Dreamcatcher Wraps Up NA Tour With Happy Memories, Delighting Fans With Surprise Releases And Future Plans

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”Booked and busy” is common slang in K-Pop, used by fans to describe when artists they follow have a packed schedule and are very active. In a market and industry where consistent activity is needed in order to remain sustainable (and ultimately profitable), a busy group is seen as a financially secure one. And maybe I’m biased, but I feel like Dreamcatcher is one of the busier groups out there.

At times, they’ve juggled tour plans, new music, and appearances all in the space of a couple months (as in late 2019, when they were in Japan, then in Korea for “Deja Vu” comeback era, then in Europe and finally the US for tours before end-of-year activities back home). Alternatively, they’ve been known to chain things together (as in 2021, when they had their anniversary, new merchandise debut including their lightstick, “Odd Eye” comeback, a concert, and then their first reality show in the first four months). Either way, they’ve seemed to be constantly in motion, while still being able to take some appreciable breaks and rest throughout. It’s a nice balance.

This past week was no exception and it highlighted that the latter part of 2023 is going to be one of Dreamcatcher’s busiest yet between tours, future plans, and some nice surprises. Let’s see what happened!

Dreamcatcher wrapped up their latest tour in North America this past week, and they left behind plenty to talk about. Nashville, their fourth stop, was held in the historic Grand Ole Opry, one of America’s most iconic venues, and the group was more than happy to entertain fans with yet another set of performances. They also continued surprising fans during their “random play dance” segment by introducing even more songs from their cover history, including Siyeon covering GAIN’s “Paradise Lost” (from a prior Halloween-time concert), JiU and Dami reprising their subunit performance of 2PM’s “My House” from the Invitation from Nightmare City tour, and Handong reminding fans of the group’s cover of Girl’s Day’s “Something” from Weekly Idol.

But even more memorable was a surprise that happened during Nashville’s encore. While Siyeon, Handong, and Dami entered the stage normally, JiU, SuA, Yoohyeon, and Gahyeon showed up from the rear, coming down the aisle singing to 2020’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Mind”. Coming through the crowd isn’t a unique thing insofar as what K-Pop acts have done before, and Dreamcatcher themselves just did it for their fans in Korea during the May 2nd generation fanclub fanmeeting, but this is the first time that I can recall them doing something like this for global fans. For those that weren't seated up front or normally don’t get to do so, this was a real treat, and with security being careful and watchful, it went off without a hitch.

The tour’s last stop was in Orlando, and Dreamcatcher ended things off with plenty more memorable moments, including JiU and Handong swapping parts for their “Troublemaker” cover and Yoohyeon and Dami dropping a never-before-seen dance cover of NCT U’s “Baggy Jeans”, which they said they learned in only a day. These kinds of unexpected surprises are really nice and add to tour stops having unique flavor to them.

Lastly, one of the best parts of this recent tour were the repeated ending drops for 2019’s “Silent Night”, which has become a concert staple the last two years or so. It gets the crowd going and keeps them going, so it’s no surprise that in each city Dreamcatcher tried to top themselves with how often and how creatively they could call for another Silent Night beatdrop. The Orlando stop had them even place their mics back in the stage container and have them all scream “ONE MORE TIME” together into them, a nice end to the song’s impact during the past few weeks hyping up the crowd.

Overall, though short and not without a few issues (which thankfully occurred mostly during the beginning of the tour), I feel like this latest North American tour was successful. Concerts and tour ticketing has resulted in mostly decreased sales overall for many K-Pop groups that are not in the S-Tier, and Dreamcatcher was no exception. However, final numbers pending, every venue looked and felt appreciably filled, and there were plenty of fans more than happy to come out to see Dreamcatcher and plunk down cash on Meet & Greet benefits as well as merchandise. The group’s fandom continues to be sustained, and that’s impressive for one six years in competing with high-selling rookie groups and reliably selling “Big 4” acts. I’ll be looking forward to the Notes, Vlogs, and other behind-the-scenes content from this tour, since as always they provide another perspective from the group from these past few weeks.

Back home, however, the official YouTube channel was far from idle during Dreamcatcher’s last couple of North American stops. A new Gahyeon Vlog showed up, this time from a trip to Gyeongju with a friend. Food, sightseeing, drinks, and good times were had, and it was also nice for Gahyeon to once again have companionship on the trip to make it a nice friend experience rather than a solo endeavor. I’ve said this a lot these past couple months, but Gahyeon has been on a content streak lately, essentially re-taking the solo content title back from her fellow members with her constant uploads and fun travels. There’s more to come from this particular trip, so we’ll have to see what else Gahyeon and her friend get to being up to in the next couple weeks.

