I haven’t shot off any music videos into the ether in a while so here are some jams that I have been obsessing over lately! (See also: need a break from typing words lol.)

1. PRESTON KNIGHT – A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

Originally, I was going to post the first one of his songs that I heard but then this one slipped into my heart. I appreciate that his music videos have a Lost Boys / horror-theme to them! How to steal my heart:

• 80s synth
• horror-themed music videos
• smooth vocals

2. NCT DREAM – BEAT IT UP

NEW NCT DREAM ALERT!! WAKE UP!! NEW NCT DREAM DROPPED!!

God, I still love them so much.

3. SUMMER SCHOOL & RYAN PREWETT – SENTIMENTS

Sadly, there is no music video for this but I would remiss not to share it (I was spamming my work friends with this last week on Teams because it’s just too good and even GLENN LIKED IT). It’s like next gen Rick Astley and I can’t get over how good it is. If I had gone the traditional wedding route, I would be so mad right now that this wasn’t around yet to play at the reception.

4. CHANDLER LEIGHTON – SAY LESS

I’ve been in my Chan era since seeing her open for Johnnie Guilbert.

5. DAVID DEEJAY feat. DONY – SEXY THING

OK this one is old but I recently found out that the Romanian music I became obsessed with on our trip is a genre called POPCORN which makes it even more amazing. Anyway, this song comes up a lot in Popcorn playlists and instantly gets stuck in my head like a popcorn kernel in the teeth. IS THAT WHY THEY CALL THIS POPCORN??

Well, there you go. Five songs. Maybe one will stick.

(SRSLY THOUGH SUMMER SCHOOL BETTER GO ON TOUR BECAUSE I WILL TRAVEL FOR THAT SHIT. Heads up, Henry.)

Remember last spring when I accidentally became a Johnnie Guilbert fan? Well, Henry and I got to see him last week at Skully’s Music Diner in Columbus! (OMG before you even assume that Henry didn’t want to do, I have someone’s video from that night playing on YouTube for blogging inspo and Henry was whispering the words!!)

First time at Skully’s! A love a new-to-me venue but I also get curiously anxious beforehand too. Fear of the unknown, etc. This one ended up being tiny with just the amount of grime. You know I love kpop with my whole heart but I really miss these small shows in dark, sweaty venues too! I’m glad that I have been squeezing these in again.

Chooch didn’t know why we were in Columbus until I sent him this picture and his response was, “Ugh. Great.”

There were two college-aged girls in line behind us talking about how embarrassed they’d be if their parents came with them to see Johnnie and I was like, “Do they think we’re here with our children? OMG DO THEY THINK I’M HENRY’S DAUGHTER???”

LOL.

I appreciated that I got carded and the girl at the door who was way younger than me called me “dear” when she called me over to get a wristband. This night was already off to a great start.

Creepy red-light special bathroom and giant ornately-framed mirror. Obsessed. Not obsessed with the fact that the bathroom stall had a curtain instead of a door though.

We were standing in a dark corner so this selfie looks like I took it on my old red Blackberry in 2007.

I don’t know what it was about Skully’s but I felt super cozy there and confidently abandoned Henry to go upstairs and buy my JOHNNIE VIOLENT DREAMS TOUR SHIRT. It’s a weird-feeling material but I will still wear it when Chooch is home for Thanksgiving because I love to trigger him and remind him that Mommy has young interests.

They still had their Halloween decorations up and that really set the mood. And they were playing some awesome emo tracks too, some of which inspired high-energy sing-alongs from the crowd (Metro Station, lol). I was stoked that they played an old Jimmy Eat World song but no one else seemed to know it so I felt old.

I took this to send to Chooch as proof that Johnnie has fans.

Chander Leighton was added as the opening act a few weeks before the tour started and I didn’t know anything about her because friends, that ain’t my scene anymore. I skimmed her Insta and thought I had an idea of the vibe she was going to bring and expected to be ambivalent toward it. What I didn’t expect was IMPRINTING ON CHANDLER LEIGHTON THAT NIGHT. Holy shit you guys, she was phenomenal, the rizz was oozing. I was completely captivated. Here’s some clips!

Meanwhile, the cutest couple ever was standing near us, dancing together through her whole set (and, later, Johnnie’s). They were kind of neo-bohemian, he sounded like Spicolli, and for some reason instead of annoying me, I thought they were so charming and adorable together and I hope they last forever. They were just existing in their little space, not bothering anyone, we love to see it. Meanwhile, Henry stood like a block of Disgruntled Elder behind me even though he CLAIMS to be having a “good” time.

AND THEN IT WAS JOHNNIE TIME! I just love him so much and in some weird parasocial way, I’m proud of him. He’s very open about his struggles with depression and residual trauma of losing his dad at a young age, not to mention being groomed by an older YouTuber when he was just a teenager. It’s crazy that this stuff was happening when Chooch met the aforementioned YouTuber at Warped Tour. Chooch was right to think this guy was a loser even at such a young age!

For the most part, the crows was pretty OK people but there were some young girls gravitated to our area toward the end that lacked concert etiquette and I was not happy with them. But mostly, I enjoyed watching all of the girls lose their minds every time Johnnie came to their side of the stage. Adorable. (OK, and relatable haha.)

But now Johnnie is in his late 20s and his music is gaining more and more traction – I’m sorry but I feel proud of him! And I genuinely 100% like his music too.

Henry’s favorite parts of the show:

• VAMPIRE
• ZOMBIE
• “I liked that first person. I can never remember her name. Yeah, Chandler. Leighton.”
• Right Girl Wrong Time

Someone asked him to do Timmy and he said no and I think that was Henry’s least favorite moment of the night because he loves Johnnie’s Timmy persona.

Please enjoy this series of snippets from the night!

He stayed on stage afterward and signed things for everyone and seemed like he was sincerely wanted to meet every single person in that room. We stan a prince who appreciates his fans.

I wanted him to sign the shirt that I was wearing but also felt weird because I’m nearly 20 years older than him so in the end, I accepted my fate (age) and we head out to start the 3 hour drive home. T O T A L L Y worth the drive, right HENRY??

(I guess I could have taken off my shoe to get signed like that person up there?!?!)

Here’s Henry’s version of Vampire, he missed almost all of the song because he thought he was recording AND HE WASN’T BUT THAT’S OK HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAUGHHHHHH.

“Vampire” is my favorite Johnnie song. Back when I started watching Jake Webber’s videos and had the realization that, wait, is that Johnnie Guilbert from the Warped Tour YouTuber days??? and then saw that he makes music now, I had the kneejerk presumption that it was going to be super lame. “Ha! Let’s see about this,” I thought as I went to YouTube and played the first video that came up, which happened to be Vampire. And then almost instantly, I said, “Oh. Fuck. Goddammit.” I hate it when I’m wrong! But I’m also glad that I was because exploring his music and watching his YouTube has been so much fun since then!

Anyway, I’m grateful that Henry and I are still doing things like driving to Columbus for a concert and driving home the same night. IT KEEPS US YOUNG RIGHT HENRY.

“Didn’t you just see them?” Chooch replied when I texted him from the City Winery last Thursday evening, as we waited for the Cold concert to start. Um yes, we did “just” see them back in the spring BUT this was a special, intimate tour in collaboration with the City Winery, and Cold was bringing SIERRA SWAN with them.

SIERRA SWAN!!!

As someone who was big into Cold during their earlier years, I was always sad to never get to see her perform any of the songs on 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage in real life. So when this tour was announced, I tagged my pal Shawn – we were little Cold groupies back in the day! – and he said that not only were he and his wife Jess down for this, but also his brother Dave and his wife Stephanie! I reserved a table for us POST HASTE. I was so excited to get to see Cold again with Shawn – the last time was probably in 2001 (!!!!) and for all of us to get to experience this together as “big” adults.

I did just see them last spring and did my whole emo “blood on the blog” thing after that concert so I will try to keep this short and sweet, but good Lord was it ever a magical night.

I sent this to Chooch, whose response was, “Wow he’s almost smiling.”

The opening band was Edisun and it turns out that not only did I see them open for Cold way back in 2010 (I went with Alisha, when she was still living in Pgh), but so did Shawn’s brother, Dave! Dave was also at the one they did with Evanescence, and so were Henry and me! So crazy, because I think prior to this I had only met Shawn’s brother once and it was forever ago when he was still a kid and I went to Shawn’s house for some reason?! Anyway, Edisun was really great but I felt weird because I was trying to take surreptitious bites of my kale salad (it was such a great salad!!). I’m sorry but it will never be normal for me to eat during a concert!? It’s weird enough having to sit during one. (This one was 100% a seated event.)

Plus, we were only one table back from the stage! The first row of tables were a tiny bit more $$ but honestly, they were TOO CLOSE and I would have felt so weird sitting down and eating that close to Scooter Ward, even though I was done with my (SUPER DELECTABLE*) kale salad by the time they came on.

*I cannot stress this enough – it had a spicy sunflower dressing! It was so good that it was a topic of conversation the next day when I had my check-in with my dietician!

They opened with “Ugly,” prompting the tears to fall from my eyes with no preamble or solicitation. Just a quiet and salty face waterfall. Nothing to see here.

Someone posted it on YouTube! Oh, please watch this.

The whole set was so beautiful and very “Storytellers”ish – even moreso than the last one which was where they played A Different Kind of Pain and 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage in their entirety. The best part though was that it was all different stories that Scooter told this time so it felt fresh and extra special. Scooter is so funny and interesting, and when he tells a story, I hang off of every word. I EVEN HEARD HENRY LAUGHING A FEW TIMES BEHIND ME! If someone can get Henry to take a time out from watching Instagram Reels, that’s pretty major.

There was one table in the front but over to the side full of people who had quickly gotten drunk and chatty, and Henry kept mumbling, “Shut up!” under his breath. Why would you come to this super intimate show and talk?? “Everyone enjoys concerts their own way” – OK, cool, but how are you enjoying it when you’re talking over the band and creating annoying background chatter for everyone else? Call me a Concert Karen if you want, but seriously. Go sit at the bar.

Sorry, this is a screenshot from the one lone video I took all night, but this is THE SIERRA SWAN.

