When BTS held their Permission to Dance on Stage concerts in Los Angeles in late 2021, the K-pop group known for their meticulous, vibrant performances hadn’t been in front of a live audience in more than two years. The short tour would include 12 concerts across three cities (Los Angeles, Seoul, and Las Vegas) and a set list that combined some of BTS’s most enduring hits (e.g. “Burning Up (FIRE),” “Blood Sweat & Tears,” “Spring Day”) with tracks the group had never before performed in front of fans due to the ongoing pandemic (e.g. “ON,” “Black Swan,” “Life Goes On”). In mid-2025, after their return from mandatory military service, the Korean septet released an album version of the historic performances titled Permission to Dance on Stage. It includes 22 tracks that featured on the Permission to Dance on Stage set list, including remixed versions of their 2019 Halsey funk-pop collaboration “Boy with Luv” and English-language hits “Dynamite” and “Butter” with a live band. Deeper cuts include B-sides off of their 2020 mid-pandemic album BE (e.g. melancholic pop ballad “Blue & Grey,” social-ills-themed hip-hop track “Dis-ease”) and “Silver Spoon,” an urgent rap tirade against Korea’s rigid class hierarchy from 2015’s Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Pt. 2. As BTS’s inaugural live album, Permission to Dance on Stage captures the group’s stage presence eight years into their careers, at a distinctive moment in global pop history. Member ad-libs are peppered throughout, as RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook banter with one another and the crowd—a snapshot of parasocial euphoria.