BTS want you to take them seriously

Having to hit pause on a seemingly unstoppable cultural juggernaut is always risky. When you add the fickleness of the pop industrial complex to the mix, things tend to lean towards catastrophe. K-pop boyband behemoth BTS – the bestselling Asian act of all time, with global streams approaching 108 billion – had no choice but to step away from music in 2022, with each member fulfilling their mandatory military service in South Korea. Four years later and the septet are back with a new album, the mainly English-language, harder-edged Arirang, and a refresh billed as “BTS 2.0”.

For their first UK shows since 2019 – “There was Covid, there was military and now we’re back in 2026,” as band leader RM puts it – they’ve chosen to showcase this evolution in the round. Plonked in the middle of the sweat-soaked Tottenham Hotspur stadium, the 360-degree stage – apparently inspired by a pavilion in Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul – also features four ramps that reach out into each corner to allow for maximum audience hysteria. Perched above it are a set of screens the size of tennis courts, perfect for eliciting ear-piercing screams each time a crowd favourite appears (Jimin, all cut-glass cheekbones and grown-out blond hair, just about wins it tonight). The cameras can be cruel, too; at one point, as he’s sweating and gasping for air, Jung Kook is shown choking on some water in glorious high-definition.

While everything around them looks big and expensive – save for an over-reliance on billowing white sheets as props, which brings to mind someone covering the furniture while painting – the band are more low-key. They arrive onstage not with a bang via a trap door or by zipping around the stadium on wires, but via a nice stroll up one of the ramps. They’re surrounded by black-clad dancers, some of whom are holding flame-throwers.

There are red flares, too, which match the colours emanating from the handheld light sticks (or “Army Bomb sticks”, £60 a pop from the merch stand) most of the fans are waving in unison. The screams are so loud that the elasticated beats and bassline bounce of the scowling hip-hop opener Hooligan is completely lost. As the swaggering Aliens kicks in, the band – sporting heavy-looking black coats, wraparound sunglasses and chunky silver jewellery – rise up on elevated platforms, trapping the dancers in the circle inside. When the platforms drop and they all spill out it triggers another bout of hysteria.

It’s a rare set piece. For a band famed for their intricate choreography, there’s very little of it on show tonight. The vast stage means they’re typically peacocking in front of the many cameras in their own individual corners. During the frayed psych-rock experiment, Merry Go Round, co-produced by Kevin Parker (AKA Tame Impala), they simply spin slowly on the revolving central stage before shuffling off, hidden under those white sheets.

With six members of the band in their early 30s (Jung Kook is the baby at 28), and the setlist dominated by the more grown-up Arirang tracks, you get the sense that BTS 2.0 translates as less all-singing, all-dancing boyband and more attitude-heavy, Stone Island-sporting “credible artistes”. For their recent solo endeavours – squeezed in between their staggered military service – they also worked with a suite of acclaimed rappers (including Latto, Megan Thee Stallion and Central Cee), further broadening their appeal. Later, as if to prove the point, they perform saccharine pop bops Butter and Dynamite with all the energy of a Post Office queue.

Not that the fans seem to mind. The howls never drop below worryingly loud and there are moments where the band and audience lock into something transcendental. FYA, co-produced by notorious party-starter Diplo, makes the stadium shake, while a remix of 2017’s Not Today finds the band rising up on a tiered cake-style stage surveying their so-called army as the song’s pulsating breakdown seems to make their disciples levitate. During another older song, 2018’s Idol, the band, plus dancers holding electronic, illuminated flags, descend down the ramp and promptly complete a lap of the stadium floor. It’s an amazing spectacle, like an Olympics closing ceremony soundtracked by head-knocking EDM.

For the seven-song encore, the band arrive dressed down in bedazzled versions of their own merch. They’re looser and more carefree now, less po-faced. At one point a water fight breaks out onstage, and piggybacks are given during Butter. Each show comes with a surprise: two songs apparently picked at random via RM’s bellow of “DJ spin that shit”. Tonight we get 2020’s lovely Life Goes On, a sweet mid-tempo track about never giving up, sung in English and Korean. It sounds like a 1990s boyband classic. For all the posturing of BTS 2.0 tonight, they’re at their best when they remember their roots.

Photograph by HYBE / Big Hit Music