Dreamcatcher Plays Paris To Perfection For M Countdown As October Travels Continue

Europe, I think, holds a special place in Dreamcatcher’s hearts. The region was one of the first places that Dreamcatcher went to on tour when they were first starting out, and their humble beginnings have blossomed into decent recognition and the audiences to match them, seen as recently as late last year during the Apocalyse: Follow Us tour. So it came as no surprise when MNet asked them to appear along with a star-studded lineup of artists for a special M Countdown broadcast from Paris at the massive Paris La Défense Arena in front of a crowd of K-Pop fans. As always, this was the news of the week, but not the only bit of info we found out. Here’s what the group has been up to this past week!

Dreamcatcher’s Notes resumed this past week, meaning that we’ve got a whole bunch of backlogged behind-the-scenes content that is soon to arrive on the official YouTube channel. Things kicked off with the Note for Dreamcatcher’s August return to Southeast Asia in the Philippines for their Under the Moonlight concert. It was nice to see some of the fan support efforts that we’ve come to be familiar with throughout Dreamcatcher’s travels, but the uniqueness with which each place tends to make the group feel welcome (and in many cases, well-fed) is always nice to see. It was also a nice reminder that some things, such as “DEMIAN”, were performed outside of South Korea live for the first time, and that it has been a considerable amount of time since the group has been back to Manila (the last time was in 2019), so to see them play to a larger audience and to hear how much fans have missed them was great.

One of the things that played during that concert was a set of VCR videos that showed both their serious and sunnier sides of themselves, and it was inevitable that we’d see a Note about the shooting for that. The difference in tone for the VCR videos was pretty apparent, but that didn’t prevent Dreamcatcher from having a bit of fun while waiting in between takes to shoot. It’s been a pretty long time since they did a VCR for any of their concerts in this way (the one they did for Curse of the Spider last year for the Apocalypse in Seoul concert was more of an MV than anything) so seeing what went into this latest one was pretty neat. I especially liked the stuff with the unique dates and names projected onto them - a nice reminder of some of the personal achievements and album history for the group.

That long history means that this was hardly Dreamcatcher’s first visit to Paris, where they returned to appear as part of the stacked lineup for a special edition of M Countdown in France. The group came out to guitar-based rock fanfare, as is their tradition, with riffs from 2022’s “VISION” leading the way to a set of static shots of Dreamcatcher looking appropriately fierce for their performance. It seemed like an obvious choice, but choosing latest title track (and French-named) “BONVOYAGE” was the perfect way to get started. Clad in all-black, the performance was, as always, high-energy.

A short ment followed, during which Dreamcatcher greeted the audience (and in Yoohyeon and Dami’s case, with some spoken French phrases, much to the delight of the crowd), then posed for a group picture with the fans in true rocker style. It was nice of Dreamcatcher to mention that they’d been to Paris many times before (most recently late last year), so the hope is that they’ll be around to Europe again at some point in the near future . Given the response from fans in attendance, the hope is that it will be sooner rather than later.

From there, Dreamcatcher opted for 2023 fan song “REASON”, which was a good decision due to the freedom of being able to roam the extra large stage separately while singing. The song, like much of Dreamcatcher’s discography, is made for performing live, and seeing each member head to a different part of the stage to say hello to fans and also rock out with them was a treat to see. The camerawork here was pretty good, allowing people watching over live stream, like myself, to see Dami pop off with her rapping portion as well as hear her backed up by Gahyeon’s own rap verse near the end. Professional camera angles are great for songs like REASON that aren’t always performed for music shows, and Dreamcatcher delivered here.

The end of Dreamcatcher’s set involved them singing one of their other French-titled hits, “MAISON”, which they went into right after finishing up with “REASON”. It’s been a while since we saw this song performed with a music show camera’s work, so this was a nice throwback to 2022 and all the memories, including the first win, that came with it. Three songs, in the midst of other more popular groups, is decent, and hopefully showcased what Dreamcatcher is capable of to those that weren’t familiar with them beforehand.

Dreamcatcher has a bit of a break to prepare for their next scheduled gig at the Changwon K-Pop World Festival near the end of the month, but knowing them, that isn’t going to stop the content from continuing. As always, I’ll be here to report on the latest from the group, so for all that, and more, I’ll see you here next Sunday!