Monday, October 10, 2016

2016 BTS Live Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa On Stage Epilogue In Manila

Or: The night I finally got to attend a Bangtan Sonyeondan concert.

A little over two weeks ago Some months ago (this was drafted about two weeks after the concert) was BTS in Manila. I've been able to sort my feelings a little more since then (though admittedly, I'm totally REKT now thanks to Agust D's release yesterday BANGTAN'S RELEASE OF THEIR NEW ALBUM WINGS TODAY R.I.P ME), but I still thought I ought to record this, if only just to look back on the memory with fondness (and tears). I didn't get to blog about EXO'luXion in Manila from January that I got to attend with friends, and I want to be able to preserve some of these particular memories on some kind of outlet.

In any case, I very nearly wasn't able to get tickets to BTS in Manila. On the day ticket sales went live, the SM Tickets website kept crashing, to the point where the site pretty much became inaccessible. By then, tickets had already sold out.

You can just imagine how upset I was, considering I had finally come to the conclusion -- after three years in K-pop -- that Bangtan is my bias group. There were a lot of tears. Lots and lots.

Fast forward to a few weeks before the concert, I find out my niece was going to watch, though I had already (bitterly) warned her that tickets were already sold out. To my surprise, she managed to get tickets, and so she advised me to just check the website one more time. Lo and behold, I find a new section had opened (some standing area that wasn't available upon initial ticket purchasing, so I assumed they had created the new section to accommodate more people) -- that, and one seat available in the section I had originally intended to buy from.

I didn't click and buy right away, for some reason. I think the scorn from being unable to buy the first time around had emotionally scarred me somewhat, so the prospect of going to the concert had lost some of its initial appeal. After a chat with Jam and some egging on from my mom, I bit the bullet, and all of a sudden, all the excitement came rushing back.

Come concert day, I was totally ready to lose my voice (and money... and panties). I didn't have anyone to go with as none of my friends were much fans of Bangtan, and seeing as they're my bias group, I went all out with tickets since I didn't have to conform to anyone else's budget. (Read: bye money.)

I ended up getting in line a little too early for my liking (compared to EXO'luXion, where there were hardly any lines because we went in a few minutes before the concert was to start), so being by my lonesome self was just a teeny bit awkward since almost everyone else in line were with friends -- or parents, for the younger ones.

Compared to the other concerts I had attended alone (Stars and B.A.P in 2013), I'd say being in line for this one might have been a little higher on the awkward scale, probably because I had more time to myself whilst everyone else was in the company of friends. But anyway, I ended up making some small talk with this group of friends who were in front of me (and later ended up behind me because we were all confused with lining up), which was pleasant, because it's always nice finding people who share the same interests as you who share the same caliber of love for said interests.

Going in early had its perks though, as I was able to get an official light stick --  a.k.a. the one piece of official merchandise I really wanted. (The next day, I later regretted not getting the tote bag that was there, but it was just so expensive.) Once I finally got inside the actual concert arena, I was blown away by how CLOSE I was to the stage. My only other concert at this place was the EXO one in January, and I was rather far away from the stage, so you can just imagine how excited I was upon reaching my seat this time around.

Even simply waiting for the concert to begin was fun. They showed random BTS music videos, and as early as then the crowd was already singing along and cheering. The boys later brought this up later on and mentioned how excitable we were, which only prompted more screams from us lol.

Very early on in the concert was already the beginning of the feels (read: crying), because the boys performed some of my highly anticipated tracks, like Butterfly and Love Is Not Over (Full Ver.) and Dead Leaves. In fact, much of the concert consisted of a lot of the songs I was hoping for them to perform, which only cemented the repeated reassurances I told myself regarding not being able to attend (or even be aware of, for that matter) their first concert here back in 2014. At least this time around left for higher chances of BTS performing more songs that I really wanted to see live.

Getting to attend this concert by myself was really no big deal. It was SO much fun with SO many feels. Dope live was such a party, getting to see Tomorrow's choreography up close was amazing, I got to hear Jungkook say "I'm a whale" in real life, and I was ultimately blessed by seeing Jimin's abs in the flesh. And let's not forget BTS Cypher 3, which was SUCH. AN. E X P E R I E N C E. I never knew what life and death was until BTS Cypher 3 live.

And -- of course I'm going to mention this -- everyone was so attractive so up close. It was so surreal getting to see them in the flesh and just simply experiencing these songs with the boys and my fellow ARMYs. It was amazing, and made all that money spent on one ticket worth it HAHAHA GOODBYE MONEY I-----

In other news, Bangtan's latest album, Wings, just dropped today, as I mentioned earlier. Kindly play the entire album at my funeral, I'm dead already, y'all are invited, see y'all in hell.

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