Setlist: (There wasn’t one on Setlist.fm for the Pgh show but I’m confident the Philly setlist is the same)

1. Ugly
2. A Different Kind of Pain
3. End of the World
4. No One
5. Another Pill
6. Suffocate
7. Superstar
8. Bleed
9. Better Human
10. Delivering the Saint
11. The One that Got Away
12. You Got Away (Sierra’s song)
13. Welcome2MyWorld
14. Quiet Now (his story on this song’s background drew tears from the eyes of nearly everyone in that room – probably not Henry – and it of course made me think of Drew and how quiet the house is without her. I am so broken)
15. Trouble Is (Sierra’s song)
16. Strip Her Down
17. Check Please
18. Gone Away

After the show, we hung back at our table and chatted a bit, letting everyone clear out. I really enjoyed our company that night, so so so much! Especially Shawn’s anti-truffle rant which caught the attention of this lady who was there alone and seated at one of the empty seats at our table. So we started chatting with her in between sets and learned she is originally from Florida and moved here with her now ex-husband. She was so nice but I regrettably forget her name because I was drinking a wine flight and I am such a light weight.

I really wanted to say hi to Scooter, after years and years and years of getting so emotional that I would legit run out of venues after losing my courage. Yes, I have two super old pictures with him from 2001 but they are awful. With Jess’s encouragement and Shawn agreeing to accompany me, I decided to try for an updated photo.

Oh you guys. I am still a mess around this lyrical genius. The way he emotes such raw and visceral pain from his entire being just makes my heart race. Even when we first got to the venue and were standing in line to get our tickets scanned, Scooter walked over to the front of the line and my heart was beating so hard that it drowned out everything else in that room. “He needs to leave before we get up there or I’m not going to be able to do this!” I cried to Henry, imagining myself fumbling my phone when trying to show our tickets, dropping it on his foot, bursting into tears and running out of the City Winery.

Typical Erin moves.

Thank god Shawn and Dave took the lead with this one and made it super casual and normal while I was standing there blubbering on about the time Scooter gave me a Starburst in 2001 in Hershey.

“I still like Starbursts,” Scooter said in his cool and quiet way, and you know I have been holding that soundbyte inside the deepest pocket of my brain reserved for all the special shit. Like:

• my Pappap saying “doopah” instead of butt when warning me not to sit on the cold porch floor.
• G-Dragon saying, “I have something to tell you,” in Newark regarding THE BIGBANG REUNION.
• Baby Chooch saying, “You…motherFUCKER!” apropos of nothing.

I’m not saying this in a sexual / lusty kind of way at all, but Scooter had his hand on my lower back and adjusted it several times and I literally thought I was going to die just because he was touching me (NOT IN A STARSTRUCK WAY BUT IN A “THIS MAN’S MUSIC HAS GOTTEN ME THROUGH SOME SHIT AND NOW HIS  HAND IS ON MY BACK” KIND OF WAY I DUNNO I CAN’T EXPLAIN IT BUT SOMEDAY MY FRIEND ALYSON MIGHT READ THIS AND I KNOW SHE WILL GET IT).

“I know,” Henry said in a soothing manner when I cried, “AND I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE WHEN HIS HAND WAS ON MY BACK, HENRY!” on the way to the car afterward.

Scooter also liked Shawn’s moustache!

Yep, you know this signed poster has already been framed. Just gotta find a good spot for it!

Oh! Henry came back to the table with this special edition Cold wine bottle after going to the bathroom in between sets! However, when he was buying it he apparently struck up a convo with the opening back, Edisun, and after the show when we were waiting to see Scooter, one of the guys from Edisun walked by, PATTED HENRY’S SHOULDER AND SAID, “WHAT’S UP, BUD.”

Ew, the gloating smirk I got from Henry after that. Sickening!

LOL it’s OK. He bought me the signed version of the wine bottle so he earned that little moment in the spotlight, I guess. This is me being a grown-up. (Don’t worry, it won’t last long.)

What an absolute banger of a night that I will never forget.

OH! P.S.! The drunk lady that fell at the last Cold show at Craft House was there, and she was actually talking to Scooter right before us. She turned around and, in the true sense of the word, HOLLERED something to her husband, causing Shawn to recoil and say, “Oh my!”

Thankfully, she was sat at a table nowhere near ours. Yikes.

25 years ago last week (missed the exact anniversary, I’m a failure) I went to Canberra, Australia alone to make my dream of seeing the Cure come true. You can’t ever say I’m not a go-getter.

It’s kind of eerie/cool but there were numerous Cure “Easter eggs” around Romania while we were there, like that poster I kept seeinglike that poster I kept seeing, another poster for a concert next summer that they’re headlining with 21 Pilots, and hearing The Last Day of Summer at a bookstore in Bucharest and that is actually one of the songs on the album that the Cure was touring in support of when I saw them in 2000. Such strange and delightful kismet!

OH AND THIS TRANSYLVANIA TCHOTCHKE I HAD TO BUY BC IT LOOKS CURIOUSLY LIKE ROBERT SMITH:

Henry recently digitized my old 8mm tape from that trip and it was my first time rewatching this in probably 20 years. The cringe session was intense. I know I’m going to regret this but here’s the clip of the actual meeting. Ugh I hate myself so much. The way Robert side eyes me and says “we just spent 6 weeks there…” when some radio person tells him I came from America to see them.

Henry just kept saying, “you were just a kid, it’s ok” instead of what I wanted to hear which was, “No! You were great! Look how…not frumpy and awkward you’re being! You made a…great impression! So much…personality! Robert probably still remembers this moment fondly and didn’t even notice the glaze of anxiety on your chubby face.”

Instead, when I said, “Oh…I was going to put this on Instagram but didn’t remember it being this cringy” Henry goes, “yeah I was gonna say, when I was pulling this off the camera I thought, ‘oh she will never want anyone to see this.”

WOW OK SUPPORTIVE.

I still have never properly written about this experience, just little pieces. Maybe Someday.

(THAT’S A CURE SONG BTW.)

Also, here’s a recording of when I was on a radio station in Canberra trying to weasel my way in to meet the Cure lol. It worked!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Erin Appledale (@ohhonestlyerin)

Well, considering it’s been three weeks now since I saw GD and I’m currently SOBBING while watching someone’s vlog from the LA shows – a married couple that are super VIPs from way back seeing him for the first time and feeling emotions that I can totally relate to and I’m sitting here with fucking goosebumps lol –  I just have to power through this or else it will be October and I’m still living in the weekend of August 22. Sigh.

Let’s just dive in because it’s now or never!

SETLIST (same for both nights)

1. POWER
2. HOME SWEET HOME
3. MichiGO
4. ONE OF A KIND
5. CRAYON
6. BONAMANA
7. Butterfly
8. I Love It
9. WHO YOU?
10. Today
11. Crooked
12. Heartbreaker
    (with WinG hologram intro)
13. Bullshit
    (with interpolations of ‘Not Like Us’ by Kendrick Lamar)
14. TAKE ME
15. TOO BAD
16. DRAMAENCORE
17. This Love
    (Maroon 5 cover)
18. 1 Year Station
19. IBELONGIIU
20. GYRO‐DROP
    (partial vocals, band and dancers introductions)
21. Untitled, 2014

I thought that after seeing this show only 24 hours before, that some of the magic and surprise would have worn off. But yo, I was so immersed from the moment the lights went out and the video for Too Bad began playing on the screens, audio blasting. My heart was racing! G-DRAGON IS THE MOTHERFUCKING GOAT. In the video I was watching from the YouTube couple, they pointed out that even when GD was being silly on stage at the LA show, he was still so fucking cool, because EVERYTHING GD DOES IS SO FUCKING COOL. HE IS A LEGIT TRENDSETTER FOR A REASON. Bro started wearing scarves over his hats and it turned into a trend in Asia, and then he later admitted that he was only doing that to hide his weight gain in his face, not to look cool!

I have been really thinking hard about this, especially after watching so many fan cams from this tour: people and by people I do mean BTS fans are trying to create this toxic narrative that GD’s comeback was a “flop,” that he’s “washed up,” that he’s “talentless.” Bro. All I have been seeing, outside of BTS INTERNET, is that there have been a ton of people who started stanning him this year BECAUSE OF HIS COMEBACK. New Kpop fans, people who don’t like Kpop at all (the girl next to me did not listen to other Kpop ONLY G-Dragon, although she does know Seventeen BECAUSE OF G-DRAGON!), and old Kpop fans alike. Bro has accumulated so many new fans this year alone! HE IS THE REAL DEAL. When I tell you this man could have peddled herbal tonics in a past life and became a millionaire in no time, I’m not kidding. His charisma is unmatched. He was simply born this way – this was not learned, he did not train to become this, HE ALREADY HAD THIS IN HIM. G-Dragon doesn’t need to aura farm, he IS the aura farm.

I AM FUCKING OBSESSED WITH HIM.

BONAMANA <3

I think I saw somewhere that this jacket is worth something like $15,000? $30,000?

Too Bad!

THIS SUIT! It was different than night one’s and I was obsessed with it.

I loved his Too Bad performance so much – the dancing was SO GOOD.

OK I have to include this video of the ment where he announces BIGBANG’s 20th anniversary because it has so much going on – him trying to explain the Ubermensch concept while getting interrupted by fanboys (one of them in particular went to all 5 US shows and GD recognized him and in LA said, “You? Again? Do we know each other? You came to all of the shows? Are you rich?” That guy is living the DREAM!!), getting flustered with mic stand after noticing Those LED Girls (he had a Jacobs & Co rep find them after this and gift them two of his daisy pendants worth over $1000!), impromptu Happy Birthday serenade – this ment was so chaotic and he totally lost control of the crowd because we all just wanted to shower him with love and finally he gave up and let us. I am so glad there is video of this because it makes my heart swell every time I watch it! Imagine being ONE PERSON and commanding an entire arena like this (and huge ass stadiums in other countries!).

But good Lord, I could listen to this man talk and watch his facial expressions all day long.

One of my favorite G-Dragon songs is from his latest album is Drama, co-written by DIANE WARREN. EXCUSE ME, WHAT? THE LEGEND HERSELF DIANE WARREN. Dang.

I want an Ubermensch robe so bad. If he had been selling this as merch, I’d have gladly thrown down and just as an FYI – I have never owned a robe in MY LIFE nor have I ever wanted one until now.

BIG shout out to his dancers and band! They’re incredible and bring so much to the stage.

And you can tell they genuinely love backing him too.

The final final final song was “Untitled 2014.” This song still gives me chills to this day. Everyone in the arena was either choked up & quietly swaying with their daisy bongs or singing along like it was church. There was so much positive and beautiful energy coursing through the Prudential Center, it was impossible not to feel SOMETHING, ANYTHING. I was silently crying, knowing that this was it – the last song, my last glimpse of Kwon Jiyong in person, back to real life. I can guarantee that I wasn’t alone in wanting this night to never end!

