Hope on the Stage: A Review

After 18 long months of mandatory military service, BTS member j-hope has made his triumphant return to kick off his first-ever solo tour, fittingly titled Hope on the Stage. When tickets went on sale back in January, I knew I had to be there. I’ve been a BTS fan for almost five years and have never seen the group live, so while I’m still waiting for the day I can see all seven of them together, I’m taking every chance I can get in the meantime.

In other words, we are SO back! 

For those who aren’t familiar with BTS, j-hope’s music is deeply tied to his identity as a symbol of hope for fans (hence his stage name). Many of his songs also reflect his journey to success, his love for performing, and his gratitude for the people who support and inspire him. He has one of the most solid personal brands in the industry, at least in my opinion, and every single creative decision he makes has a purpose.

And then, of course, he’s an incredible dancer, which I’ll get to in a minute, but after watching him perform live, I can’t wrap my head around how he makes it look so easy. He was discharged from the military just a few months ago, and yet there he was, delivering a two-and-a-half-hour set packed with full choreography, rapping, and singing. I was in absolute awe the entire time.

I was lucky enough to see j-hope twice on this tour, the first time being at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and the second being at Chicago/Rosemont’s Allstate Arena. I have to say, I’m usually a New York or nowhere kind of girl, but Chicago’s crowd was one for the books– probably the loudest, most energetic show I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been to multiple stadium concerts.

j-hope (whose full name is Jung Hoseok but is often called Hobi by fans) started his U.S. tour with two dates in Brooklyn. I had tickets for the second date, so I spent my Friday morning anxiously dodging concert spoilers from the night before. Considering BTS usually dominates my feed, this wasn’t so easy, but I managed to keep myself mostly in the dark until we were in our seats at 7:30pm.

Opening acts aren’t really a thing in K-pop, so the house lights went down at 8pm sharp. An eerie, twinkling music box sound started playing as smoke billowed onto the stage and a large cube covered in red cloth slowly rose from the floor.

The tension in the arena reached its peak, and then, in a flash of red, j-hope appeared. Dressed head to toe in crimson, topped with a bejeweled Yankees cap I couldn’t help but be jealous of, he stood at the center of it all and commanded everyone’s attention. But this wasn’t the bright, playful Hobi that fans know and adore. This was j-hope.

He launched into “What If?”, an intense, aggressive song from his second solo album, Jack in the Box. Backed by a live band with searing electric guitars and drums, j-hope swapped his usual warmth for a darker presence that felt almost intimidating.

Next up was “Pandora’s Box”, another track from Jack in the Box. The album explores themes of ambition, self-doubt, and fate, with j-hope positioning himself as the titular Jack. This song in particular draws from the Greek myth of Pandora’s box. In the story, the box is opened and all the evils inside are released to the world, leaving behind a small creature called hope. j-hope connects himself to Pandora’s hope through this song, saying: “They call me hope / Do you know why I am hope? / Pandora's history, that's my birth.” 

Behind him, shadowy jesters flickered across the screen, trapped inside a box, another nod to Jack in the Box. Everyone’s ARMY Bombs–BTS’s official lightsticks–flashed red and white as we all screamed the chorus together: “J to the hope, Jung to the himang, Jack in the Box” (himang means hope in Korean). 

“Pandora’s Box” was one of the songs I was most excited to see live because it reinforces what I love about j-hope: his unwavering personal brand. His entire identity is built around hope, but Jack in the Box shows us the burdens that come with that. “Pandora’s Box” serves as his origin story.

The next three songs, "Arson”, "STOP”, and "MORE", all from Jack in the Box, continued to build on that theme. Right from the start, this segment set the tone for the rest of the show, complete with multiple sets of fireworks, pyrotechnics, and even flamethrowers.

After a quick break, a yellow light washed over the room as little pieces of butterfly confetti slowly fluttered down from the ceiling. A mellow whistling melody started playing, which everyone recognized as the intro to one of j-hope’s more recent singles, “on the street”. Gone was the intimidating red outfit and sunglasses: Hobi came out wearing a cute little beanie, a bomber jacket, and sweatpants. 

This marked the beginning of what I’ll call the Hope on the Street segment of the show, a tribute to j-hope’s most recent album of the same name. What newer fans might not know is that in the early days of his career, j-hope would upload street dancing videos on YouTube as part of a vlog series he called Hope on the Street. Many of his songs are nods back to his roots as an aspiring dancer, and he even created a traveling dance docu-series that’s available on Amazon Prime. Fun fact, you can spot Fordham LC in the beginning of episode 5! 

