Dreamcatcher Reasonably Continues Momentum Into Late January 2023 With Pre-Tour Plans
K-Pop — Dreamcatcher Recall
A bit over a month until hitting the road, the seven-member K-Pop group shows it has no intention of remaining idle with multiple avenues of activity.
You would think that with a tour through the United States on the way, and with all the prep that involves that, Dreamcatcher would take a bit of a break from the public-facing spotlight to focus on what will hopefully turn out to be as successful as prior forays. But as this past week has shown, Dreamcatcher isn’t one to stay idle, and only riding the (now thirty million views) wave of “REASON”, their first musical release of 2023 and third fan song, was clearly not sufficient for them. We found out a lot about Dreamcatcher’s plans for the early part of 2023 this past week and it showed that the group and company are taking advantage of their January momentum to keep up their visibility. Let’s take a look at what we discovered!
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The biggest news relating to the tour this past week involved the unveiling of at least one side event related to it, as partner MyMusicTaste dropped details of a Meet & Greet to happen after every show on the tour. 2022 saw Dreamcatcher Company take a more cautious approach to these events given the current state of COVID and other factors, limiting interaction to small fansigns in select cities and a brief walk-by and a wave for fans. This time around, a more robust package of offerings in two tiers of purchase gave fans the ability to do a high-five to the group and in the case of the VVIP highest tier, to get a group photo with a few other fans and Dreamcatcher. The latter, which hasn’t been done since Dreamcatcher toured in 2019, is a first-time opportunity for much of the fanbase, and people were extremely quick to jump on it when tickets for the event went on sale.
[embed]https://twitter.com/KChartstours/status/1617482100328005634[/embed]
As of this writing all but two of the cities (Washington D.C. and Denver) had sold out of the limited-quantity VVIP tier, with no doubt many others taking advantage of the VIP offering. It’s an encouraging sign, and with unofficial accounts showing ticket sales as a whole being just over fifty percent so far, a good bit of cash in the bank heading into tour time in February/March. Speaking of that sales pace, access to that metric seems to have had some fans concerned, but given what we’ve seen of Dreamcatcher’s tour ticket turnstile, I’m not worried and holding judgment til we hear more officially about numbers after tour’s end. The group has always been a slow and steady seller given their current popularity level, and with slightly bigger venues and new stops this time around there will always be a bit of uncertainty around sales pace. If Dreamcatcher’s prior tours are any indication, they will do just fine.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql2z3OUndAc[/embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA4R6pgh8QU
The group as a whole was seen in a couple places this past week, with an extra content drop from their appearance on Idol World (roasting marshmallows is always a chill activity, unless you have to try to eat yours off a broken stick like Siyeon) and a New Year’s show in conjunction with NEOGEN to move some of the hand cream and body mist products they developed in 2021 (with heavily discounted rates and the prospect of signed album raffles). We also got some of the group’s high-quality photos from the North American tour in a post on their Naver page.
I’ve always noticed that much of Dreamcatcher’s content in a casual setting has always been nice to watch — the group gives off that vibe of friends gathering to chat with each other and just to hang out, and it definitely puts you at ease as a viewer. There is, of course, always the chance of some patented Dreamcatcher loudness or chaos, but never a dull moment even if they’re just advertising products or camping out.
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Mid-February will also bring with it Dreamcatcher’s participation in new variety show Webtoon Singer, where participants will compete for the best vocal adaptation of an OST track for domestic webtoon features, which have gained in popularity recently. Other rumored potential participants include KARD, WJSN, and more, so seeing Dreamcatcher in good company for what will be an interesting and fun use of their talents. Immortal Songs appeared to be the last time we saw them as a group in a setting similar to this, so I’ll be interested in what Dreamcatcher presents and brings to the show as a whole.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r2v0Yi34dk[/embed]
Still, this past week I feel like there’s been an interesting (though welcome) shift to individual and subuit activities, with the members of the group spidering out to various places in order to promote what they’ve been doing and will be doing in the near future. JiU dropped a single part EU vlog about the tour last November, most of which was, unsurprisingly, JiU eating and drinking. The leader of the group has never missed an opportunity to enjoy (and share the enjoyment of) good food and good drinks (alcoholic or otherwise), so to see a vlog focused a bit on that isn’t really new for JiU. Well worth a watch.
