End of the Permission To Dance Concert Era

BTS have officially completed their Permission To Dance: On Stage shows. With twelve shows total across the major cities of Los Angeles, Seoul and Las Vegas, they have concluded this era.

BTS and other kpop groups stream their concerts through Weverse, which is an artist to fan social media platform. Through the BTS Weverse Shop, fans can purchase streaming tickets for about $47 per concert. With the ticket, fans can stream on up to two devices in HD. BTS fanclub membership holders can purchase streaming tickets that include multi-camera views, instead of just one steady camera. I have purchased both versions of the tickets, and prefer the one camera over multi-view. In this blog post, I will be sharing my experience of the concerts and why I enjoyed each one.

Concerts

Round 1: Virtual

This first concert was October 24th, 2021. Since the concert was live from Seoul, Korea 7PM KST, that was 2am PST. At that point in October, I already purchased my ticket for the live show on November 28th. I still wanted to see what the virtual show was all about. I thought of it as a teaser for the live show later that year. Since it was at 2am, I set my alarm for 1:30am and watched the concert from my living room. I rarely stay up past midnight, but it was worth to watch BTS perform songs I know and love. At that time in Korea, there were many COVID restrictions, so the concert streamed exclusively online. There were unfortunately no guests live in the venue. Although having to perform with no one directly watching them in-person may sound easier for the members, it was not. BTS are very hard workers, who do not like making mistakes, or feeling like they did not give their 100% to fans. I truly enjoyed this concert because it was energetic, lively, and it was comforting to know they felt the same as I did at that time in my life: unsure of what to do.

Round 2: Live In-Person

Round 2 was the in-person concert D-2 of the LA shows at Sofi Stadium on November 28th, 2021. The concert was all around perfect because I got to hear one of my all-time favorite BTS songs “Spring Day” LIVE IN PERSON. It is a meaningful song to many fans, with lyrics asking “How much longer should my longings fall like snow before the days of spring return, friend?”. After a long winter, spring is always around the corner, so sometimes we just have to wait a little bit longer for things to get better.

This was one of the best concerts I have ever been to in my 23 years of life and I have been to quite a few concerts. I also went to this concert alone, and have gone to other concerts alone but this one was different. It was the largest concert I have ever gone to by myself. I got my light-stick and sweatshirt despite the extremely long merchandise line. My view was perfect and I absolutely loved seeing them on the big screen. It was a happy and positive night that I will cherish for a long time and I am thankful I had the opportunity to go in-person.

Round 3 + 4 : Virtual and In-Theaters

Round 3 was the final LA show at Sofi Stadium on December 2nd, 2021. I watched the stream online with my mom and she is now an Army (ARMY are fans of BTS). My mom really enjoyed BTS’ music and work ethic, especially after BTS performed three back-to-back songs as the intro with seamless transitions. BTS also have great energy and stage presence and can get people pumped and energetic, whether or not viewers are in person or virtual. It was fun watching the virtual stream days after hearing these songs live, because I essentially got to re-live the concert.

Round 4 was the theater streamed third show of the Seoul concerts on March 21st, 2022. I watched this concert with my sister at the movie theater. The showing I went to was not completely full, so it was comfortable not being packed into a theater. Other fans in the theater had their BTS light sticks (called Army Bombs) and occasionally waved them around during the concert. My sister had a great time too, and saw why I always talk about BTS or their concerts because their talent and energy is unmatched. Many fans in the theater, including me, sang along to the songs, laughed and cheered when our favorite members were on screen.

Round 5: Virtual

The final round was the final concert in Las Vegas on April 16th, 2022. I of course, watched this last stream with my mom. I talked about this final concert for weeks ever since they announced the stream and I knew I was not going to travel to Las Vegas. Overall, this concert was 10/10 sweet, lively, energetic and a good time. I thought about the very first time I watched this concert, and was not expecting the happy feeling I had back in October to continue six months later, as I watched the final concert. BTS continue to give their all, and provide an amazing concert experience. They were all funny and ensured ARMY that they would be back soon, and although this was the last show, they want to come back. I look forward to when I can see them again.

Concert Setlist

All of the PTD shows had nearly the same setlist, with a few changes. BTS mainly changed the encores each concert, and picked different softer emotional songs for the end of the concert before ending with their song “Permission To Dance” .

My favorite songs they played live were of course Spring Day, DNA, Telepathy, Anpanman, Black Swan, Dis-ease, So What and IDOL. Even though I have heard these songs many times over the past couple years, they are still just as captivating and beautiful played live. I have included a playlist of the setlist in order of all 30 songs played across the 12 shows.

End of an Era

Following the end of the stream, many fans on Twitter knew once the concert ended and BTS said their goodbyes, that there would be an announcement. I was very nervous that they were going to announce a different tour and come back as early as June. Thankfully, the clip was a teaser for their next album coming June 10th, 2022.

This concert series was exactly what I needed, especially since the very first show was announced on my birthday. I will cherish these shows, and it’ll be a time I can always smile about. Between now and June, I am hoping they release DVDs of the Permission To Dance: On Stage concerts so I can have physical and digital copies of the concerts I went to, that I can watch whenever I want.