Reminiscing Hobipalooza <3
Sitting down and deciding to write about j-hope for his birthday was easy. Actually doing it was not, as evident by how late this is being published. It’s difficult to find the words to talk about someone you have so much admiration for, to do them justice.
Jung Hoseok is something breathtaking; a dancer and rapper and singer and artist and teacher all tucked gently into one. He embodies them all with an equal passion so bright that he could swallow the sun whole and still come out strong; blazing, brilliant, beautiful.
Having the opportunity to see him perform his first solo concert at Lollapalooza was everything I could have wished for. I had just enough money in my account to buy the cheapest flights and a single-day show ticket, and had a friend in Chicago to let me sleep on the carpet of her little apartment that sat above a fancy restaurant. It’s kind of funny how right from the airport, you can tell when a BTS member is in the city. BT21 keychains, neck pillows, stuffed animals, clothing…merchendise repping their little characters everywhere. It’s fun, looking around and knowing that someone else is here for the same reason you are. It’s nice to lock eyes and receive a knowing smile, a happy secret between you and a passing stranger.
Determined to make it close to the barricade, I tried to ask my friends to go super early with me to the festival grounds. I convinced nobody. And so I found myself taking an Uber through dark Chicago streets on my own at 4 am. Unsurprisingly, there were already about 100 people in front of me. I spent the next few hours napping in the shade, eating a cupcake, and listening to Hoseok’s soundcheck with new acquaintances. The festival was not prepared for the j-hope crowd. When the gates opened, I was unceremoniously shoved through security, wristband unchecked, by the mass of people behind me. After running across the grounds, I made it to about fourth row. And there I stood for the next twelve hours, nursing a carton of water in the blistering summer sun and eating the occasional donut hole passed out by staff. All things considered, I fared well.
The day of standing was in itself a journey, but that’s not what I’m here to write about. After waiting through hours of alternating silence and performances, the stage lights flickered to life against the night sky. The intro track to his album Jack in the Box started to play, words written out on a huge screen for the 100,000 gathered people to read. “Hope gave people the will to carry on living amidst the pain and strife.”
“Intro” bled into “More,” and there he was. Fierce, powerful, in front of me. I cannot begin to describe how loud the audience was. The roar that began the moment Hoseok first stepped out on stage carried through the night, dying down only after his hour and a half long set.
j-hope’s performance was electric. His set was split into two halves, the first dark, brooding, angry—his clothes artfully rugged and hair wild, he tore down the stage with intensity. He was a force: voice thunderous; every move sharp; the crowd in the palms of his hands, like lightning moving an ocean that rises with its every beck and call. The second half was sweeter, happier, colorful, more Hope World than Jack in the Box, more bright-dance-brilliant-smiles-loud-laughs, and still just so quintessentially j-hope.
My brain has turned every one of my favorite concerts into a euphoric haze, and this was no exception. I remember very little of the details. But I do know feelings. Crazed with excitement to see Hoseok bring Becky G out on stage for “Chicken Noodle Soup.” Warmth at his wide eyes and wider smile as he took in the vastness of the crowd before him. Pride when he spoke in his own language on a stage in a foreign country, a star on top of the world. Awe at the grandness of his stage production. Cathartic tears as the audience was lit up in shades of blue during “Blue Side.” I often wish I could go back and experience it all again.
In celebration of Hoseok’s birthday, and also just because it’s about damn time I did so, I went through the pictures from the small camera I took with me to the show. I edited my favorites to put in a little gallery. It felt like I was relieving that night as I went through them, and I am very happy with how they turned out. To anyone reading: please enjoy.
Click to view the full gallery.