FOXBOROUGH — If you’ve seen one heartthrob’s grand entrance at a stadium, you’ve seen — or, rather, heard — them all. First comes the crowd’s collective gasp the moment the spotlight hits the artist’s face, followed by the aural pinpricks of thousands of shrieks, which quickly blur into a din of adoration.
Now imagine that eruption seven times in the span of three minutes. Even for a casual onlooker, it’s a head rush.
That’s how it felt to be in the crowd at Gillette Stadium Wednesday, witnessing K-pop boy band BTS make their New England debut. The crowd fawned again, and again, and again, as each of the group’s members — singers Jung Kook, Jimin, Jin, and V, plus rappers RM, Suga, and J-Hope — received their “big reveal” during the brash hip-hop opener, “Hooligan.” The joy was as wholesome and infectious as it was overwhelming.
Then again, most of BTS’s Wednesday show was, in the best way possible, overwhelming. The group’s first of two consecutive Foxborough shows burst with details that fought for your attention. Look at the fireworks — no! look at the 360-degree stage, rising and splitting into layers like a wedding cake — no! look at the video panels overhead, angled in a dozen directions to help you single out whichever gentleman was currently singing, as a horde of dancers bobbed between the seven members. The centerpiece of the chaos was the music of “ARIRANG,” the March album that ended a four-year break the group needed to pursue solo projects and complete mandatory service in the South Korean military.
When BTS announced their reunion and the new album in January, fans and detractors alike wondered if the group would still possess the mojo of their COVID-era prominence, during which they earned six No. 1 entries on the Billboard Hot 100. Wednesday’s performance at Gillette demonstrated that they’ve still got it, and that it’s matured into something far more compelling.
Performing “Butter” and “Dynamite,” two of the songs that cemented their status as global superstars, BTS brought the requisite pep to boilerplate boy band choreography, but the material paled compared to the richer layers of “ARIRANG.” “Dynamite” was one of the least explosive moments of the two-hour show, dwarfed by more dynamic songs like “Body to Body” and “FYA,” and the velvety synth-pop of “SWIM,” the group’s latest chart-topper, was smoother and more effortless than the boyish “Butter.” On “they don’t know ’bout us,” another crowd favorite from the new record, the group’s lyrics spelled out the shift: “You said we changed? We feel the same.”
That’s not to say there was no love for older tunes. Fans endearingly punctuated Jimin’s dovelike vocals with rousing chants on the chorus of 2018’s “Fake Love,” and they seemed to take the 2015 tune “RUN” literally, moving in place with such fervor that you could feel the stadium tremble.
BTS’s final songs, “Please” and “Into the Sun,” ditched the flashiness altogether, as the group performed sitting or standing in place while the stage gradually spun them to face every portion of the crowd. The energy had waned by that point, like a spinning top that was losing momentum and on the verge of tipping over. But for the first time, your eyes were drawn to just one thing: a row of evolving musicians, working in harmony.
BTS
At Gillette Stadium, Wednesday. Also Thursday.
