[LA] "Chills from a 70,000-Voice Chorus": BTS Hits the Peak of 'ARIRANG' in 5-Year SoFi Return

BTS returned to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles nearly five years after its last show there. The seven members opened the Los Angeles leg of their world tour on the birthday of the group's youngest member, Jungkook. The overlap of the group's return, one member's birthday, and the roar of fans who had waited years gave the tour's title, "ARIRANG," its clearest meaning yet.

BTS performed the first show of "BTS WORLD TOUR 'ARIRANG' IN LOS ANGELES" at SoFi Stadium on Sept. 1 local time. It was the group's first show at the venue since "BTS PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE - LA" in December 2021, roughly four years and nine months earlier. Los Angeles is the final city on a 31-show North American run across 12 cities.

The city of Los Angeles declared Sept. 1 through Sept. 8 "BTS Week." City Hall was lit in the deep red that has become the tour's signature color. Five years ago, BTS filled SoFi Stadium with the scale of its global fame. This time, the group filled it with Korean identity.

That identity started in the shape of the stage itself. A rotating circular platform at the center represented the taegeuk, the swirling red-and-blue symbol at the heart of the South Korean flag. Four extended runways stretching in each direction stood for the four trigrams that surround it. A pavilion inspired by Gyeonghoeru, a royal banquet hall inside Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul, rose over the stage. The symbols were not just decoration. They became the paths the members walked and ran on all night.

The show began with a single runner carrying a flame across the stadium floor. There was no opening video. The seven members appeared and launched into "Hooligan," followed by "Aliens" and "Run BTS." Red light and fire washed over the stage as each member's face flashed across the massive screens above the stadium. During "they don't know 'bout us," modern reinterpretations of traditional Korean masks played on the screens as dancers moved below. "Like Animals" followed, and when the opening notes of "FAKE LOVE" hit, the crowd noise jumped again.

The early highlight was "SWIM." A huge sheet of fabric rose and fell across the stage like a wave. The members disappeared under it and rose back up as if breaking the surface of water. The fabric swallowed and released them in time with the song. The wave spread out from the center in every direction, making full use of the 360-degree design.

During "Merry Go Round," the same fabric shifted from wave to the movement of seungmu, a Korean monk's dance built on long sweeping sleeves. The staging drew on the dance's flowing lines and the Buddhist idea of cycles and return. One object served as nature in "SWIM" and as time and cycles in "Merry Go Round." The image also lined up with the group itself: seven members apart for years, now back together and touring the world.

"2.0" and "NORMAL" pointed to the current version of BTS. From "Not Today" onward, the roughly 70,000 fans, known as ARMY, took over. "MIC Drop," "FYA," and "Fire" sent red and blue light and fire spinning around the circular stage, with video that echoed jwibulnori, a Korean folk tradition of swinging cans of fire in the fields.

"Body to Body" used LED ribbons to draw huge circles above the stage, a reference to sangmo, a spinning-hat folk dance, and to ganggangsullae, a circular group dance performed under the full moon. On "IDOL," about 50 dancers carried large flags out onto the stadium track. When the chorus hit, the light sticks in the upper stands rocked in one wave.

The night pulled deeply Korean images into the group's own language. The taegeuk and the four trigrams became stage paths. Seungmu, ganggangsullae, and jwibulnori became choreography and lighting. Korean tradition lived inside a modern stadium show.

"Butter" and "Dynamite" traced the road that brought BTS to this stage. On "Butter," the members spread out across the four runways to meet fans face to face. Jungkook rode the beat loosely and pulled reactions from the crowd. V and Jin played off each other's movements and loosened the choreography with jokes. There were more moments of the members laughing and locking eyes than there were of perfect formation. "Dynamite" needed no setup. When the members dropped their mics, the crowd got louder. When they started singing again, the roar covered the vocals. The whole stadium turned into one chorus.

The other center of the night was Jungkook, who was celebrating his birthday. The big screens lit up with "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUNG KOOK." About 70,000 fans sang together. The members placed a crown on his head and handed him a cake. Holding a gold microphone, Jungkook laughed and could not find words for a moment. When his bandmates gathered around him and sang, he pressed his hands together and lowered his head.

The seven members then took time for closing remarks. V said he had really missed the LA ARMY and talked about writing songs during past stays in the city. "I wanted to sing these songs directly for the LA crowd," he said, smiling. j-hope and SUGA noted that it had been about five years since all seven of them performed together in Los Angeles and asked how everyone had been. They promised to make the remaining three shows special.

RM called Los Angeles his "second hometown." He walked through KCON in 2014, the reality show "American Hustle Life," and his time in the city about a year ago working on "ARIRANG." "LA has given us so much," he said, adding that he would not forget the love and support the city has shown the group. Jimin waved to the crowd and asked, "LA, did you have fun tonight?" Jin brought up Jungkook's birthday and mentioned catching tuna on a past LA trip. If he went fishing again and caught something, he joked, he would give it to Jungkook as a birthday gift. The rest of the members and the crowd laughed with him.

The last mic went to Jungkook. "Thank you for celebrating my birthday with me," he said. "It's a huge honor to spend my birthday with you like this. I love you."

BTS closed the show with "Please" and "Into the Sun." The members split into the four directions of the stage and kept their eyes on the crowd until the end. They waved with both arms wide open or stopped at the edges of the runways and looked out over the stands.

If SoFi Stadium five years ago was proof of how far BTS's fame had traveled, this night was about a reunion. The taegeuk and the four trigrams, seungmu, ganggangsullae, and jwibulnori became the movement of the show. "Butter" and "Dynamite" pointed back to what the group has built on the world stage.

BTS did not settle for revisiting old wins. The group folded its Korean roots into a global stadium show with a light hand and a clear voice. The "ARIRANG" of BTS and about 70,000 members of ARMY was complete.