OK, I’m crying again so it’s time to turn this over to Henry for his…”thoughts” and “review”! Basically, for science, here’s why a 60-year-old white American man likes this amazing Korean rapper / singer / songwriter / fashion trendsetter / GOAT / legend:

“So where to begin? This was my second time seeing him, and it completely blew me out of the water, he was totally in the zone and giving it 110%. I honestly don’t know why I like him so much, maybe it’s the music or the person I went with (who makes me watch all his videos). But somehow this time hit different, and I loved every minute of both days. Now what? There is always next year to see him again in Big Bang and possibly a different country, just saying, no promises.” – Henry, 2025

(It took him literally 2 hours to write that.)

Saw this adorable dad and daughter on our way out and it made my eyes mist over. I fear that BIGBANG will be the only concert that could ever top this one in my heart and I am already so desperate to go. Please please please let this happen next year. There is not much else in this world to look forward to these days. Thank fucking god for music.

Can we take a moment to admire all of the freebies I accumulated from FAM and VIPs over the two nights in Newark?? I love it, and everyone who took time out to make such cute freebies. There is nothing like a Kpop concert. Also included is my VIP lanyard, the gifts provided by GD (the guitar picks – every city had it’s own color!), the Polaroids that I got free with my merch, and the two exclusive photo cards that came with the VIP package. I love stuff! I was practically acting like Scrooge McDuck and his money bags over my loot while Henry rolled his eyes.

When we came home the next day, I gave Chooch all the candy I collected even though he was lecturing me about how much money I spent on all of this. LET ME LIVE, KID!!! This is MOMMY’S TIME TO SHINE now.

We had to get to the arena earlier on Saturday because VIP line-up started at 4:30 and I did NOT want to risk anything. We ended up getting there around 3PM so I could also pass out the rest of the pins we made. We had over 100 for each day! Again, my social battery was quickly draining during this process but it was so rewarding because some people get REALLY HAPPY about freebies (other people make me take it back because their reactions are so borderline rude – like sorry for having the audacity to want to give you a cute  memento of GD’s concert??). I did chat with a few really nice people though, like a super spunky  (I have never used this word to describe anyone so I guess I was saving it for the perfect candidate) fan who showed me pictures on her phone of her in her Motte concert shirt from 2017 because I was wearing mine. Then she asked me if I wanted a tattoo and I thought she meant a real one and I was caught off guard like, we just met but OK I’ll go get a tattoo with you, but then she handed me a temporary GD tattoo and that made so much more sense lol.

A lot of people commented on Henry’s Motte clip that I made him wear on his hat and my matching tote that we got with our 2017 VIP packages. There was a group of older Asian women who seemed taken aback when I approached them with my freebies – there were a lot of older people at this concert because GD has been a Kpop legend for 20 years so he has fans of all of ages and some of these people don’t go to other Kpop concerts and it shows because they acted like I was trying to sell them something lol. There was one couple that politely put up the “no thank you” stop hand and skirted away from me lol. But anyway, once this particular group realized what was happening, they were squealing as they opened the baggies and pulled out the pins, and then one of them noticed my tote bag and cried, “Oh!!! You’re old fan! You go back to the old days!” and I was like, “Yep! That’s me, an old head!” and they were all fawning over me then – it was the most positive and sweet attention I have received in years and I was FEELING IT! I floated on that cloud for a good long while, what amazing people I met that day.

Henry did say at one point that I was basically a jump scare because I was standing right next to a tree and popping out at people. I didn’t even think about it at the time, but he’s not wrong!

We eventually got in the VIP line after I successfully handed out all of my pins and we received MORE birthday banners which made Henry grumble because he hates having to carry things at concerts lol.

I would say we stood in line for about an hour – they were definitely running behind. It was enough time to admire all of the outstanding outfits around us though! Some people went all out with cosplaying GD and I was very impressed. Especially the fans who made DIY versions of his iconic red rose jacket. The only downside is that it gave me too much time to notice all of the people in line wearing their Peaceminusone NIKEs which I have never been able to obtain since they sell out so fast!! Ugh, the FOMO was so real.

I would be remiss to not add that my idiotic ass kept putting off getting my driver’s license renewed before this (I went the next weekend, OK???) and the venue email that was sent to VIP ticket holders with instructions said that VALID ID was required when checking in, NO EXCEPTIONS. Of course I panicked and brought my passport just in case they slapped my expired (by one month!!) driver’s license out of my hand. AND THEN THEY DIDN’T EVEN CHECK ID. Just scanned our tickets and shuffled us off into the secret door that funnels you straight onto the floor of the arena. Staff was lined up and passing out our VIP bags which included the guitar pick, two exclusive photo cards of GD, and our VIP lanyard and badge. I was geeking out. I have only done VIP for a concert of this size one other time and that was also for GD in 2017! This process was way more streamlined and went off without a hitch (at least in our experience).

Walking across the floor to our seat in Section 8, Row 3. THEY WERE SO GOOD. After Stray Kids, I decided that I never want to be on the floor unless I’m barricade, honestly. Fuck the floor. We were still basically on the floor, so close to the extended stage, and had perfect view during the whole concert.

First of all, a nearly empty arena is fucking COLD. That paired with my nervous anticipation of seeing a pre-concert G-Dragon had me shivering in my seat. Which, by the way, was right next to a woman who flew in from Indiana and was also there for both nights! In the dim light of the Prudential Center, she reminded me a lot of my friend Jiyong (no, not G-Dragon, but my in real life friend Jiyong who was teaching me Korean when she lived in Pittsburgh and then gave us the greatest assist with our marriage!) because when I was just seeing her in my periphery, she had the same stature and her voice sounded so similar! It made my heart swell. We chatted a bit about our love for G-Dragon, how/when we got into him, etc. all while the staff and arena security were walking around shouting out the no cell phones / pictures / videos policy during soundcheck. The one dude was a middle-aged no-nonsense white man who was screaming at people to put their phones away now rather than later, if anyone gets caught with their phones out during soundcheck, they will be escorted out, etc. I have seen plenty of soundcheck videos from other artists’ concerts so I don’t know if this is a G-Dragon policy or what, but it was also like this in 2017 and we did see someone get taken out at that one. I quickly put my phone away because I sacrificed too much to miss this opportunity!

(And by that I mean I paid a lot of money lol.)

“I wonder where he worked before this,” my new friend said out loud.

“Prison,” I said solemnly, and we laughed. Henry was not a part of this conversation. He was basking in the joy of having a coveted aisle seat. It’s literally all he wants at every concert we go to.

OMG there was a lady who had a sit right next to the barricade that reminded me so much of both Barb Riley and Margie. I was dying. Especially when the show started later and she was fighting with a young girl who was, I believe, attempting to push her out of the way. I didn’t notice at first but my not-Jiyong friend pointed it out and then I couldn’t unsee it.

Meanwhile, soundcheck was running late and everyone was starting to squirm in their seats. Then, one of the G-Dragon cosplayers who I recognized from night 1 too, stood up in front of the extended stage and started BELTING out “Crayon.” It was so funny but also contagious and all of the VIPs started cheering and singing along. OBSESSED with this guy’s moxie. I don’t know if GD could hear this but right in the middle of it, his popped up on the stage in his chair, almost like, “OK imposter, sit down, Daddy’s here now” and immediately launched into Bonomana (one of my absolute faves from his new album and now thanks to soundcheck, I got to hear him sing it live three times in two days!!).

IT WAS EPIC TIMING.

EVERYONE WAS SCREAMING! I immediately started to cry, even having just seen him the night before, he was so much closer now and there are no words to explain how intimate soundcheck is. He was wearing a beautiful, loose gray suit, a beret-ish hat (I don’t know my hat names, OK?), and a face mask. Of course, some brave fan got a video!

OMG, Blog. I just can’t get over how much I adore him. He is so fascinating! I wish everyone could experience the aura he exudes at least one because it is so captivating. I will die on this hill but I think the fact that he has so many fan boys speaks volumes.

In addition to Bonamana and Take Me, he also did IBELONG11U. Worth every penny. I even looked at Henry with tears in my eyes and said, “Worth it. No regrets. Two nights was the best accident ever.” And that was before the actual concert even started!

After soundcheck, people made a beeline for either merch lines, bathroom, or food/bev. Henry of course needed to pee and then he wanted to get a beer, so we sat at a table outside of Section 8 – I forget what the lounge was – and people-watched since we had a good 90 minutes to kill.

Back at our seats, I made Henry do the “Instagram Girl Goes to a Concert” pose. He was like I AM NOT STANDING THIS so I let him sit in my seat for it, Jesus he’s really no fun about these things.

I FELT CUTE. Also, there’s Barb/Margie in the bottom left corner. She had such a great seat, I was jel.

Not Henry sitting next to me adjusting his camera settings on his phone so he could get the best shots of GD, lol.

OMG there was some intense selfie wars going on in front of us. The woman standing up to the right was originally taking a selfie of herself with the stage behind her, and the lady in the pink shirt was also trying to get a selfie so she TOLD THE OTHER LADY TO MOVE, and that lady – visibly appalled – made a big sarcastic gesture “GO RIGHT AHEAD” gesture with her arm after taking her seat. I was like, “Holy shit,  the audacity” and then later, that woman was having her partner take pictures of her so the pink lady GOT UP AND WAS LEANING AGAINST HIM, TAKING HER OWN SELFIES. Henry and I were so invested in this.

Also, the girl right in front of me with the silk scarf on her head a la G-Dragon Power-era and her friend were sooooo nice. We (I) chatted with them quite a bit before the show started, and then they gave me and not-Jiyong baggies of freebies to help ourselves to and then pass along. I was in love with everyone around us, legitimately. There was a group of guys directly behind us who were super chill, and a white guy that reminded me a little of Corey further down in our row who was rocking out with his light stick through the entire concert. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to be seated around and it really elevated the experience.

Around 8:15pm, the G-Dragon cosplayer got the crowd all riled up again with another boisterous sing-along (“Crayon/Crooked”) and I was so impressed that he had the balls to do this with a FILLED ARENA at this point. I mean, judging from the beer sloshing in his hand, he had a bit of liquid courage but still – it takes a special kind of person lol. My opinion on him changed later when I saw a video of him grabbing at GD’s arm during one of the times GD walked along the barricade and that’s just not OK with me.

Also in this video, you can see the NO PHONES, I SWEAR TO GOD JUST PUT IT AWAY RIGHT NOW LOOK THIS ISN’T MY RULE I’M JUST DOING MY JOB staff guy in the white shirt can be seen stomping by, and Barb/Margie is also in the background!

And just like soundcheck, the lights went out right after this and the intro began for night 2 and I was SO STOKED. Part 2 coming soon because I don’t want to ever be done recapping this! :(

Warning: This is going to be messy and disjointed because my brain refuses to cooperate – the emotions are still so raw!!

