Jin #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR in Newark — Day 2

Jin #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR in Newark — Day 2

Jin #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR in Newark — Day 2

Jin #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR in Newark — Day 2

Jin #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR in Newark — Day 2

Jin #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR in Newark — Day 2

Jin #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR in Newark — Day 2

Jin #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR in Newark — Day 2

Jin #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR in Newark — Day 2

Jin #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR in Newark — Day 2

Jin #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR in Newark — Day 2

Jin #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR in Newark — Day 2

Jin #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR in Newark — Day 2

Finally got to see Jin at the last date of the North American Leg of his #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR in Newark yesterday! Aside from Jin performing his songs, I actually didn't know what to expect from a tour that's based on Run Jin — his variety show that's full of shenanigans — because I purposely kept myself from watching tour footage beforehand so as not to spoil the experience. But it was surprisingly interactive, with random audience participance games in between songs, and HILARIOUS. (Him trying to guess "Orange Suit Guy" with all of us pointing to an ARMY in the 300 sections wearing a full-on orange dinosaur suit will forever be a highlight.) And considering this tour doesn't include choreography or backup dancers, I thought he commanded the stage exceptionally well on his own. His setlist was well-rounded and included the majority of his solo songs across Happy and Echo, as well "Super Tuna" (of course), and a medley of BTS songs:

1. Running Wild
2. I'll Be There
3. With the Clouds
4. Falling
5. Don't Say You Love Me
6. Super Tuna
7. I Will Come to You
8. Abyss
9. Background
10. Another Level
11. Loser 
12. Rope It
13. BTS Medley: Dynamite
14. BTS Medley: Butter
15. BTS Medley: Mikrokosmos
16. Spring Day
17. The Astronaut
18. Nothing Without Your Love
19. Epiphany
20. Moon
21. To Me, Today

I managed to get us Soundcheck VIP Packages for this concert, so we also had the pleasure of watching him perform "Running Wild," "Another Level," and "Super Tuna" during soundcheck. Despite having had to line up in a thunderstorm with pouring rain all afternoon (thank god I checked the forecast beforehand and packed an umbrella) and not being able to leave Prudential Center for nearly seven hours (as a smoker, this is kind of a nightmare), I thought this concert was absolutely worth flying to Newark for. (As you can imagine, there are some worries about going over to the US right now.)

As usual, I will be uploading reels of every single stage from this concert on my Instagram. (Lest you think I'm not enjoying the concert in real-time, I usually film about a minute of each song and then sing along and dance and wave my ARMY Bomb with everyone else.) Just waiting for the official announcement of the OT7 world tour now. (And the ticketing blood bath that will ensue.) Unless another surprise solo tour is coming...

Dining Out: Loaded Nachos and Fish & Chips at American Whiskey

Since we hadn't eaten in nine hours, we were starving after the concert (which was fucking amazing — I will post about it tomorrow). Not wanting to think about where to get a late-night dinner and not wanting to wait for an Uber Eats delivery to the hotel, we just headed across the street from the Prudential Center to a bar called American Whiskey because a) they were serving food, and b) they were blasting BTS on their speakers.

Loaded nachos

Fish and chips

We decided to share the loaded nachos (pretty standard, but had melted cheese and cheese sauce with a big scoop of guac on top) and the fish and chips (again, standard fare, but the fish was tender and the batter was very crispy), both of which were decent enough. However, along with one Diet Pepsi and a mandatory 20% gratuity (which the service absolutely did not merit), our total ended up being $76 CAD, which is just highway robbery. (The moral of the story here: it is not the time for Canadians to be spending money in the US right now.)

BUT, they were playing an INSANELY good BTS playlist with all their super-hype bangers (from "MIC Drop" to "UGH!" to "Cypher 4" to "Fire") and quite literally every patron in the bar was an ARMY that had just come out of the Jin concert, so it was an unexpectedly poppin' BTS after-party — and that, I cannot complain about.

American Whiskey

51 Edison Place

Newark, NJ 07102 USA

(973) 795-4499

Dining Out: Breakfast Sampler at IHOP

We are finally in Newark to see Jin on his RUNSEOKJIN_TOUR.EP tour! Not gonna lie, we did have a somewhat rough start to this trip with a nearly two-hour delay to our flight. We wanted to have a nice dinner at Fornos of Spain (we had dreams of paella) and then make a trip to Target to do some American snack shopping, but that plan was quickly kiboshed after we arrived in Newark at 9:00PM instead of 7:00PM. (We did manage to go to Target, though. Bless them for having late hours.) So after last night's super-late dinner of Sonic cheeseburgers (it was our first time having Sonic because it's not available in Canada, and it's actually quite good — but definitely not worth paying $55 USD through Uber Eats to deliver to our hotel), we decided to get brunch at IHOP this morning because it's down the street from Prudential Center and we needed to be there for 1:30PM for VIP check-in.

Breakfast Sampler

Buttermilk pancakes

The last time I was at IHOP was almost exactly a year ago at the Niagara Falls location and that meal was ABYSMAL, so I decided to get breakfast food this time — which is really what IHOP is known for, anyway. Happy to report that the Breakfast Sampler — eggs, bacon, ham, breakfast sausage, hash browns, and buttermilk pancakes — was both delicious and satisfying. (And the hash browns were actually cooked and seasoned properly!) Kinda hard to fuck up breakfast foods, to be honest, but this was exactly what I wanted and what I expect from IHOP. Perfect pre-concert fuel.

IHOP

915 Broad St.

Newark, NJ 07102 USA

(973) 732-2530