The seven-year itch has finally been scratched.
BTS returned to Chicago Thursday night for the first time since 2019, reigniting the immense love of their fan Army. Since kicking off in April, the Arirang World Tour has become the pop culture event of the year, staging the boy band’s long overdue reunion after all seven members completed required military service in Korea.
As the juggernaut made its way to Soldier Field for some of the final dates of the North American run (including Friday’s finale), the 60,000-plus people that sold out the stadium came ready to celebrate what even Governor Pritzker proclaimed as “BTS Day.”
All week, local news helicopters captured fans lining up as early as 3 a.m. to have a chance at hot-ticket merch items at pop-up stations around the stadium. By the time Thursday came around, most were tagged as “sold out.” Fans had their arms full with the bounty, along with signs (many in Korean), international flags, BTS dolls and the homemade keychains, friendship bracelets and sticker packets they handed out like Halloween candy. If you didn’t have a piece of the DIY paraphernalia or one of the $69 light sticks, you were in a very clear minority.
Inside the stadium, between relaxing bits of Korean folk music, a very dramatic narrator on giant video screens explained how to use the light wands, as if they were getting the Army ready for battle. It added to an apocalyptic, sci-fi vibe anchored by the massive 360-degree stage that looked like a docked spaceship.
The set design was actually a heritage marker, meant to evoke the jeongja-style pavilions of Seoul, with jutting runways reminiscent of the four trigrams on the South Korean flag. The design also allowed each member equal time with different sections of the stadium, ramping up the scream-o-meter with every move. But the monstrosity was nothing more than a heap of steel without the boy band animating the space.
Chants of “BTS! BTS!” filled the stadium around the official start time of 8 p.m. as fans grew impatient. As things finally got underway 20 minutes later, the deafening screams and audible “oh my Gods” heard throughout the bowl brought Beatlemania to mind. A runner raced out of the Bears tunnel carrying a torch trailing plumes of red smoke as if Olympians were descending.
The first five minutes of the night packed in a dizzying amount of overstimulation: Flags waved and fireworks exploded as a 100-person procession of dancers ushered the seven-man group to the stage.
Over the next two hours, the Bangtan Boys lived up to the hype: RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook whipped through a spell-binding amount of material. The night started off with the hip-hop flavors of “Hooligan” and “Aliens” and moved through fan favorites, including the straightforward pop song “Normal,”the slowed down ballad “Like Animals” and the dance/EDM explosion of “FYA” into “Fire,” during which the stadium seemed to shake as fans jumped to the music.
Each band member leaned into his strength — Jimin with his falsetto and RM, SUGA, and J-Hope as rhyme slayers — and amplified their talents for the betterment of the group. When the members physically came together in the center of the stage for riveting moments of choreography, the chemistry felt like no time had passed.
But BTS was clearly focused on the present and future of the group.
The evening focused largely on BTS’ March release, “Arirang,” which felt like a purposeful introduction to the group’s refined version “2.0” alluded to on the album. By now, the boy band are now all men, and the K-pop they helped to define as vanguards of the genre seems to be something they want to rewrite.
“Arirang” has a heavier street style with more Western R&B and hip-hop flair and English-language lyrics, and the band worked with producers like Diplo, Ryan Tedder and JPEGMafia to birth this metamorphosis. The Army loved it — a song like “FYA” was better received than even past pop hits like “Dynamite” and “Butter.”
BTS also recently declined to submit any new music for the 2027 Recording Academy Awards, refusing to be lumped into the new Best Asian Pop Music category. All of it points to a push-and-pull evolution of BTS’ future, something they grapple with in a song like “Aliens” and in their recent Netflix documentary, “The Return,” about furthering their global status while recognizing their roots.
Human moments like these stood out during the evening: After the night’s scripted parts wound down, the band performed two “surprise songs,” “Tomorrow” and “Hip-Hop Phile,” followed by all members of BTS casually sitting down on a rotating platform to give end-of-night speeches.
Using a translator, Jung Kook fondly remembered the last time BTS played Chicago in the rain and shouted out the fans who planned to come back for day two, of which there were many, judging by the applause. SUGA thought back to his solo D-Day tour he brought to the city in 2023, while RM remembered his own solo trip to the Art Institute in 2018 which “opened a big interest for me into the art world” he said, tying it back to his exhibition opening at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art this fall.
But it was J-Hope talking about his groundbreaking Lollapalooza solo debut in 2022 that drove the feelings home for the local crowd. “Chicago is one of the places that made me who I am as an artist,” he said. “I feel like Chicago has its own folder in my head … and tonight on the Arirang Tour with you guys I’m going to save this one in there too. Thanks for all the memories, you guys mean so much to us.”
BTS returns to Soldier Field on Friday.
BTS Arirang World Tour set list
Hooligan
Aliens
Run BTS
They Don’t Know ’Bout Us
Like Animals
Fake Love
Swim
Merry Go Round
2.0
Normal
Not Today
Mic Drop
FYA
Fire
Body To Body
Idol
Come Over
Butter
Dynamite
Tomorrow
Hip Hop Phile
Please
Into The Sun