When I first saw G-Dragon in 2017, I never would have known at the time the heartache that would follow. I just assumed, “OK, he and the rest of BIGBANG will be going into the military. Then they’ll come out and go on tour and we’ll go see them.”

God, if only.

Instead, they were wracked with scandals (only one of which was actually true and deserved), one member has been blacklisted (byeee), another retired (we have hope though!), and then G-Dragon came out of the military and basically had been laying low since 2019. A few non-music appearances here and there. A few comeback rumors that never panned out. Then finally! Last year he made a surprise appearance ON STAGE at one of Taeyang’s solo concerts and then came out with his long-awaited comeback single last fall. It has been INSANELY FUN again since then!

I guess I didn’t realize how empty I truly have been feeling these last few years and maybe it seems weird that a singer means that much to me, but he symbolizes a time when I was at my lowest and discovering him and BIGBANG actually breathed new life into me. They made me feel excited to get out of bed every day and learn more about them, Korea, Kpop in general. G-Dragon especially. Almost my whole life it’s been Robert Smith and The Cure, but you guys…

You guys…

It’s G-Dragon. These two nights in Newark really opened me back up! The way I have been thinking about recapping these concerts every day and then instead find myself sitting here smiling into space and then going to YouTube to watch fan videos. I am so obsessed with this man. I told Henry that I was worried that it wouldn’t be as exciting as the first time we saw him and he just frowned at me, like “come on, now.” 2017 was amazing, but his Ubermensch tour blew that out of the water!

I’ll never forget the electricity in the arena when the video for Too Bad was playing on the screens and then suddenly the audio was greatly jacked up, the lights went out, everyone started fucking screaming their lungs out. The energy!!! Henry noted that the screaming wasn’t as annoying as other Kpop concerts because so many men were in the audience, creating more of a “roar” than the shrill shrieking you get with the younger groups!

Not my video but just you know, I was fucking SHAKING during this intro and then IMMEDIATELY went, “Ohhhhhhhhh….” and burst into tears when I finally saw him with my own eyeballs.

And even without Taeyang and Daesung, the energy during “Home Sweet Home” made it feel like the ground beneath us was going to shatter and the roof was going to pop off the Prudential Center. It was, in a word, motherfuckingepic.

My pictures and videos were better the next night when we were closer, but this one just makes me so happy – it was such a celebratory moment!

And then he had his first ment of the night and I can still hear him saying, “HelLO!” and actually acknowledging that he was in Newark and not New York! Most groups just default to New York but then there’s GD with the geographical accuracy <3

I could listen to him talk for days, you guys. He could have just sat on the stage and read the paper to us – OK, not the paper, that’s too depressing, how about an old issue of Sassy magazine lol – and I would have been like, “Did I pay $$$$ for this? Yep. Am I satisfied? You bet.” JUST BREATHING THE SAME AIR AS HIM, I don’t care how Tiger Beat delulu this makes me sound, I could not wipe the absolute AWE from my face no matter how hard I tried. My facial muscles were frozen in reverence. He is one of a kind, 100%. A living legend. No one will change my mind.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Erin Appledale (@ohhonestlyerin)

This was around the time he was telling us that BIGBANG is planning on a comeback for their 20th anniversary next year and I have been all over Henry about going to Korea for this. He is 99.999999% sold on the idea, lol.

I’m going to post more videos in my Night 2 recap because that night was more special to me. Just – everything about Night 2 was magic and perfection. Yes, even being there with Henry didn’t hinder any of that, lol.

OMG he seemed so comfortable too, with the crowd and with switching off to 100% English. He was incredibly jokey too – there was one point in between songs when someone shrieked, “I SAW YOU AT THE AIRPORT!” He smirked and said, “So what?” and then, “Just kidding!” with the cutest fucking laugh. Ahhh, I was screaming!

The final song of the night was Untitled which is one of the prettiest songs he has and it brings back so many memories of 2017 – my first GD comeback experience! He sang that song during the 2017 off stage and was literal feet away from us – we were one row back from the barricade at that concert – and there was one part where he held his mic too close to a speaker and it squealed which made him recoil and flinch, and to this day my mind is convinced that that same electric squelch is going to happen every time I listen to that song lol.

Also, this happened during encore! She’s:

• lucky she’s OK
• lucky that she got GD’s attention!!!!1111111111111111111111111

(On the real though, this was apparently the venue’s fault from the information I’ve seen – the railing she was leaning against legit gave out. Thank god she was already so close to the ground!!)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nina ✨ (@nninaa2264)

I can’t remember the last time I smiled SO BIG, cried SO MUCH, and screamed SO LOUD at a concert. I could barely talk on the way back to the car. Nor can I even remember leaving the venue and walking back to the car! I do vaguely remember being hungry but completely crashing out in the hotel room before any decision could be made re: food. It was midnight by then anyway and I felt like I had just come home from a fucking rave. And the next morning, I was TRASHED! My head hurt so bad from all the screaming and I had the most annoying scratchy voice for the first hour or two of the day, but you better fucking believe that I was ready to do it all over again!

Being at the Prudential Center with all of my people was so invigorating. Yes, I was nervous and awkward about passing out freebies and I don’t know why because it went so well and my bag was empty before I knew it and I got so many awesome freebies in return.

It’s already such a blur but I definitely would be remiss to not talk about how there was a food truck – Hangry Joe’s or something – parked alongside the arena and one of the employees was walking around the crowd with a tray of chicken samples. I left Henry for less than five minutes while I was passing out my pins and by the time I came back, he was scarfing down free chicken (they were giving out BIG CHICKEN STRIPS, yo) and had a blob of coagulating condiment resting on his shirt. I was so embarrassed!

In fact, I believe what I yelled was, “You’re so embarrassing!” while he looked down and mumbled, “Aw shit,” swiping at the slop with a finger and leaving behind a dark oily spot on his already UGLY shirt (it was some bland baby poop color since he is resistant to any hue even remotely pleasing to the eye).

SO.

EMBARRASSING.

These banners were the product of a local fan project and we ended up accumulating so many of them over two days. Sometimes we go to Kpop concerts and get there too late, so I miss out on the banners but this time we were actively trying to avoid them because there were so many people passing them out!

The doors eventually opened sometime after 6PM and I was about to FLOAT OUT OF MY BODY. Once we were past security and had our tickets scanned, it started to really sink in that we were about to see KWON JIYONG. The actual King of Kpop. Your idols’ idol.

The line for this photo op was nearly as long as the merch lines, which were the longest merch lines I have ever seen at any concert. We didn’t even attempt that, knowing that we would be there the next day too and could get to the merch right after soundcheck and before the doors opened to the general public, but we ultimately decided on just coming down to the Prudential Center the next morning for early merch, which was the right call. I didn’t want to be stressed out during sound check, thinking about running to get into the merch line!

For night 1, we were in section 7, row 6. The next night, our seats were so much closer but this was still GOOD. I’ve been to the Prudential Center a bunch of times (two KCONs, BTS, Stray Kids, NCT127) but have never sat in the lower section so this was a nice switch-up!

People watching before a concert starts is one of my favorite parts of the night. I was obsessed with the three girls in the row in front of us. From what I had gathered, they had all come solo but befriended each other during soundcheck, so they were chatting away before the concert started and I was desperate to insert myself but never did. I LONG for concert friends. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful that Henry also likes Kpop and comes with me to every concert but sheesh, to be with a group of girls would be the best. I’m just not good at small talk anymore so anytime I *am* sitting alone at one of these concerts because Henry has a nosebleed seat, I just can never sustain a conversation long enough to get to the “let’s be friends!” portion (except for Pamela who sat next to me at NCT Dream in 2022! We became IG friends but her IG is just for selling/trading photocards and we have no interaction). But these girls were adding each other on socials and squealing over each others’ Kpop concert experiences, sigh. The one girl had a British accent and we made eye contact a few times and exchanged smiles and I was ready to fling myself at her. I’m so lonely, lol.

I love that GD had guitar picks made for each stop of his tour! Everyone got one as soon as tickets were scanned and I am already wearing mine as a pendant, in case you were wondering.

Henry’s stain can be seen here. I sent this to some friends who were like “he looks thrilled.” :( Look, I can’t help it that he always looks like this. Maybe it’s the “being around me” part of these things that makes him look miserable. Because he likes G-Dragon,  I know that for a fact. (OMG a man liking Korean music, HOW WEIRD.)

I needed a beer so bad before this started because MY NERVES. This was my check-in picture of Untappd but you can see the British girl in the background who I realized later reminded me of Grow With Jo whose YouTube workouts I love, so it’s no wonder I gravitated toward her!

OMG. A smile. Sort of.

I had two guys sitting on the other side of me – they were both there alone and it was the first time in history that I was actually sandwiched by men at a Kpop concert. G-Dragon is just different though. I would say it was almost an even split between men and women – and not just boyfriends and husbands being dragged along by their partners. G-Dragon has FAN BOYS. And they are actually more rabid than the girls! There were so many times throughout the night when you’d hear masculine, guttural roars of “I LOVE YOU!!!!!!” from the guys and it would make GD crack up every time. He is just truly on another level.

I think I’m going to end this here and then recap the concert portion separately because you know me and how I love to drag shit out! But I will just end by saying that I legit felt like puking and my legs were shaking uncontrollably while waiting for the lights to go off! KWON JIYONG!!!!!!

On one hand, I am so excited to recap my G-Dragon experience, but the other hand always holds the refusal to acknowledge that it’s over. This is the worst PCD I’ve experienced in quite some time – and I am pretty seasoned at this feeling! This one just really hits different. He’s just some Korean guy to my friends but to me, he is the guy who pulled me out of a crippling – and serious – depression in 2016 and added joy and excitement back into my life. I don’t ever want to be that person again and I found myself toeing that line again through 2024 and a lot of this year too. Last summer around this time, I am not afraid to admit that I was suicidal. There was a break down that happened in Chicago last August that actually gives me chills when I replay it in my head because I was so close to just letting go.   But I am going to say this right now – after last weekend, I feel alive again. So, make fun of me for liking this stuff all you want, at the end of the day it’s giving me joy when almost nothing else can. When you don’t have a good support system, turning to music is like a default.