[embed]https://twitter.com/ALLTHEKPOP/status/1618881630826807296[/embed]
Speaking of JiU, her and frequent partner-in-crime SuA will be appearing on a special collaboration episode of Weekly Idol at some point in the near future, with the brief surprise live broadcast that precedes it to drop sometime early this week. JiU and SuA will join frequent friend Kwon Eunbi as well as fromis_9 members Jiwon and Ha Young for what will no doubt be several decibels above the normal communications range and with the potential to turn all kinds of crazy. Jiwon in particular has been known to be loud and energetic so putting her and SuA on the same show is a decision that hopefully the producers will not damage their hearing with. Either way, this is an unexpected surprise given that Dreamcatcher normally doesn’t appear on Weekly Idol these days unless as a group, so the dynamic with others is going to be great.
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Eunbi, in particular, is going to get a double dose of Dreamcatcher that day, because she invited youngest member Gahyeon onto Mubeat Live’s QnA for what should be a pretty entertaining appearance on its own. The Eunbi-Dreamcatcher friendship is well-documented, but it’s been quite a bit of time since a solo variety Gahyeon appearance (that also being the result of an existing friendship) so I’m looking forward to seeing what she has to offer the segment.
[embed]https://weverse.io/dreamcatcher/live/2-112574960[/embed][embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNks35eemIw[/embed]
Continuing the individual member trend, Dami fans have been patiently waiting for Dreamcatcher’s Main Rapper to release another vlog (the last one being way back in 2020 for her “Rockabye” Special Clip), so seeing what appears to be a multi-part vlog from her on the EU trip will be nice. Dami is the last member to drop a vlog related to the group’s tours, and seeing as we’ve been getting some individual flavor in each of them, it’ll be nice to see what Dami’s “style” is. If the first part is any indication, what we’re in for is some pretty chill and calm vibes, something that seems to match Dami’s on-camera personality quite well. Additionally, we got some of those soothing tones this past week as Dami checked in with fans on Weverse as well, talking about her New Year’s plans, a funny anecdote about Dreamcatcher Company’s CEO, and more.
Last, but not least, the news dropped from TBS eFM that Handong would become the new DJ of Chinese-language radio show “Akdong Seoul”, broadcasting every Monday and Wednesday. With the group going on tour within a month, there was a certain degree of speculation that this might just be another extended tryout, but as the post and articles appear to refer to Handong as DJ and not “Special DJ” (the term for when someone substitutes for the regular host), this may be a semi-permanent gig for the group’s Chinese-born member. Handong appeared both with Nature’s Aurora as well as on her own in a “Special DJ” gig in 2022, so the news that TBS liked her so much they want her back on a regular basis is huge, both for the group’s visibility and Handong’s personal achievements in her career.
In particular, I find this news great because the journey that Handong has been on these past 6 years or so has been of someone coming into their own, getting over their initial shyness at not knowing the language well enough to communicate properly, finding themselves through participation on a Chinese survival show and returning as a better, more confident version of herself. A regular radio gig solidifies and justifies all the work that Handong and Dreamcatcher Company have put into getting her out there with some level of individual activity. We’ll see if this is truly regular once Dreamcatcher returns from tour, but all signs point to that being the case, and hopefully, Handong is proud of marking this off as an achievement/goal met.
We’re heading into February with a ton of different plans that Dreamcatcher has in store for themselves and of course, the fans, and it’s not going to be anywhere near quiet for the group anytime soon. As always, I’ll be here to cover all the latest with Dreamcatcher, so be sure to check in here next week at this time, as well as clap/subscribe/signal boost if you like all the reports on Dreamcatcher content goodness!