And speaking of individual content, we finally got to see the first episode of “SingCarLive”, featuring main vocal Siyeon’s bit of unique solo content. Applications were being taken for folks traveling to South Korea in early August, but we’re only now seeing the result of those with the first episode dropping this past week. The idea appears to be that Siyeon interviews a fan during their time traveling from the airport to the place where they’re staying, sort of like an Uber or Lyft experience with a bonus. Not surprisingly, a song from Siyeon is the cherry on top for such a trip.

I found this really neat for a few reasons. First off is the fact that direct fan interaction outside of fansigns or other promotions or events is pretty uncommon in K-Pop, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are logistics, safety, and security. Dreamcatcher Company appeared to do their due diligence when planning, executing, and uploading this content and as a result provided something really nice for a lucky fan, a teacher named Anthony looking to head around to Busan and Jeju during vacation who treated Siyeon with respect and politeness. Done properly as it was here, it’s another way Dreamcatcher and Dreamcatcher Company have shown their progressiveness relative to the K-Pop industry as a whole.

Secondly is Siyeon herself. She’s known to be more of an apparent homebody when it comes to activities and socializing, but she’s never been afraid of trying something new or coming out of her comfort zone. To do something like this, where she’s interacting with fans, asking questions, and showing why she loves music and singing is really cool of her to do.

Lastly, it does show that Dreamcatcher appreciates their fans, and more importantly, adds to the idea that they believe Dreamcatcher is for everyone, regardless of your age, gender identity, money spent, and other personal factors. You could argue this is standard for K-Pop artists, but after six years of watching videos of the group and seeing them live, I think there’s plenty of sincerity beyond just doing their job. They’ve always been kind to everyone no matter who they were, and it’s this perceived inclusivity that continues to get them my support. We’ll no doubt see at least one more episode of SingCarLive and it’ll be great to see and hear more from Siyeon and her unique interactions with fans.

But for all of this surprise content from the Dreamcatcher official YouTube channel, the biggest one came on Wednesday, when Dreamcatcher released a special digital single for “BONVOYAGE” English version, dubbed the “Farewell version” due in part to what I assume is one of the English meanings of the French term “Bon Voyage”. Fans know that an English remake album is imminent, but did not expect a pre-release like this, especially on the heels of the North American tour.

The interesting thing about this is not just the English lyrics, which for the most part fit very well into the cadence of the original song while also preserving their meaning, but that the underlying mix is slightly altered. The drums and guitar are more prominent and the song carries a bit more of a heavier background tone than the original. The mixer for this track according to credits in streaming services appears to be James Krausse or Ruckus Studios, whose K-Pop related credits include ITZY’s iconic song “Wannabe” and quite a few TWICE songs, including “Feel Special” and “What Is Love”. Having someone with some K-Pop related experience help provide a unique twist to the English version of “BONVOYAGE” is pretty interesting and I think helps separate it from the original in a good way.

As for the lyrics specifically, things like Gahyeon’s “is this twisted fate or fate’s twisted game?” and Dami’s entire rap shown below really work with the song and are worth multiple listens to get the English version’s meaning to stick. I’ve had it on repeat for quite a bit this past week, am looking forward to the rest of the English remake album coming out (speculation shows that the 22 highlighted in the lyrics video is a spoiler for the release date), and hope other fans are as well.

Call me crazy, didn't mean to hurt your heart
'Cause closer, sometimes drift apart
I know I'm selfish, can't deny
But I still see a future bright
The doubts and fears
Sometimes they cloud in my mind
I can't help but hold on tight
And never leave you behind

Even with all the above, Dreamcatcher wasn’t done this past week as far as updates. Though the postponement of London’s KPOP LUX meant Dreamcatcher wasn’t able to head to the UK, the group was confirmed to attend the 2023 Asia Artist Awards in the Philippines. This means local fans get to see the group again near the end of the year, in addition to a star-studded lineup that includes KARD, STAYC, Kep1er, and more artists. The AAA’s are usually an extended broadcast performed in front of a huge audience (this one being the 50,000 person capacity Philippine Arena), so this will be a great opportunity for Dreamcatcher to gain more exposure and, hopefully, to pick up an award in the process.

Additionally, KCON is returning to Saudi Arabia in October, and Dreamcatcher was also confirmed as part of the lineup for that event as well. It’s been a minute since Dreamcatcher was at a KCON event, and due to COVID concerns had to cancel their last intended appearance, so it’s nice to see them return in yet another opportunity to expand on their pedigree of locations they’ve performed in around the world. I’ll probably have to think about doing a whole article on the group’s travels - because it feels like to me they are one of, if not the, most traveled K-Pop group in their current generation and certainly among many of their peers.

The future is bright, busy, and booked for Dreamcatcher and as always, you can count on me covering and summarizing all of their activities for busy folks, casual fans, and enthusiasts alike. With their latest tour behind them and what I assume will be a bit of rest to get over their jet lag and settle back in at home, it may be a bit of a slower week coming up - but knowing Dreamcatcher, I’m already suspicious that won’t be the case. For all that, and more, see you here next Sunday!