I just don’t understand why people think it’s OK to make another person feel like shit for liking something they don’t understand. I didn’t intend for this to start out negatively but I am still stewing over the fact that one of my work friends texted me a picture of the group chat THAT I AM NOT EVEN PART OF ANYMORE BECAUSE IT WAS ADDING SO MUCH TOXICITY TO MY DAY THAT I REMOVED MYSELF and btw it wasn’t even my group anyway so I did not even belong there. Anyway, in the chat I guess they were bitching about an atty from Newark who was causing grief among the group and someone mentioned that I was actually en route to Newark to see G-Dragon so someone else was like “Maybe Henry can take care of this guy for us” or something and someone (wow, I wonder who) said, “He’d probably rather be doing that anyway” or something equally stupid and it’s just not funny anymore. Like I am “dragging” Henry to these things. Like Henry doesn’t have his own opinion. Like Henry doesn’t also genuinely like G-Dragon. WHY WOULD HENRY HAVE GONE TO KOREA WITH ME 3X. WHY WOULD HE HAVE AGREED TO GET MARRIED IN KOREA. WHY WOULD HE HAVE BEEN “IT’S OK” AFTER I SPENT $$$$ ON THESE TWO CONCERTS (you have no idea). It’s just actually rude and inconsiderate to insinuate that I am THAT controlling of Henry. Blog, do you remember when I used to go to concerts alone? IT WAS BECAUSE HENRY DIDN’T LIKE THE BANDS I WAS GOING TO SEE. Yes, occasionally he took one for the team and still went with me, but he was very open about not enjoying it.

And there have been several Kpop concerts where Henry sits in the nosebleeds because he wants to be there but we can’t really afford to both get good tickets so we sit separately. WHY WOULD HE BOTHER STILL GOING IF WE WEREN’T EVEN GOING TO SIT TOGETHER UNLESS HE GENUINELY LIKED THE GROUP?

Men can like Kpop. It doesn’t have to be a fucking joke and I’m so tired of the poor Henry comments. It’s rude to him too because it’s making it sound like he doesn’t have his own free will!? Like this can’t be something that we have bonded over?? He sends me Seventeen and G-Dragon Insta reels all day long!

Sorry-not-sorry to be ranting but that truly set me off that day and I was in a foul mood pretty much until it was time to leave the hotel and go to the Prudential Center. It didn’t help that I was also panicking aver what to eat because I didn’t want to be in pain during the concert and we struck out with the vegan place Henry found (they left us sitting at the table long enough for me to have ordering anxiety so we left) and then we went for a walk in a really crappy cemetery where I ranted more about how I’m sick of people acting like Korean (or Asian in general) things are “lesser than” because OMG no English, and then we ended up finding a nice little smoothie joint called Protein Corner where I got a delicious passion fruit smoothie bowl and Henry got a Fruity Pebbles protein shake – all made by a husband/wife team while their little kid popped in and out. It was a true family affair, and it was the perfect pre-concert  meal because it tided me over without giving me a stomach ache.

Anyway. Now that I have all of that out my system. Trust me – everything else is much more positive from here on out! Just, you know, if it’s not hurting anyone else, LET PEOPLE LIKE WHAT THEY LIKE. God, I crave these concerts so I can surround myself with people who aren’t judging me!

Here are some obligatory pre-concert hotel pictures. I was so excited to dust off my bang bong (a/k/a Bigbang lightstick)!

All of my accessories! Two mini-Daisy bongs (one is standard and the other is the mint-version that was sold through the fan club last spring – I had to set my alarm for 4AM to buy it lol), my GD photocards and keychains, and my PEACEMINUSONE red clip that was a gift for the VIPs at his 2017 concert. The only other time I ever splurged and bought VIP to get soundcheck! Anyway, by the end of the two days, I had accumulated so many freebies that my purse is an entanglement of dangling beads now lol.

I bought this scarf forever ago from someone on Etsy – it has Bigbang and G-Dragon lyrics on it and I knew immediately that I needed to use it to fancy up my daisy bong.

My big bag of freebies! I had over 100 to pass out both Friday and Saturday. This tote bag was also part of the VIP gift from the 2017 concert and it felt so apropos to use it as a freebie holder.

My Korean Vans!

You have no idea how fucking excited (and sick!!!) I was on the way to the Prudential Center! I just kept moaning, “OMG OMG OMG OMG” like I was on my way to have a baby.

We’re on our way home from Long Island after seeing Enhypen’s Walk the Line concert last night. It was FANTASTIC.

Now, I’m not really that much of an ENGENE (that’s their fan name in case you care) but I do know all of their members and 90% of the songs. In fact there was only one song they performed last night that I wasn’t sure if I had heard before. But I sat out last summer’s concert and had big regertz after that. Mostly because when they came back with their song “XO,” I was fully obsessed.

So when they announced this current tour, I bought 2 tickets in the 200s section.

The drive was long and uneventful. We were able to check into our hotel in Linden, NJ on the way so that was nice, but we didn’t hang around very long – long enough to put on the latest Jake Webber video which I sent of picture of to Chooch and he said he was glad he wasn’t there lol:

It was only around 4pm but we left immediately to start the drive to Long Island because GPS reported lots of accidents + rush hour. And we wanted to eat somewhere before the concert too.

The drive was chaotic. I absolutely could not do this myself, and I am secure enough in my GIRL POWER attitude to admit that this is a big reason why I am glad to have a man/driver at my beck and call.

We went to this vegan place called Rockin’ Roots. It was VERY small and two of the four tiny tables were taken.

The whole reason I wanted to go here was because they have vegan sushi but when we got there, the chalkboard menu had everything erased under the SUSHI heading and their printed menu doesn’t mention it at all so that was my sign that they didn’t have any for that I guess. I got the daily special – the Cuban – instead. It was really good but I only ordered a half and was still so hungry after. Not to mention that the lady at the table next to us HAD SUSHI. AND SHE DIDNT EVEN FINISH IT. I figured she must have gotten the last of it and I was pissed.

Also, Henry bumped the table SO HARD that my can of Olipop tumbled over and this was literally a second after I had decided to wait to pop the top. That could have been such a disaster because we were like 90 minutes away from our hotel at that point and I’d have had to go to the concert in Cherry Pop stained shorts. It didn’t happen but I was still so mad at him for being an oaf.

THEN SOME GUY IN AND THE DUDE WORKING BEHIND THE COUNTER TOLD HIM HE COULD MAKE HIM A LOBSTER ROLL!!!!!

I was soooo mad.

Henry was like, “I’ll go up and order one to go!” But at that point I was fully committed to pouting and ruining the day at least for the next hour or so, so I said, “NO JUST FORGET IT!!!”

Then I proceeded to whine incessantly about still being hungry because Leo problems. We ended up stopping at a crappy bakery and got a really crappy cookie. I couldn’t even finish it out of principle and the stubborn need to stay in my diva character.

I was still being a bitch when we arrived at UBS Arena but then I started getting freebies so this pulled me back down to earth. I love getting freebies at kpop concerts!!!

Then after we got in a really long line, some UBS employee came over and was yelling, “Are there any AmEx cardholders here??” And I yelled, “Ooooh!!! Me!!!!” So he gave a handful of us instructions on where to locate the ELITE AmEx entry lol. The line over there was much shorter after all the non-cardholders were weeded out but I’m not sure how much time it actually saved us once doors opened.

While standing there, I got a bracelet and a keychain after I heard the rustling of cellophane behind me – I turned around to see an older lady and her little kid handing them out and I said, “Oooh! Can I have one too?” Being an older fan, you have to speak up for freebies or else most of these people will assume you’re too old to care but yo, I will always be young at heart enough to want to wear friendship bracelets with idols’ names on them. I even got sunnies with “EN” beads glued to it and a rubber duck with the concert date and location written on the bottom! I love stuff like this. Especially SINCE THE CONCERT TSHIRTS WERE ALL SOLD OUT, dafuq???!!! I ended up having to buy a dupe on Etsy today.

My Enhypen glasses lol. I got them from one of the girls with the girl wrapped in the flag in line in front of us, in case you were dying to know. There was a young teen girl also in line in front of us and she kept scrutinizing me, I felt like. She was looking at all my kpop accoutrement dangling from my purse and I really like she was judging me and trying to determine if I was a legit fan.

Answer: I’m a certified and legitimate multi-stan. You’re safe.

Mister Softee sighting!!!

We were in section 208, the middle of row 1. Henry was happy because this meant he could stay seated through the whole thing while enjoying an unobstructed view. I was just happy to be comfortable and take it all in since it was my first experience with ENGENES. They might possibly be the loudest/screechiest fans I have encountered yet. If I close my eyes, I can still hear what sounds like horny seagulls ricocheting in my ears. It was cracking me up because the screaming was at full capacity JUST WHEN ENHYPEN MVs WERE PLAYING before the show started. I was like, “Dang if they’re expending this much energy just on music videos they’ve seen a million times, how will they have anything left for the actual concert?!”

Oh not to worry – they had A LOT left in the tank, lol. I appreciated their unwavering moxie, for sure! I could have done without the teenager behind me legit BELLOWING, “NI-KI!!!” at random intervals. Like girlfriend, he isn’t going to look at you up here. But I get it.

OK I gotta say – I was RULL into this concert. I went in as a casual stan and came out having an existential crisis over who my bias is (it was Jungwon and Sunoo going into this but HEESEUNG GOOD LORD, MY GUY) and then Henry and I spent the car ride home today dissecting everything, putting on our favorite songs for relistens, evaluating their stage presence, etc. I can confidently say that I have NO REGERTZ – NONE after this experience. They held my interest from start to finish.

Sunoo though! He was so adorable all night. Easy to see why fans call him the Happy Virus.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Erin Appledale (@ohhonestlyerin)

I super-loved the people around us in our row. There was an older woman to my right, and then Henry had an older couple next to him. Loved that for him. There were two empty seats next to the lady next to me, and around 8:40, these two girls (I really think it was a mom and daughter but it was hard to tell) came running in, plopped down into the seats and immediately TOOK UP SO MUCH SPACE. I was like, “Yo, how do you people lack THAT much noonchi?? LOOK AROUND, GIRLFRIENDS – you’re encroaching upon the personal space of others!” Now, they weren’t directly affecting me that much, I could only see them in my periphery, but I felt so bad for the lady next to me. She was having a great night and these two numb-nuts came, started filming each other lipsynching, USING THE FLASHLIGHT ON THEIR PHONES, and turning the night into a legit photoshoot with their selfie sticks. I get wanting to capture memories, etc and it’s not like I don’t also film snips of songs, but they were being SO PERFORMATIVE. One of them clearly had to be a TikTokker, that’s all I can figure. She was also dressed like the daughter of a corrupt CEO in a K-drama in a weird fitted suit dress. Looked like this:

They were literally the ONLY negative parts of the whole night. Even after the show, they stood there and blocked our row from leaving because they were back to doing another photoshoot until Henry elbowed past them and muttered a gruff, “EXCUSE ME.” I mean, there were like 8 of us trying to get the fuck out of there.