Back to the concert… of course, you can’t have a Hope on the Street segment without dance! The majority of the songs in this section were brought to life by a full troupe of dancers, each with their own chance to shine. I loved this part of the show because you could just tell everyone on stage was having so much fun together. Their energy was contagious and their passion for dance really shone through. 

The highlight of this section was when Hobi took a little pause to say, “Let’s keep dancing! I just wanna dance”. Everyone knew what was coming when those lights went down: he was clearly teasing one of his older songs, “Trivia 起: Just Dance”. This was the moment I’d been waiting for, not just the whole show, but also since I first heard the song five years ago. This is one of those songs you blast in your car with the windows down on a sunny day (and I highly recommend that you go do that after reading this review).

The studio version of “Trivia 起: Just Dance” is mostly an EDM track, but the live band made it feel so much more alive. Everyone got on their feet and danced along as Hobi weaved his way through blue and purple lasers, confetti, and fireworks.

I honestly thought the energy of the show couldn’t get any higher after that, but I could not have been more wrong. After a performance of an unreleased song, “MONA LISA”, followed by an insane mashup of “Airplane” and “Airplane pt. 2”, I barely got a second to recover before the entire arena was bathed in red light and the unmistakable guitar riff from BTS’s “MIC Drop” rang out. This is where the crowd descended into absolute mayhem. 

I could barely hear him over everyone’s screams. There’s a part in the song where the lyrics are “mianhae eomma,” or “sorry Mom,” which the crowd in Chicago screamed so loud that j-hope completely stopped rapping, looked around, and said, “oh wow!” into the mic. 

As if things couldn’t get any crazier, he decided to follow “MIC Drop” with “Silver Spoon”, another high-energy BTS song featuring some pretty… dynamic… choreography, to say the least. At one point, he jumped and landed into a split, and everyone lost it. I don’t remember much else as I was too busy screaming incoherent nonsense back at him. Watching my videos back, I truly feel bad for the person next to me. 

After the insanity of that segment, the rest of the show was quite wholesome! Hobi changed his outfit yet again into some super cute bedazzled jeans, which I fear I need in my possession immediately. Just look at them:

I got to see the song “Outro: Ego” live, which has been a bucket list item of mine for quite a while, and also finally got to hear Hobi say his signature call-out line: “I’m your hope, you’re my hope, I’m j-hope!” which the crowd chanted along with him. 

As the opening notes of his song “Hope World” rang out, I oddly felt like I was back in my childhood bedroom again, listening to it for the first time. Hobi and his dancers were lifted onto rising platforms that came together to mirror the Hope World album cover, a surreal red planet with swirling, multicolored rivers and hills. 

“Shout out to my Hope World!” he called, and we all shouted back. He waved goodbye to us and said it was his last song, but we all knew he wasn’t done yet: encore time!

The first encore brought “Equal Sign” and “Future,” which both carry messages about kindness, unity, and what lies ahead. Then, Hobi came back out for a second encore to close out the night with “NEURON,” a sweet tribute to his old dance crew and his start as a performer. I could not believe how much energy he still had even after a three-hour show. 

Hobi and his dancers did their final bows and ran off the stage together, leaving us with the last lyric from “NEURON” lingering on the screen: “I'll tell you again / We'll never ever give up, forever / I'll say it again / We'll always be alive to move us.” I couldn’t have asked for a better ending to a concert that was so deeply rooted in hope and joy. 

The magic definitely lived on even after the final bow. While leaving the venue, so many ARMYs handed us little gift bags full of photocards, bracelets, and keychains to take home. My friend and I were waiting for our Uber and a fan’s car passed by blasting “1VERSE”, so we jumped around and sang along as if we weren’t standing in a random Chicago parking lot. I’d normally feel self-conscious, but that’s just the magic of BTS, I guess.

Even in the days before and after the show, I can’t even tell you how many people stopped me on the street, noticing one of my keychains or something, and shared a quick “Hope you enjoy the concert!” There’s just something so wonderful about being able to connect with a complete stranger over something we both love. 

This tour was a true full-circle moment for me. Within BTS, j-hope has built an entire world of his own that’s full of joy, laughter, and smiles you can’t seem to wipe away. I felt just as captivated by Hobi and his Hope World as I was when I was sixteen years old, listening to his songs as an escape when I needed it most. He truly is a bright light in this world, and many of my happiest moments have been soundtracked by his music. Hope on the Stage is a memory I’ll hold very close to my heart. 

If you love live music, I highly recommend you experience a BTS concert at least once in your life. Whether it’s with BTS or on his own, Hobi pours his heart into every performance, and it’s clear that this is what he was born to do. If you ever get the chance to see him live, take it! I promise you won’t regret it.