Following the release of his "D-DAY" album, SUGA held his first solo tour called "SUGA Agust D D-DAY Concert." Just like the album, the concert has been a hot topic since its start at the end of April 2023. Starting from the Trigger Warning in the beginning of the show, the VCR that explicitly recreates the scene of the incident that left him with a broken shoulder for years, and there is an amazing amount of fire shown throughout the show.
But one of the most unique parts was the stage itself. SUGA's concert stage consisted of fifteen panels. During the concert, these panels were lifted up one by one until all that was left was the arena floor and a few steps for SUGA to climb on. This interesting choice of stage production is tightly related to his solo album.
SUGA has said that the D-Day album is the last of the Agust D trilogy for now. In the first two albums, SUGA discussed a lot about his anger and its outcomes towards haters, society, stigma, judgment, and the world. But on this third album, SUGA seemed to show the cause of his anger.
He opens up about his trauma, his past, and how he realized that he's the only one who can save himself. He has learned that even though he can't control what other people and the world do, he can control what he can do in response and to overcome the trauma.
Please refer to the picture above, provided by our fellow ARMY "houseofwhalien" on Twitter. The (O) is the still intact panel, and the (X) is the panel who has been lifted on each performance. Based on the picture, the panels started ascending after SUGA finished performing the three main songs from his albums, namely "Haegeum," "Daechwita," and "Agust D."
He opens the concert with "Haegeum," with the first lyrics being "This song is a Haegeum," based on SUGA's explanation, Haegeum in the lyrics means "to lift the ban."
Considering the narration of Agust D's three mixtapes, the lifting of this panel seems to say "Let's see what made Agust D like this." He's lifting what's been holding him back, one of them could be his past and trauma. The lifting of this panel seems to symbolize him slowly removing his protective layers one by one, and showing us who really is behind Agust D and SUGA: Min Yoongi.
On IU's Palette, SUGA explained the reason why he created the Agust D persona was to channel his anger freely, and on this D-Day album, he wants to show what the true root of that anger is and how to control it.
On "Amygdala," there is only one panel left. The amygdala is a very small part of the brain, only as small as an almond, the nut SUGA ate in the "Amygdala" MV. These nuts are also believed to strengthen the function of the human Amygdala. One of the functions of the Amygdala itself is to process human emotions, feelings, memories, and trauma. If one considers the entire panel to be a brain, then the one remaining panel during this song's performance could be seen as the tiny Amygdala.
In the Road to D-Day documentary, SUGA talked to Jimin about one of the processes for his trauma healing is to process the trauma itself, by remembering the traumatic event and learning to control it. A trauma won't go away completely, but we can train our Amygdala's response to that trauma, and that's what SUGA did to rise from his trauma.
Afterward, SUGA came back to the stage and sang “D-Day” on the arena's floor after all the panels had ascended, followed by "Intro: Never Mind" and "The Last." During this last section of the show, it looks like SUGA wants to convey how he has been able to find the root of his problem and control his trauma, that he can finally take over his life from the hands of his past. He's no longer floating between his fight or flight response and has both of his feet planted to the earth steadier, ready to welcome whatever comes his way in the future. He has been able to leave what happened in the past to focus on the present, and because of that, he can also see the future more brightly.
All of the above was just from the stage design alone. The whole show screams about how SUGA was actively involved in the pre-production of this entire tour, and how dearly he held these three albums to his heart. Each of us might also have a different interpretation of this unique choice of stage design, and that's how art is supposed to be.
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Written By: RAM
Edited By: Aury
Checked By: Shelley
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