By Ingrid Avancena
On Valentine’s Day, I woke up to one of the best (and surprising) gifts I’ve ever received: a tour announcement for BTS member SUGA. The way I found out was pretty funny, too: I was doing my daily scroll on my Twitter timeline, and suddenly, I saw multiple of my mutuals, who I met because of our (well, mutual) love for BTS, type frantically in all caps “YOONGI IS GOING ON TOUR!!!” and post endless GIFs that express some form of excitement. I then searched @BIGHIT_MUSIC, which is the Twitter account of BTS’ label, and lo and behold, they uploaded a poster with the dates of SUGA’s tour. The only thought that came to mind was, Yeah, I’m definitely going.
List of SUGA’s tour dates.
Min Yoongi goes by his stage names SUGA, inspired by his position as a shooting guard on his high school’s basketball team, and Agust D, the name he uses for his solo music, which is read backwards as “DT (Daegu Town, his hometown) Suga”. He’s primarily acclaimed as an excellent rapper, which is apparent in the fact that he can rap at about 9 syllables a SECOND, he can create a “slurred effect” in his raps to sound relaxed without being incoherent, he uses a copious amount of clever word play to poetically call out his foes, and more. Not to flex or anything, but I’ve had the pleasure of hearing SUGA’s rapping style firsthand at several BTS concerts.
The genre of music that SUGA follows, despite being a rapper, has no bounds. On his first mixtape titled “Agust D”, he explores quick-on-your-feet and gritty old school hip-hop with his self-righteous title track, and simultaneously, he delves into passionate, anxiety-filled flows in the melancholic pop ballad “So Far Away”. His second mixtape, “D-2”, incorporates Korean traditional music (which is accentuated with drums and brass horns) in the fiery and almost ceremonial-like hit “Daechwita”, and SUGA playfully raps alongside lo-fi and R&B beats in the chill, reflectional track “People”. It would be appropriate to note that he produces most, if not all, of his songs, too!
Cover for D-2.
Okay, back to tour talk. A lot of fans have been trying to guess what songs SUGA will include on his set list. Yes, he’ll most likely include songs from his two full-length projects listed above (and maybe from an upcoming album, as well), but what about his songs that are credited on BTS’ albums, such as “Interlude: Shadow” and “Trivia 轉: Seesaw”? What if he covers songs from some of his muses, like Epik High and The Notorious B.I.G.? Another likely possibility would be that SUGA brings out special guests, from beloved BTS member JIMIN (who unofficially collaborated with SUGA in a performance of “Tony Montana”) to international sensation PSY (who released “That That” featuring SUGA). No matter what songs he takes to the stage, it’s ultimately no debate that SUGA will put on quite a show. It’ll also be a bonus if he ends up doing some choreography with his songs.
SUGA also happens to be the first BTS member on a solo tour. j-hope was one of the headliners at Lollapalooza last July, and RM performed his latest album, “Indigo”, at the Rolling Hall in Seoul, but even then, touring is considerably a big step up. However, SUGA’s been on the road with BTS since their 2014 The Red Bullet Tour; he started at venues with a couple thousand capacity, and he’s worked his way up to performing sold-out nights at the world’s most coveted stadiums (including Wembley Stadium). SUGA also performed in Seoul, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas for BTS’ late 2021/early-to-mid 2022 tour of Permission to Dance On Stage, as well as in the Yet to Come in Busan concert during October 2022. So, it’s not like he’s going into this with no experience at all… I mean, sure, he’ll be short 6 members, but this is a tour that’s dedicated to celebrating his artistry, which is hard to achieve when you’re mainly seen as a part of a group instead of as an individual.
The only concern I have about SUGA’s tour is the ticketing process, which I know will be a bloodbath. The tickets go on sale starting March 1st, and the earlier ticketing dates get the privileges of choosing ANY seat in his venues if they have ARMY MEMBERSHIP (BTS’ membership for their fans), or if they register for Verified Fan presale. This means that the later ticketing dates may have little to no seats left; not everyone can afford buying an ARMY MEMBERSHIP for an extra shot at tickets, and not everyone gets email confirmation for the Verified Fan presale. It also doesn’t help that tickets will be sold on Ticketmaster, which is notorious for jacking up ticket prices, adding 100-dollar “service fees”, and starting the queues for ticket sales 1-2 minutes late. These are problems that nobody wants to worry about until the day of, but it’s good to point them out, just for preparation’s sake.
Overall, I’m looking forward to seeing SUGA once again, and I’m glad that he has at least three May dates for the Kia Forum, the closest venue near UC Irvine. If any students are Yoongi-biased and interested in going, now’s your chance. Don’t think of the dent the tickets will make in your phone’s storage and bank account… think of the concert as a memorable de-stresser for our final quarter in the school year.
Any questions? Email avanceni@uci.edu!
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