SETLIST:

• • • • • ACT I BIGBANG
          • • FANTASTIC BABY
            • HANDS UP
            • TONIGHT
            • BLUE
            • LOSER
            • IF YOU
            • BAD BOY
            • BAE BAE
            • HARU HARU
            • LIES
              • Band interlude with “La La La” “Fxxk It” “Flower Road” “Alive”
        • ACT II CHAOS
          • • UNIVERSE (Daesung solo)
            • WINGS (Daesung solo)
            • HANDO-CHOGUA (Daesung solo)
            • LOOK AT ME GWISUN (Daesung solo)
            • BAD (Taeyang solo)
            • RINGA LINGA (Taegyang solo)
            • LIVE FAST DIE SLOW (Taeyang solo)
            • POWER (GD solo)
            • CRAYON (GD solo)
            • CROOKED (GD solo)
        • ACT III COSMOS
          • • BANG BANG BANG
            • STUPID LIAR
            • SOBER
            • WE LIKE 2 PARTY
            • BiiiG
            • HOME SWEET SWEET (GD’s song featuring Daesung and Taeyang)
        • ENCORE
          • • MY HEAVEN
            • SUNSET GLOW
            • LAST FAREWELL
            • FEELING
            • FLOWER ROAD
            • STILL LIFE

OK, it’s now or never. This is going to be a mess because I’m still in the *SCREAMS IN HANGUEL* stage of my post-concert depression but what better time to do a recap I guess?

First of all, I have never been to a stadium concert before. I don’t think the Stray Kids one last year counts because that venue in Toronto was weird and didn’t seem nearly as big as MetLife. Once we got to our section and started walking down the steps, I was like, “WHOA.” (Please also remember I do not go to football games, LOL. I have never even once set foot inside Heinz Field or whatever the fuck they’re calling it these days.) I never even really went to ARENA concerts before I got into Kpop. I’m a small venue girlie! I like my bands relatively unknown, I guess.

So, this was next level.

We were in section 115, row 21, seats 1 and 2. I had the presale code because I’m a true VIP (no literally, I pay to be in BIGBANG’s fan club because I’m a kid) but I refused to get floor seats. I did that for Stray Kids and we couldn’t see anything! I do highkey regret not splurging for one of the VIP packages but there was no soundcheck with any of them though!

Anyway, sometime after 8PM the video for BIGBANG’s new single BIIIG was playing on the screen and then suddenly the volume was jacked up and everyone was like LET’S GOOOOOOO!! This is my favorite thing about big shows (Again, never have seen non-Kpop concerts in big venues – aside from Bon Jovi and Phil Collins in the 1990s LOL – so I don’t know if this is a universal signal for “show’s about to start, people” or if it’s just a Kpop thing? Chat, comment and let me know lol). I started crying and mewling, “OMG OMG OMG” immediately. Nothing could have prepared me for this moment.

Ten years, you guys. Ten years. Because of course they were last in the US in 2015 when I was only equating Kpop to “fun workouts, yay!” If only I was one year sooner.

Once the opening VR ended, they came out to FANTASTIC BABY! EVERYONE WAS SCREAMING! I have never felt more connected to strangers ever in my life at a concert but you could just FEEL 50,000 people being healed at once. It was party vibes from then until 11PM.

My pictures and videos are shit because WHO CARES?? I WAS FANNING MYSELF OVER BIGBANG AND CRYING AND DOING FACE-SPLITTING SMILING AND PINCHING MYSELF AND JUST BEING IN ABSOLUTE AWE.

Henry even stood up the whole time! (Except during the breaks but even I was sitting down for those too.) I hate that I always have to stress this but Henry genuinely likes Kpop but even moreso he sincerely LOVES BIGBANG. He was folding clothes in Chooch’s room over the weekend blasting them! Right now as I write this, he’s singing BANG BANG BANG to Penelope!

Let’s ask him what his favorite part: “I don’t have a favorite part, I liked it all.” OK. Great talk.

I think for me, my favorite part was literally just being in the same place as them after ten years of fanatically watching their live performances on YouTube and wishing that someday I could see them and feel that energy. It is everything I imagined it would be plus so much more. Their charisma is unmatched. They are considered legends for a reason – they are effortless performers, our unsynchronized kings.

AND THEY ARE SO FUNNY! Their banter — OMG I finally got to see them fuck around with each other in real life and it was like 50,000 of us were in on inside jokes all night long. Daesung mocking us for mumbling the Korean parts. Taeyang saying, “No. Don’t tell me to take it off” and talking about being old. G-Dragon recognizing Those LED Girls and just looking like he was having the best time being back on stage with his brothers.

They ALL looked happy. Like BIGBANG never stopped. Like no time has passed.

AND DAESUNG BROUGHT THE TROT TO NEW JERSEY! Trot is like traditional Korean pop music, like easy-listening soft rock for old Korean people. But Daesung loves to sing trot and even PERFORMED HIS TROT SONGS AT COACHELLA. It was the first time trot was ever performed at Coachella and WE WERE FREAKING IT OUT! It was such a “OH HE DID THAT!!” moment.