Like I have said before, people enjoy concerts their own way but this was just so incredibly obnoxious. Like, turn your fucking flash off!!!

Anyway!! The highlight for me was when they performed Bite Me, No Doubt, Moonstruck, Pass the Mic (I LOVE this song after seeing them perform it live!) but MOSTLY I was there for XO. I love that fucking song SO MUCH. It really helped distract me when I was mourning last year.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Erin Appledale (@ohhonestlyerin)

Overall, I would say that it was well worth the ticket price and excruciating pain of having to get back in the car again after just spending a week driving around Missouri and Iowa (that was poor planning on my part – I already had these tickets on lock before I started planning my birthday trip and didn’t even consider the fact that this was literally DAYS after we returned from that long-haul road trip, oops). It made me appreciate them even more after seeing them in person. I will say that Seventeen and NCT127/NCT Dream really have us spoiled when it comes to the in-between videos (VCRs if you’re a kpop stan), and DEFINITEY onstage banter & encores. It comes off so effortlessly with those groups, and especially with Seventeen – the encores are untouchable, unlike any other concert I’ve ever experienced. So it’s a high bar! But Enhypen, for being a relatively “new” group (only just debuting in 2020), already have such a strong collection of songs and their personalities come through HARD on stage. I’m so excited to see where they go and will happily stan them even harder now!

THIS JUST IN: Henry said out of nowhere that he likes their song “Loose.” I put it on for him and now he’s doing weird car-dancing to it with his arms and it’s making me uncomfy.

ETA: it’s been three days and I had to come back here and say that for just being a “casual” fan, I have not been able to stop thinking about this concert and have spent all weekend bingeing Enhypen content on YouTube. I’m officially an ENGENE and for confident in my bias choice of Jungwon.

Also! I failed to mention that before the show, we stopped at one of the arena bars and the middle-aged woman bartender asked Henry if he was the same guy who was there for the show the night before as well (Enhypen performed two nights at UBS and we were night 2).

“He looked just like you! He was carrying a bag of candy.”

“I wish he was carrying a bag of candy,” I mumbled, fixing my Firestarter eyes upon Henry’s dumb face.

“I just thought it was so cute that he was here with his daughters,” she gushed, and I was quick to inform this broad that Henry was here because he likes Kpop and not because he was a chaperone.

“We like this stuff so much that we got married in Korea,” I said, never letting an opportunity to brag about this pass me by. Hey, I waited 23 years to get married, let me fucking live.

She was like, “Oh wow,” and didn’t really have the same “That’s cool!” reaction that most people do? So, after we walked away, I was like, “I mean, she didn’t think I was your daughter, did she??”

So, that was fun.

Kurt Travis time!

On the way there, I had made some outlandish statement about how I’d be fine “just sitting at the bar” during this show since I’m so far-removed from this scene now, etc. But then as Kurt and his band (Zac Garron was there as his guitarist!! Love him) were about to start, I said, “Byeeee!” to Henry and ran out to the floor, getting a cozy spot at the side of the stage. It’s a pull, you guys. Like magnets. I can’t fight it.

Dude, what can I say that I haven’t already said a thousand times over the years about Kurt Travis? This show really brought me back, man. He is so incredible! He could go on a “Kurt Travis Sings the Alphabet Song” tour and I would be waiting for the presale.

We had a good 30 minutes to wait before it was Anthony Green time so we people-watched and I guess chatted, what do Henry and I even chat about. He wasn’t even sitting next to me at our table, but catty-corner!

“Do you think Anthony’s going to be chaotic?” I asked Henry, trying to make CONVERSATION.

Henry just gave me the “now THAT’S a stupid question” smirk in response.

Then it was Anthony Green time! Dang, I am so so so far-removed from this scene but it still felt like no time had passed since I last saw him. I think it’s been quite a while since I last saw Circa Survive, but I’ve seen him with Saosin, LS Dunes, the Sounds of Animals Fighting, and solo myriad times in the last decade at least. I’m fairly positive that every time we’ve gone to Riot Fest, he’s been there in some capacity. (The last time we went in 2023, LS Dunes and Thursday were both there!)

I know I’ve written about it a million times on here, but Circa Survive SPECIFICALLY was such a big part of my life. Juturna got me through my pregnancy to the point where I wouldn’t be surprised if Chooch was partially triggered by the opening notes of any song on that album.

And the first time we saw Circa was the summer of 2005 at the Grog Shop in Cleveland, which was my first time there, actually! And I patiently stood outside that night with a bunch of fanboys, literally the only girl  there, waiting for my chance to tell Anthony how much he means to me and could he please sign my CD. I was wearing my mom’s old Jacki Sorenson aerobics shirt from 1984 – that is the ONE THING that is seared into my mind.

That, and the guy I was standing with telling me that Anthony literally stopped him from killing himself. He had told the guy to reach out to him if he needed to, and he took him up on that and Anthony talked him down. I will never ever forget that. Anthony has always been a genuine person, through all of his own demons and struggles he has always cared about the people who love his music and that comes across so strong at all of his shows. No matter which band he’s with.

So, hearing him sing his solo work on top of some Saosin and Circa that night was so cathartic. It definitely put me in a weird headspace, but overall, it was healing. A merging of my past and present, in a way – a reminder that I can still hold on to pieces, the healthy parts, of my old self without it stunting my personal growth. Does that make sense? Because it made me realize how far I’ve come since those old days of seeing Circa at the Grog Shop, Warped Tour, Mr. Smalls — still loving music with my whole stupid heart but also being so much more stable now. And it’s nice to be able to go into it without feeling SICK TO MY STOMACH like I would get back then, that hyper-nausea of preparing to see a band that made me feel like I had just cut my wrists because I loved them on such a psycho-emotional level. Now, I can just chill out with Henry and enjoy it for what it is, feeling the feelings without it crippling me.

I don’t know what started this exploration of my past (oh yeah, therapy lol) but it feels like it’s doing good things for me.

Then this happened and FML honestly lol:

IT’S A SURPRISE YOU HAVEN’T CAUGHT ON YET IT’S NOTHING PERSONAL YOU’RE AN EMBARRASSMENT.

Ugh, I used to cry and sing that part out loud while walking in the cemetery in 2005.

We lingered a bit after the show because I was hemming and hawing about getting Kurt to sign  the vinyl I bought, and also because we were 99.9% percent certain that one of our Sugar Spell Scoops friends was in attendance and we wanted to say hello to him.

Yo, why am I such a baby when faced when speaking to bands?? Literally Kurt was standing there totally unbothered and I was still so weird about asking him for a minute of his time?? I walked up  to him, holding the vinyl against my chest like a 1950s school girl clutching onto her poety notebook with dear life, and asked, “Hi, will you sign this?” in SUCH A FAKE BABY VOICE WHAT IS MY ISSUE.

He was happy to do so and while that was happening, I said, “I saw you in Pittsburgh 10 years ago exactly playing a house show at some kid’s house. You thought you were the oldest person there, but nope! It was me.”

I feel like HE REALLY LOOKED AT ME at this point, maybe trying to remember, and whether he did or not, who cares because he said, “Damn, if that was 10 years ago, then I’m even OLDER now! And look at us both, we’re still out here!”

I loved that sentiment because, yeah really! Look at us! In our mid-40s and out late on a Tuesday night for the sake of amazing music.

Kurt then gave me an abbreviated version of what he’s been up to personally, including buying a house in N.California with his girlfriend and dog. “It has 4 acres!” he said, and I was genuinely so happy for him, for getting himself to a good, safe and happy place. For still making music.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop making music,” he said after I told him I’m so glad that he’s still out there doing his thing. It was just a really good and super real moment. I already love his music so much, but this really added a special sheen to that.

We ended the night by chatting with our Sugar Spell friend (Mychael – I hate myself if that is spelled wrong) at the bar about the future of Pittsburgh vegan ice cream (please come back soon Sugar Spell!) and I was laughing because we all recognized each other earlier in the night but, seeing each other out of context of an ice cream shop and out in the wild really threw us all off. He said he had texted Amanda at one point like, “I really think it’s them!”

Anyway, he was at the bar with Zac Garron! I guess they are friends! I didn’t want to be a creep and ask, lol.

I didn’t talk to Zac because he was mid-convo with another couple but what a small world.

Yeah, so that was a super action-packed night! I felt like my social battery was crazy-depleted as we walked through the parking lot but it was so worth it, even getting home way past my bedtime and being embarrassingly hung over the next day – AND I HAD A VIDEO CALL. Oh well.

_____________________

On the way home, I was musing about the night. “I can’t believe I’m at the age where musicians I have loved for years are now talking to me about how much acreage they have.”

Sigh.

OK OK OK this was such a fantastic night and probably I’m blowing this up in my head but I feel like so much happened that night that I am preemptively tired just thinking about recapping it so I’m splitting it up into two parts. Because it’s my blog, and that’s just what we’re going to do, OK.

When Henry told me a few mths ago that this show was happening, I wavered on getting tickets for some reason – complacency, laziness, etc. But then I got into Kurt Travis SO HARD again recently and I was like, “OK sold. Lessgo.”

I was so stoked all day at work about this and my pal Lyda from our Seattle office let me go off on Teams about my history with all three singers – Anthony Green, Kurt Travis, and Geoff Rickly. It was so much fun sharing music with her while also getting to retell some of my favorite stories, like the time I dragged Janna, who could give a shit about the bands I like lol, to some frat kids’ basement in Oakland for a Kurt Travis house show 10 years ago!

Anyway, the show as at Jergel’s in Warrendale, and at first I was annoyed that it was a bit of a drive outside of Pittsburgh when I should have just been grateful that this didn’t require us to leave the state as EVERY KPOP CONCERT does.

This is what I was wearing. Ignore my old-ass fugly face.

Idiot Henry.

We arrived a good hour or so before the show started so we had plenty of time to grab a table, get some drinks, and order food. I had a really good wheat beer from Troegs and Henry had who cares. Our food was mid, but our server was an actual delight – so attentive and friendly without being overhearing and her smile never seemed fake – EVEN AROUND HENRY. It was just good vibes.

Meanwhile, Henry had checked out all of the merch booths on his way to the bathroom and reported that not only was Geoff Rickly’s book available at his merch table—it’s been on my TBR list for a few years—but Geoff himself was up there selling his merch.

“Go talk to him,” Henry urged.

“And say what?” I sighed. “‘Your sweat got on me when I saw you play at Smiling Moose with United Nations and it was one of the greatest concert moments of my life’?” And then, “DO YOU REMEMBER THAT??”

“Yes, Erin,” Henry said. “How could I forget.”

