It has been a long day, but in the best way possible. Because today, I went to the BTS concert in Hamilton. I got up at 5:30 AM this morning to meet Ronsee for 7:30 AM, got some breakfast at McDonald's, withdrew cash from the ATM, and we got to Hamilton by 8:45 AM. By the time we parked, the line-up for GA wristbands already had 900 to 1,000 people and spanned about three intersections. Thankfully, we didn't have GA tickets so we didn't have to get in that line-up. The reason I actually wanted to get there so early was for the merch booths, which opened at 9:00 AM. Of course, by the time we got there, there were already hundreds of people in line. We lined up for about two hours before we got to the tents but a lot of merch had already sold out by then. There were a lot of things I didn't care for like the pickets or garland or ball cap or stickers, but I did want the zip-up hoodie and the black tee, and all the clothing items were sold out within the first hour. I did manage to get the program book and the poster set, though, which are two of the four items I wanted.
After we got out of the merch area, I went to get my wristband for soundcheck. The line-up for soundcheck started at 1:00 PM, so after getting a coffee and having a few smokes, I parted ways with Ronsee. As it turns out, the soundcheck line-up was organized by wristband number, so the earlier you got your wristband, the further up in line you got. It's more tedious for security, but I appreciate this kind of organization because there's no fighting or cutting in line. (There's supposed to be 500 soundcheck winners per concert date, but there was maybe 250 to 300
at most for today's soundcheck. I'm guessing this is due a huge number of tickets being bought by scalpers and resellers — only the original buyer of the tickets is entered to win soundcheck.) They started letting us into the venue at around 2:00 PM for bag checks. There was a very strict no camera/cell phone policy for the soundcheck (cameras got confiscated, anyway, because they're forbidden at all BTS concerts, but the security told us if they caught anyone taking out a cell phone, they would not only escort us out of soundcheck, but also not permit entry to the concert later on) which is why there's no fan footage of soundchecks from any of the tour dates (understandable, because it's a private performance for the soundcheck winners). All you gotta know is that it was the most surreal experience I have ever had in my life, that these seven boys that I have watched through the screen for so, so long was literally less than 10 feet away from me. And let me tell you, without any makeup on and in casual streetwear, they are even more beautiful in person (I didn't think that was possible).
The soundcheck was about 20 minutes long. They played three songs — "Fake Love," "Airplane, Pt. 2," and "Anpanman" — and I swear to you, Jungkook and Suga looked me directly in the eye at least once each. I could be mistaken, of course, because I guess it's every fan's fantasy to have their idols notice them, and even as I'm typing this out, I can feel an eye roll coming on. But I was standing a bit further behind everyone else because I wanted a better view of all the boys, and there was a gap between the people standing in front of me so there was a very clear view path between me and the stage. I mean, they could've been staring at the empty space behind me, but I somehow doubt it. I just distinctly remember the few moments that made the soundcheck so surreal to me. The first moment was when they came out from the side stage and were walking down the plank towards us, and I thought, "Whoa, they're actually real! And their skin looks so good!" The second moment was when Jungkook came over to our side of the stage to greet all the fans and looked me in the eye and smiled, and I thought, "He might have the nicest smile I have ever seen in real life," which was followed by, "HE IS TOO YOUNG FOR YOU." The third moment was when Suga came over to our side of the stage, and I thought, "Whoa, he doesn't have a mouth mask on!" followed by, "Hey, we have similar outfits on!" So, yeah. As I said, surreal.
When soundcheck was over, I found Ronsee in my car and we decided to search for a restaurant to eat lunch. We walked down King William Street and finally decided on a place called
The French. It was already 3:30 PM by the time we got there so they were only serving their snack menu, but I got the steak frites (the only item on the snack menu that was an actual meal) and it was quite delightful. Kinda makes me bummed that we missed out on their regular menu, though, 'cause based on their steak frites alone, I think the rest of their menu would be phenomenal.
The concert started at 6:00 PM, but there was already quite a line-up to get into the venue for non-GA ticket holders, so we lined up at 4:45 and got to our seats for 5:15. Fans were already deafeningly loud while watching the BTS music videos that were streaming before the show started. I will post photos from the concert in separate posts (I went a little overboard and took over 1,000 photos on my iPhone so I have to sort through them), but here's the banner from tonight's concert. Every concert date has their own banner (BigHit has to officially approve these banners, then the banners are printed and shipped to the venues for their respective concert dates, and the venue organizers leave one in every seat and hand them to all GA ticket holders upon entry), but the banners for the Hamilton shows were organized by
BTS Canada and
BTS Canada Projects and funded solely by the fans (I donated $100 to the Hamilton project). Tonight's banner said, "So thank you for becoming my light, the flower in the most beautiful moment in life," in reference to their fan song, "
2! 3!" which holds so much meaning for BTS and ARMY. (Here's BTS with
tonight's banner. And J-Hope loved it so much, he posted
a selfie with it.)
