The BTS Force: LA turned into ARMY's City for 4 Days

After two years of COVID-19 pandemic, BTS finally came back to perform groundbreaking music and send intense purple love to their ARMY all around the world—starting at the center of music and madness, Los Angeles!

Last November 27-28 and December 1-2, BTS’ four-night run of Permission to Dance On Stage—LA at SoFi Stadium sold over 214,000 tickets gathering a whopping $33.3 million sales according to records reported to Billboard Boxscore. A Boxscore is a report of all the shows done by any performer who played at a venue at the same tour or leg of a tour (this excludes festivals). This new BTS record lands them at the 6th spot of best-grossing engagement in all of Billboard Boxscore history. What makes this more astonishing is by comparison, the five engagements that are above them took at least 8 shows to acquire their records while BTS only took four!

Putting money talks and record-breaking stats aside, the event was actually proven to be worthwhile for everyone who went as they were not only the first thousands to see the septet live again in two years, there were also different surprise performances. Megan Thee Stallion finally fulfilled her promise of performing with the boys after missing their supposedly TV debut of Butter Remix at the American Music Awards. Not only that because on the last concert day, My Universe was finally sung completely with Coldplay’s Chris Martin unexpectedly joining BTS on stage! Talk about a reel-to-real glow-up!

So much unfolded within those nights that one can say, it’s a shame not to be able to go to all of them: Taehyung wearing the red suit from Squid Game while Jin mimicking the doll’s hairstyle. Suga surprised the fans with his red hair and the fans surprised Jin in celebration for his upcoming birthday. There are just too many to list down. Not to mention those celebrity sightings (Anderson .Paak, Conan Gray, Halsey–to name a few) who enjoyed the concert together with ARMY.

However, going beyond these extravagant concert bustles, what we ought to also know are real-life stories of purple love shared not just by ARMY within themselves but also with airplane staff, hotel personnel, and concert organizers.

Let’s be real: the word of BTS performing in town also means a swarm of their devoted fans flying from all around the country (even the world) to see them. This entails a surge of flights and hotel bookings after two years of drought and self-isolation. Many companies must have gotten the memo as ARMY seems to have become a star entity themselves being welcomed with various greetings from airplane flights to hotel accommodations.

A photo circulated online of a hotel in LA welcoming the BTS fandom to their establishment. There was also a video that went viral where a WestJet plane filled with ARMY played Dynamite while waiting for the flight to take off. WestJet and Embassy Suites by Hilton expressed their gratitude to the fandom for staying with them as they enjoyed the concert. This is definitely not a usual experience when other acts are in town, especially where a fandom is recognized and gets their own acknowledgment. ARMY has surely made LA their own for four days–or in internet slang, intense #MainCharacterEnergy.

Digging deep inside the BTS Twitter-verse, anyone can find heartwarming stories of compassion and love all brought about by this magnificent purple love shared within and beyond the ARMY troop. Buckle up because this is only the start. BTS has set their eyes on the next town that they’ll paint purple—where it all started—Seoul, South Korea.