I never thought I would get to see Daesung in real life!! And my favorite part is that his styling during this comeback is so similar to his look for the FXXK IT comeback era which is when he quickly my first BIAS:

This was 10 years and he still looks that good!

I feel like after every song, I turned around and mouthed, “HOLY SHIT I’M DYING” to Henry.

From finally hearing Daesung’s live vocals, watching Taeyang dance, and literally having religious moments over G-Dragon’s entire aura (THAT MAN IS TRULY ONE OF A KIND), the overstimulation was real.

Is this what Beatlemania was like??

“Lies” is one of my favorite songs of all time and I actually had to stop listening to it during the “dark years” for BIGBANG because it upset me too much. I am so happy to be able to enjoy it again and SEE THEM PERFORM IT LIVE!!

Taeyang’s solo set was majestic – “Bad,” “Live Fast Die Hard” and ofc “Ringa Linga.”

GD did “Power,” “Crayon,” and “Crooked” and I know this was a BIGBANG show but HOLY SHIT, seeing GD’s solo performances will never get old to me. He is mesmerizing. I follow a GF Fashion account and love to see them posting the designers and costs of everything he was wearing. Usually that stuff sickens me but with GD, I’m like, “YES KING” because he doesn’t seem like an entitled asshole about it.

I use this app called Minutiae and you get 5 seconds to take a picture of what’s in front of you, no filters, whenever the notification comes through. I’m usually ALWAYS AT HOME but this time I WAS AT BIGBANG!!!

I loved seeing Jiyong so happy and free.

I was texting my friend Lauren about this the next day because when we used to work in the office, I sat behind her and we would gush over GD’s fashion together. She was one of the few people who was genuinely nice to me about my…lifestyle transitioning lol and willing to watch Kpop videos, etc. Anyway, I was like, “Yeah and he was wearing an I <3 NY shirt that probably cost $5000.” But then the GD Fashion site was like, “Actually…” so I had to send it to her, like, “Well, I undershot that one.” LOL. It was like $7000+!!! KING.

 

Taeyang doing the full bow at the end. I’m crying.

Some of my favorite moments:

• GD remembering Those LED Girls from his Ubermensch solo concert last year in Newark. I love these girls – they’ve popped up at so many Kpop concerts I’ve been to over the years. I’m not sure if this is accurate but I feel like they started doing this at NCT concerts? Anyway, I love how GD says “stop it”!!

• Daesung jokingly mocking us for mumbling the Korean parts LOL. Bro, the struggle is real though. I have been trying to learn Korean since 2017 and even though I can sing these songs in my head, my tongue does not want to cooperate when it’s time to belt out loud.

• OMG my stomach hurt from laughing – it was like a comedy show in between songs with these three:

G-Dragon’s Instagram story used a Backstreet Boys songs AND at one point, when he said something about carefully planning the comeback step by step, he paused and started singing NKOTB’s Step by Step:

Jeff Benajmin wrote a really great recap for Billboard: BIGBANG Celebrate 20 Years at MetLife Stadium Concert: Best Moments

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OMG Henry has decided to contribute! Here are his favorite picks of the night:

Henry is a super fanboy for BIIIG; anytime it comes on in the car he turns it up:

OMG I’m so happy he included this one because I loved it so much too – Daesung is such a shining diamond:

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I can’t believe it’s over. I have been having the best time commiserating with other post-concert depression afflicted VIPs on Threads, where all of my BIGBANG content actually gets engagement. I’m at LET’S GET BIGBANG TATTOOS levels of hysteria right now. (Henry and I have actually talked about getting a matching GD peaceminusone daisy on our hand so maybe we will do that at some point?!) I just want to run around my neighborhood and scream STAN BIGBANG but all my MAGA neighbors will be like, “Stan what now? Is this a new rifle manufacturer I should know about?”)

It’s crazy the amount of nostalgia I felt for something that I have only been into for 10 years. There is something about the older BIGBANG songs though that actually make me feel like I had experienced it in real time back in the early 2000s. Ugh, I really wish I had. You know, I always blame Henry for this because before he moved in with me, I used to have all of these TV channels and some of them were Asian so in like, 2000 and 2001 I was watching Kdramas and Kpop videos without even knowing it was Korean, just that I was obsessed with it. But then Henry moved in and eventually was like, “WE PAY TOO MUCH FOR CABLE, A LOT OF THESE CHANNELS ARE UNNECESSARY” and cut back on it but in doing so, all of my Asian channels were taken away. (He wasn’t talking about those ones when he wanted to cut back, but the Asian channels were a part of whatever deluxe packaging he wanted to get rid of. To be fair, we did not have much money back then, LOL.) But yeah, I think about that sometimes because what if I still had those channels and got to be there for BIGBANG’s debut in 2006??? (See also: The year of Chooch’s debut.)

I was desperate to see them and now I’m desperate to see them AGAIN. G-Dragon said that this is just the beginning and they have more new music coming so FINGERS CROSSED that this wasn’t just a once in a lifetime moment for me.

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