classic "if I didn't live in Korea I'd love to live in Sydney" bless him. Though he says he has some friends and family here which is interesting.

All the ments were super cheesy and amazing. I remember particularly Jungkook saying Australia was far away but we'd always be together in his heart, awww. Namjoon introduced Taehyung as "Mr Alien".

Taehyung and Seokjin blowing kisses and smouldering looks to the camera as they left, bc of they did.

Hoseok seemed really tired or teary towards the end? Idk.

I don’t THINK the crowd was biased towards any one member? I couldn’t tell.

Someone threw an Aussie flag on stage and Jungkook caught it, put it down for a moment, and a security guard whisked it off stage and dropped it on the ground. LOL. (I have seen this characterised on tumblr as "Jungkook showed respect to the Australian flag which is not permitted to be worn as a garment" but ok lol I've seen plenty of Australians including athletes and ordinary people using the flag as a cloak.)

Lots of Asians in the crowd - mostly Asian I would say, similar to the other kpop shows I’ve been to - what a change from my usual shows where I'm part of the 5% non-white people lol. "Ah, so here is where we all are..." (For the nth time I wonder what it would've been like if I'd been into Asian pop when I was a teenager or early 20s when I was deep into my pop phase? Instead of all the really Western stuff I was into, both pop and indie. One reason why I think the Billboard award win, while meaning not a lot in one sense, could mean a lot in another. I never ever saw Asian celebs being covered in the press or treated as legit heartthrobs like that. If I were a kid today... yeah. Little things can matter a lot. It might've meant a lot to me as a teenager, seeing something like that.)