The things we do for Min Yoongi

Hell, some of us even are threatening to marry him. So what's a painful adventure with Ticketmaster worth to see the King, the Boss in concert?

I had a huge reaction when the news of the swaggy one, Agust D/Suga/Min Yoongi aka little Meow Meow, was setting out on his own solo headlining tour of the U.S. and Asia in the spring.

Holy DDENG!

Yeah, the subtle hints with the knowing smile that have been dropped by Yoongi since the start of the year were about this. He KNEW, and he was playing with the clues.

Once I got through the stunned phase, I accepted the fact that if it was possible, seeing Yoongi live was going to be bucket list. The site closest to me is Chicago. Was I free? Heck yeah.

I went to PTD LA in Dec. 2021 with a BTS agnostic friend, and Yoongi was electric. (I need to check with Amy to see if she has been baptized yet into BTS. I know she can ID Jin and Yoongi. ALSO, check out her Substack, Bar\Heart, it is fun and cool.)

I prepared for the 2023 ticketing online hell battle zone.

First was the the verified Army two-step, two-step, and was happy to get this far:

I knew the ticketing process would suck, because everything that Ticketmaster does utterly sucks. They are a monopoly of evil that needs to die. Now. I’m taking to you, Congress. Want to assure re-election for eternity? Kill Ticketmaster dead, using Agust D’s samurai sword. You know what I mean (neck slashing motion). Ticketmaster is corrupt, a monopoly that deserves to be taken down by the collective forces of Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and BTS. All of their fans know the pain.

But the devil had to be dealt with if I was to hang with Yoongles. I had everything prepared for the queue: my TM profile was up to date, credit card refreshed and stored, I was ready to fly on my laptop. March 1, 4 p.m. Eastern was the opening of my ticketing queue. I also had Twitter (another hellscape, but that rant is for another day) open on my phone, to check the incoming tales from the New Jersey concert dates ticketing queues. They went an hour before the Chicago, and I quickly saw complaining about “Premium” pricing…seats going for triple the list price…thanks to TM’s algo hell. I decided to manifest through purple nail polish, but not do premium pricing. To quote Tablo, they got us by our socioeconomics. And other things, if you refer to All Day with him and RM.

Anyways, I was not picky about where I was going to sit. The parameters were real: no GA main floor or VIP, my old and short ass is not standing in a mosh pit for four hours where I cannot see anything. I am not spending a car payment on this. I am not going to do the premium pricing jack-up by TM.

I jumped into the fray and was as skeptical as Yoongi about how this was going to go.

I had already hit the lottery once, literally, in getting to go to PTD LA. I felt at peace if this was not to be. The queue opened with the line above 2,000. The clock ticked, five minutes, then eight, then 10. I started paying attention when the number ahead of me dipped below 1,000. Holy crap.

Around the 15 minute mark, the ding sounded, I was getting close to the front. Time to get ready to fight with fast fingers.

Let’s go! I turned on my Yoongi channel on Spotify, and prayed for good luck.

I only wanted two tickets, ideally in center stage. I did not want to pay over $200 per ticket. Thank you to the wise soul on Twitter who alerted us to the “Premium” aka surge pricing default from TM. You had to check off the mode, multiple times, to unearth the cheaper price for the same seat. It was scary how the ticket options went down when I turned off the premium mode. Like most of the arena went dark.

I lost out on four sets of tickets, with the infamous wait, wait, wait, wait screen and poof! they are gone. I had one more try, a trio of tickets in the upper tier, stage middle. This was it for me. No more Run BTS style games with shady rules for me. I was not playing on team Kim Seokjin.

I held my breath on the three seats, at list price of $79.50, plus all the infernal taxes and fees. This was it. That that, if you will. Haha.

I held my breath…waited out the hold screen…and wham. I got the tickets. Wow. Yoongles and I have a date. Yes.

Seeing Yoongi is truly meaningful because he was my gateway (drug) to BTS. I knew of Agust D, around 2018, before I figured out he was Suga of BTS. (That was a moment when I put that one together. Mind. Blown.) I am a fan of hip hop. Eminem. LL Cool J. Epik High. Nas. Tupac. Biggie. Beasties. JCole. MTS.

Min Yoongi’s rap speaks to me. Raw. Real. Beats for days. Don’t get me wrong, the other 6 in BTS charm me too. Love Joon’s poetry in music, JK’s raw talent, Jin’s soft soul, Tae’s jazz, Jimin’s chameleon way, Hobi’s funk and grit. But at the end of the day, I come back to Yoongi. His songs. His rap. His vibe. His kitty-cat ways.

So Min Suga Yoongi Agust D, I will be seeing you in Chicago, my former college home, in two months. Ticketmaster, you are awful, awful no good.

I am ready. Even for Yoongles throwing down some dancing.

When my turn was over, I was looking at some TM screens that were still up. This is how much tickets were going for. Puke.

Comment on your Yoongi ticketing tales. I am curious how things went for you.