Then I joked that I could ask him if he’s still friends with Robert Smith (Henry rolled his eyes) because FUN FACT/STORY TIME:

The first time I saw Geoff’s band Thursday was in 2004 at Coachella. Yes, back when Coachella was only moderately despicable and schmoozy. Influencers didn’t exist yet, after all. I really liked Thursday a lot back then so it was a bonus that they were going to be there, as we were there FIRST AND FOREMOST to see The Cure.

Henry was much less open-minded about 99% of the bands I enjoyed back in the 2000s and I remember he was very “……….” about Thursday so he does not remember this AT ALL but it was like 113 degrees that weekend in the desert if I remember correctly, and Geoff ended up passing out on stage. I was so scared and screamed when it happened! Clearly he ended up being OK but that always stands out in my mind.

Anyway, they were playing on the same stage that The Cure would be headlining on later on that weekend.

That summer, The Cure put together something called the Curiosa festival and toured around the US with it. Thursday was one of the bands they brought with them and when we went to the Cleveland stop, I’ll never forget Robert Smith telling the crowd that he loved Thursday so much when he saw them at Coachella and had become friends with Geoff, and personally invited them onto the Curiosa festival.

It was something that really stuck with me, all these years later. It was such a heartwarming moment because at the time, Thursday was still an up-and-coming band and to be taken under the wing by the actual Robert Smith? What a dream!

Anyway! Geoff went on first that night. Just him and his guitar.

He told us so many great stories, starting with that when Anthony told him about this tour, he thought Anthony meant that this was just a solo singer thing, so he was kind of surprised when he showed up alone and saw that Kurt and Anthony brought their bands with them. Just his deliver made this so funny YOU HAD TO BE THERE OK.

More Geoff anecdotes:

• He said when he was asked if he wanted to go on tour with “the singer from Dance Gavin Dance,” he hesitated and asked, “That depends….which one?” and everyone in the crowd laughed so hard. IYKYK! And when he found out that it was Kurt, he said, “Fuck yeah, best one!”
• Geoff said that while he is now clean, he used to NOT be and told us about how one time years ago when he was on tour with Anthony Green, he was so drunk at the airport that he couldn’t scan his boarding pass so the staff at the gate said that they wouldn’t be able to allow him on the flight, so Anthony stepped in and said, “It’s ok. I’m his dad.” And they let him on the plane. This even made Henry laugh – Anthony and Geoff are around the same age. WHY was this so funny to me?? I was thinking about it the next morning and laughing all over again!

Also, Geoff not only resembles Wendy’s husband (mostly just from afar because I have bad eyes) but their laughs sound nearly identical!

His set was phenomenal and already I was patting myself on the back for not skipping this show just because it was on a school night.

While Kurt’s band was setting up, I went over to buy Geoff’s book “Someone Who Isn’t Me.” While I was standing in line, I was watching the people before me showing him their Thursday tattoos and otherwise proving the longevity of their fandom by having him sign old concert tickets and setlists. I’ve always just been a more casual fan (although I was PISSED at the last Riot Fest we attended in 2023 because the gates didn’t open until late due to rain so as we were waiting to get in, Thursday started their set and we had to be content with just hearing it from a Chicago sidewalk, le sigh) so I wasn’t sure what, if anything, I was going to say when it was my turn.

I started by shyly asking if he had any books left and then after he retrieved a stack from a bag, I proceeded to ask—still in my shy voice—if he would sign it for me.

As he was signing, I said, COMPLETELY OFF THE CUFF I WAS SO PROUD OF MYSELF FOR NOT LETTING MY SOCIAL IDIOCY TAMPER WITH MY WORDS, “I love your music, but I could listen to you talk all day. Your stories are so great.”

“Thanks!” he said. “Then hopefully you’ll like the book, too.”

And then something dumb came over me, and I stage-whispered (CHOOCH HATES WHEN I DO THIS BECAUSE I HOLD MY HAND UP TO THE SIDE OF THE MOUTH AND EVERYTHING FOR THE FULL EFFECT), “Can I ask you something weird?”

Geoff, still signing my book, glanced up. “Sure!” he said, doing a great job not letting hesitancy show in his voice.

“Are you and Robert Smith still friends?!?!?” I blurted out in such a dork-alert manner that even my shadow was trying to disassociate itself from me.

He definitely seemed a little caught off guard by this question, I don’t know what he was expecting, lol. But he said, “I mean, we exchange little notes here and there.”

I then felt compelled to explain why I was asking, briefly mentioning the Coachella / Curiosa 2004 thing and maybe my hyper-awareness was making me blow this out of proportion, but he did seem to relax after learning why I was asking and TOLD ME A STORY ABOUT THE CURIOSA TOUR!

“I don’t know if you remember this, but the NY Times wrote a review about Curiosa at the time,” he started. He said that his mom had come to one of the shows and met Robert. “She was very goth then, looked very goth, too,” Geoff said. So when the NY Times was looking for a picture of Robert to use, they somehow found a picture that Robert had taken with Geoff’s mom and wrote, “Robert Smith and his wife” in the caption!

Geoff said he was like OMG and apologized to Robert who said, and here Geoff did an impeccable impersonation of Robert’s accent, “I should be so lucky, your mother is a lovely lady!”

LOVED THAT STORY SO MUCH!!!

By the time I returned to our table, I had been gone for quite a while and Henry was like *eyeball emoji*

“I was chatting with Geoff,” I shrugged in a douchey “no big deal” manner. “I asked him if he was still friends with Robert!” I squealed.

“Omg,” Henry mumbled.

This was just the first part of the evening! So memorable and heartwarming, revisiting these old days with Henry. (Who is way more accepting of all of the music, new and old FYI. I wore him down, guys.)

So many good comebacks have been happening lately! LIKE NCT DREAM, JESUS CHRIST. I’m going to a non-Kpop concert tonight after work but here are some k-goodies I have been loving lately!

Jesus, Wonho:

My Czennie heart is so full right now – 2 new MVs from the Dreamies plus an album! My favorite from it is actually this song, but there was no official video for it so let’s watch this one together instead.

This video makes me wish I had friends to frolic around with in the summer lol:

My fave Kang Daniel <3:

ONEW! He also dropped another new one today actually but this one fits the summer vibe more:

And last but not least, is it even summer without a new Hyolyn song?? No, the answer is no. She makes me want to drop everything and go to the beach and I am not even remotely close to being a beach person.

OK I’m out.

I’m going to try and zoom through this recap because as usual – it was a vibe, hard to describe, amazing, awesome, beautiful, etc. I have no complaints.

This was my first time going to a concert of this magnitude, as a stand-alone and not in a Coachella / big music festival setting. So, it was very overstimulating! For this reason, it being a first, I wanted to get seats on the floor. Having already seen SKZ and not being a huge stan, I wasn’t willing to Big Splurge on this so I got us reasonably-priced seats in section D:

The stage was still super far away but it was fine. This place was HUGE.

One thing I will note about Stray Kids is that there were men in attendance than any other Kpop show I’ve attended. The crowd in general was very diverse but that’s generally the case with most Kpop shows. You get people of all walks of life, just not many men!

The show was delayed by about 10 or 15 minutes, and the intro might have been the longest intro of any Kpop group I have seen thus far. It was super dramatic, and I was like OK PLEASE COME OUT NOW! I swear to god though, Kpop concert intros never fail to excite me.

This guy was a huge inflatable that came out just for one song!

Not my video but this is one of my all-time favorite SKZ songs, and usually the one I send to people when I’m like YOU MIGHT LIKE STRAY KIDS???

I can’t put into words how hyped up this entire concert made me – Stray Kids have such a powerful catalogue of music! I was about to say that it must be impossible to be there and not move but then I remembered that Henry was seated and still the entire time LOL. And he actually does like them! He is a very stoic concert attendee. But you know what they say – everyone enjoys music their own way. For me personable, I bounce up and down with no rhythm like I have to pee. That’s my go-to move.

The girl next to me was very tall and stood with her arms crossed the whole time. Never clapped, cheered, screamed, moved. But the fact that she was standing made me feel like she wanted to be there at least? Maybe she was enjoying it in the same way Henry was.

My bias Han with my bias-wrecker, Felix.

FYI when I film snippets at concerts, I never hold my phone over my head. I am so careful and aware of not impeding upon someone else’s view and I just wish everyone had that same consideration. Some of those phones NEVER WENT DOWN ONCE. If everyone had kept their phones down, we would have had a clear view of the stage. I know I am guilty of recording parts of concerts but PLEASE KNOW that it is because I like to have little memories on my phone to go back and rewatch (and yes, I do, years later) BUT I AM NOT ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE.

You have no idea how much I have wanted to see a Kpop group use the cart! THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS AT THE ASIAN CONCERTS BUT NEVER AMERICA! WE FINALLY GOT THE CART!! I WAS SQUEALING AND HOPPING UP AND DOWN WITH MY LIGHTSTICK GRIPPED IN MY HANDS LIKE A ROSARY AT MY FIRST HOLY COMMUNION.

OMG this whole night felt like a huge party. It was so festive! So uplifting! With the exception of the grandma in front of me who held her phone up and recorded entire songs until she got too tired and finally sat down for the rest of the concert, everyone around us was wonderful, polite, stoked to be there (even Henry although he never shows it). My favorite “non-song” part of the night was when Bang Chan had us split into 4 groups to have a screaming contest, and then said he wanted to wait for a plane to fly over so we could try to get our screams to reach it – he was being half facetious since he had made numerous comments throughout the night about how weird it was to be performing in the middle of nowhere with planes flying so low overhead since we were next to an airport. But then literally right after he said it, a low-flying plane appeared and we went ballistic. It was so funny and endearing! I did see later that someone had posted an aerial view of the Rogers Stadium from a plane they were on, flying back to Toronto from Vegas, saying, “Looks like the new Rogers Stadium is having a concert.” It wasn’t the plane we were screaming at but it was still funny to see that circulating!

In lieu of listing out the set list like I normally do, here’s the SKZ pages from the concert journal that Megan got me which I recently realized is the perfect way to keep all of my freebies and wristbands, etc! I highlighted my fave songs – I FORGOT HOW FUCKING HYPE “MIROH” IS LIVE!!!!

Another highlight – SEEING HAN IN PERSON. I love him so much. His banter is so precious and hilarious!

I don’t think they did this in 2022, but they faked us out with a surprise encore – a bunch of people (including us) were already starting to leave, when we heard, “WE’RE BAAAAACK!” and then this is when all Hell broke loose because a bunch of them left the stage so everyone just rushed forward – INCLUDING ME because I get really caught up in these things, lol. Henry was just like, “You do you, I’ll be waiting RIGHT HERE by our seats.” So I went up to the front of the section we were in and couldn’t really see any better but it was still fun! Security just kind of gave up.

