A quick day trip to Washington in order to see TXT live.

This is a bit of a reflection post in order to keep some of my memories alive of this wonderful day. That’s what I love the most about blogging, although I have a tendency to focus on books, movies, and television.

I can recall things how I saw them in the moment, and this is a digital archive I can continuously return to throughout my life—presuming electricity is a thing when I grow older and climate change doesn’t wreck that.

Anyways, my friend and I made this absolutely insane plan all the way back in January 2023 over dinner. It was Baltimore Restaurant Week and while we were driving to the restaurant, we were listening to one of her TXT albums.

I mentioned how they were having a concert, and we both agreed we’d like to go. It was an unhinged spontaneous plan, so when tickets came out, we thought we lost the chance to go since there was nothing available.

But I saw there and refreshed the page for about fifteen minutes, and managed to snag us two of the cheap seats directly right of the stage in the upper level. So we planned an entire day around going to Washington D.C. and just chilling.

We took off work, left Baltimore at around 12 that day, and got lost trying to find our parking garage (which was two minutes from the venue), but we made it!

Here’s what we did on this wonderful day.

National Portrait Gallery / American Art Museum

The good thing about Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. is that it’s right next to the National Mall, which houses the Smithsonian museums. The Smithsonians are the national museum complexes in the United States, so it is free to enter all of the museums within their hours. I’ll be interning there soon, too!

But our garage was literally next to the National Portray Gallery, which is connected to the American Art Museum, so we scoped out Capital One Arena and the merchandise situation. The line was insanely long, so we crossed the street and went to burn time in the Portrait Gallery.

This month, there were plenty of interesting exhibits. We headed to the second floor to burn time and saw the exhibit on Black women in photography, then walked around reading the history on the exhibit about 1898 and the birth of the US Empire.

They had individual sections on the countries and territories involved, whether it was Hawai’i, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, or Cuba. I was impressed they had the massive portrait of the Hawaiian queen available for viewing, as well as an original 1898 copy of her memoir Hawaii’s Story.

I had bought that same memoir when I visited her forsaken palace when in Hawai’i.

After that we ventured into the American Presidents’ portrait room, then went in and out of the various rooms in the American Art Museum wing.

Before we knew it, our two hours were up and we headed to go get dinner at China Chilcano, which was a five minute walk down from the museum and arena. I had done my research about what food to eat in the area, gave it to my friend, and she picked out this place.

I was very excited since I had been told Chinese-Peruvian food was extremely good by several people I knew who lived in Peru. As we exited the museum, I saw the merch line went down, bought the shirt I wanted, picked up our fan banners for the fan project at the concert, then headed for our meal.

A Three Course Lunch at China Chilcano

At three thirty on a Tuesday, China Chilcano was beautifully empty. We were seated immediately, and the interior decorations in the restaurant are absolutely gorgeous. There are neon lights, portraits, and simply a lot of nice furniture to look at throughout the restaurant. As we looked at the menu, we were overjoyed to see an option neither of us knew existed on the menu: a three-course lunch set for only $28.

An appetizer and entree would cost more than that alone for one person, so we jumped on it. I instructed my friend to try the Peruvian soda Inca Kola, and it was fun to see her reaction to the drink. Inca Kola is a Peruvian soda that tastes exactly like bubblegum and is the same shade of yellow as a highlighter.

We started off with the Siu Mai Pollo, which were dumplings, and yucca fries as our appetizers. The yucca fries were incredible, and were drenched in mayo and another sauce. I usually hate mayo, but this combination made me forget my hatred.

Our entrees were a traditional Peruvian stew that we both agreed was just okay, but the other entree was absolutely incredible. It was the Donburi Ji Song, which was chicken in a Kung Pao sauce served with rice, pickled onions, avocado, pickled nabo, and peanuts. It was a flavor explosion in your mouth in the best way possible.

Finally, we ended with the third course: dessert. We split everything and were stuffed at this point, but the dessert was light enough we could fit it in.

One was a solidified custard that had soft meringue and a passion fruit sorbet to top it with, while the other was a cookie with banana ice cream and chocolate cream. All of this came out to only $100 with two sodas and an alcoholic drink for my friend.

Stuffed, we found an area right near by that was so cute—they had swings with tables in the middle, so if you wanted to eat your lunch and swing, you could. We sat and chatted for awhile, ignoring the rain.

Tomorrow by Together (TXT) Concert

Two hours before the concert started, we ventured to Capital One Arena. Filed through security, peed, and then found our seats on the upper floor and got comfortable. K-pop concerts are unique because they play the music videos before the concert starts, and all of the fans cheer and do the fan chants even before the artists come on stage.

A lot of people bought the fan lights ticks at this concert, so there was a sea of colors before they synced their lightsticks so they would go in tune with the concert. I’ve been to a ton of K-pop concerts, but never bought a light stick because they can get expensive.

At seven exactly, the concert started. We were sitting in the spot so we could see behind the stage, so when the boys ended up getting ready and in position, we could see.

So could the other girls in our section, and as soon as they appeared backstage, the screaming started. I hadn’t been to a concert since 2020, so I forget how loud the screaming could get. By the end, my ears were absolutely ringing from the noise levels. I should’ve brought earplugs.

And then the show started! I don’t know a ton of TXT songs, but I am a fan of many of them now. “Opening Sequence” has been my driving song to school in the days after the concert. Although I thought the audience interactions were way too scripted and the boys seemed a little tired, they did a really good job performing throughout the night.

The most energy came for their middle portion, where they did songs like LOSER=LOVER and 0X1=LOVESICK, and they really nailed those songs. But after that, there was a little bit of a lull for me as someone who was a casual fan.

I will say, the lights were absolutely incredible. There were a ton of sparks and smoke that also made all of this pretty cinematic, so I applaud who ever thought out their staging.

The boys also took a ton of breaks in between songs to change while the stage was cleaned off of debris, such as confetti, so they wouldn’t slip.

My friend and I both agreed it was a really good concert minus the talking parts and breaks, although we left when there were two songs left in the encore. In an almost sold out stadium, we were not going to deal with the traffic that was going to cause when everyone left at the same time.

All in all, what a great day it was! I’m glad I finally got to see TXT—when they debuted all those years ago, I tried to get tickets to their first US fan event in New York.

I was eighteen back then and very into K-pop, so I ended up being devastated when the tickets sold out immediately and I couldn’t go. But years later, I got to see them! Although they didn’t perform “Crown” in this lineup…

Until next time!

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