I didn’t see this until days later, but Bang Chan ran the entire circumference of the floor, barely being noticed, and then security almost didn’t let him back on stage LOL. He was like, “This is my concert” and then then they were like, “OMG” when they realized and opened the gate for him, lol. He was also going over to handicap areas and I love that so much.

After the show ended for real, 50,000 people all made their way out at the same time. It seemed like most people were headed in the direction of the subway station. We were still technically on the grounds of the stadium when the crowd in front of us came to a dead stop. I could see red lights ahead but couldn’t tell what was going on. Then I realized that security was up ahead, cutting off the crowd in waves to alleviate stress and overcrowding on the subway. We got stopped in twice, and the second time we were about 2 rows back from the line of security and I need to give them a special shout out here because if  this was in America, it would have been so aggro and negative, they would have been screaming at us to stop, people would have pushed back out of defiance. But here in Canada, they were SO NICE. And everyone LISTENED. One of them, an amazing man named Kyle, took the lead and was asking us all if we had a good time, who our favorite member was (people tried to teach him that the correct term is bias, lol), and then he said he wanted to be our favorite member from this part of the night and had us all chanting, “Kyle! Kyle!” It made me so giddy and now I’m tearing up at the memory because I love Canada so much and it was such a special way to end the night!

A few minutes later, our group was allowed to continue on and yes, there was a big crowd but it was moving safely, no one was pushing, everyone was calmly taking their time entering the station and walking down to the platform. We got lucky because since we were heading away from Toronto, less people were lining up on the side we were on, so we were able to get on the first train that arrived and it was nearly empty.

Two or three stops later, we were back at the lot where we parked. Probably took about 45 minutes in total to get back to the car after the concert let up. So our personal experience was quite smooth and positive, but I have seen a lot of negative feedback from other people who were apparently stuck in the stadium for up to 2 hours. We must have been in one of the first waves of people to leave so it hadn’t bottlenecked yet.

Hilariously, as we were walking back to the car, the tall girl who had been seated next to me at the concert and her friend walked past us! Henry and I both looked at her and then at each other, like, “Out of 50,000 people….” They had been walking out when we thought the concert first ended, before the gotcha encore, so we definitely did not leave at the same time as them where we would have been on the same subway. Yet there they were, in the same parking lot as us!

I will be rewatching videos from this show for a long time, I think. It was just such a great night, especially once the sun went down and it cooled off – it was so nice to be outside for this. I sincerely didn’t want it to be over. And Henry and I got along the whole time! And even the whole way home the next day!

(I cry every time I watch this one LOL):

The best part about going to a concert for a group that isn’t one of my ults is that I only feel pure excitement. I don’t know what it is about seeing groups like NCT Dream and GOD FORBID G-DRAGON but I get so sick to my stomach from the stress of it all!

With Stray Kids, I like them A LOT to where I know all of their names, some of the lore, pretty much all of the songs. But I don’t hard stan them. I’m not sure why this is but Henry and I don’t really watch much of their content which is actually a damn shame, and we should correct this soonly. We saw them back in 2022 on their Maniac tour but that was on a whim after I checked Ticketmaster a good while after the tickets went on sale and saw that there were some decent seats still available for NORMAL PRICES. I will never forget this day because for some reason, Henry had to drive his WORK VAN to Erie for some work-related thing – he was making a delivery of Everfresh or something? – and he asked if I wanted to ride up with him just to get out of the house. Much to his chagrin, this turned into me saying, “I have FOMO about not getting Stray Kids tickets” as one of their songs played on Spotify, and then seeing that ticket prices were reasonable, and ending with Henry saying, “UGH WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO, ERIN.”

YAY!

I’m actually ended up wearing the same shirt I wore to that concert. I had brought my Maniac tour shirt with me on this trip, but AFTER I PUT IT ON THAT AFTERNOON I NOTICED IT HAD COFFEE STAINS ON IT!!! Henry tried to get them out with a Tide stick I miraculously had in my travel bag (I definitely didn’t buy that, had to have been Henry’s forethought), but it only made it worse. I was rull upset about this for a few minutes but then shrugged it off because who cares. I’m 45.

We drove to the Pioneer Village subway station, which has a large parking lot. The Rogers Stadium, which has just been built and Stray Kids is the christening event, is apparently only going to be in use for 5 years??? I don’t fully understand what is happening here and also don’t care enough to do further research, but this is what Henry told me. It was built on an old runway near the airport, with a subway station about a 10 minute walk away and little to no parking from what I gleaned after reading all of the complaints, uproar and panic. Lol.

I can see where this would be super inconvenient, but for people who traveled to Toronto specifically for this and weren’t planning on driving anyway if we could avoid it, this was perfectly fine for us. It was a quick subway ride fill of other Stays. There were three middle school-aged Stays who looked at me in wide-eyed wonder when they saw that I was wearing a SKZ shirt and probably also going to the concert – actually, I felt like they were making fun of me but Henry said they weren’t, so we’ll go with what Henry said for once.

Yo, the lines were staggering! Everyone spilled out of the subway station and while some people milled about, most of us immediately got into a line. There was one that was very long, and then several others that were shorter and seemed to be moving faster so we crossed our fingers and got into one of those ones. There was legit no signage or instructions anywhere. We did determine eventually that a second super long, barely moving line was for a merch booth that was set up outside of the gates. I was like, “Surely there are more inside though??” I just wanted to get in so we skipped that shit.

For as daunting as the line seemed (you can see it snaking it well beyond that YZD sign up there) it actually moved pretty steadily. It wasn’t so bad either because people were handing out freebies and I am so much better at holding my handout in these situations now, even going so far as to follow someone for a freebie. I always use the self-deprecating line of, “I’m old so everyone always skips over me, HAHAHAHA” so cringey. Chooch would hate to hear that.

Han is my bias <3

I refused to wear black. It was only about 80 that day but with nary a cloud in the sky so that sun was straight BAKING us like STAY bread.

I’d say within 20 minutes, we had made it to the stadium! You can see to the right on the other side of the fence is the MERCH LINE.

We sailed right through the gates and got our FLOOR wristband, no issues!

I wasn’t expecting this but the ground of the stadium are pretty big, with some grassy areas too, so people were free to mill about, drink, eat, ride a ferris wheel, rather than wait in a line for the actual “doors” to open. We spent most of our time in the merch line which was a cluster. There was one very long line, and then three much shorter lines. We got into the long line because it was the closest one to the entrance where we came in, but immediately clocked the shorter lines. There was a mom and her 20’ish year old daughter in front of us who said someone else in our line had gone up to investigate and reported back that the other lines were for food.

Henry cried bullshit on this because here is what it looked like – I’m doing this at work with low energy so please excuse the artistic crudeness:

The booth was split up into four long windows, each had at least 3-4 people working. Pretend the first line has about 200 people in it lol because it legit probably did – it was so long that a staff member had to come over and make it turn so that it wasn’t impeding the general walk area. The other three lines probably had about 50 each. Henry was like I AM GOING TO GET IN ANOTHER LINE, JUST STAY THERE.

Kpop Dad has no time for this kind of bullshit. He hates it when people can’t understand that there is more than one line. He must have gotten yelled at for not lining up properly in the SERVICE and now he’s extremely triggered.

Meanwhile, I had struck up a nice conversation with the mom in front of me. She was so cute! This was her first Kpop concert – she traveled to Toronto with her daughter for it and I didn’t quiet catch where they had come from but I think it was somewhere else in Canada because they were referencing Canadian things to me like I should know and helped me pronounce Mississauga, which is the city we were staying at outside of Toronto. She asked me if we took the GO Train there and I said, “……yes?”

Henry told me later that NO, we did NOT. The GO Train is not the same as the subway, which I forget what the call there, lol. I tried! This is what happens when Henry leaves me alone to field adult questions! I sink.

Anyway, the mom was so cute, as previously mentioned, with her bedazzled Bang Chan jersey. “I got this on Amazon and jazzed it up!” she said, after we marveled over how creative some of the concert outfits were. She said she had primarily come there to accompany her daughter and I told her I was there for me, lol. I felt super comfortable talking to her and before I knew it, I was telling her all about how we got married in Korea last year.

Meanwhile, Henry was giving me a play-by-play from his line so I told my new friend that he was up there scoping it out. Eventually, he told me that it was definitely moving faster than my line and to come up. “Tell him you made new friends and ask him if we can come too!” the mom laughed, but I was already doing that exact thing! In the end, the mom said she would stay in our OG line, and her daughter would join me and Henry. There were only like 10 people ahead of Henry as opposed to the 100 still ahead of us in our line! Eventually, Henry was like, “I’m going to get a beer.”

“I dismissed him,” I said to the daughter, whose name I finally learned was Chloe and her mom was Holly. “He did the Lord’s work!”

I thought it would be awkward, standing in line with my fake daughter, but she was so sweet and easy to chat with! We basically just talked about kpop in general and she was genuinely interested in my origin story, which was crazy because it seems like just yesterday when I was at my first KCON in 2017 and felt like such a n00b. I guess I’m finally legit now!

We truly couldn’t understand why the lines were moving so slow because there were at least 4 people working in each section of the merch booth, as previously noted in my shitty Snag-It drawing. I knew exactly what I wanted, so when Chloe insisted that I go ahead of her as a thank you for saving her from the long-ass OG line, it took me less than 30 seconds to tell the super personable guy what shirt and size I wanted and tap my card. Bam, done.

I wished Chloe the best time and then wandered off to find Henry. Of course, I had remorse that I didn’t ask to connect with her on IG at the very least but would that have been weird since I was basically her mom’s age??? Oh well. Forever alone, lol.

I found Henry, stole his beer, and sent him off to get me a grilled cheese from a truck called CHEEZHEADZ. Ofc after he already ordered, he told me that the tater tot truck next to it had “TOTBOKKI.” AND A BIBIMBAP TACO. UGH.

Whatever, it was nice chilling on this grassy knoll, watching girls film SKZ dance challenges, zone out to the ferris wheel, and just genuinely bask in the beautiful day and fucking good vibes, man. It felt like Riot Fest, or Warped Tour. I’d say even Coachella but  my experience there was so miserable and this was not that.

I got two Han and one Hyunjin bracelets <3

OK,  this grilled cheese took forever but it was VERY classic-tasting, familiar, comforting. Nothing crazy added to it. And the fries were MY STYLE. THE GOOD KINDS! Ask Henry and he will tell you that after 24 years, he still can’t tell what that means.

By this time, it was about 6:45 so we decided to enter the stadium! PART 2 COMING SOON.