Dreamcatcher Wraps Up “Summer Holiday” Promotions BEcause Of Future Plans
K-Pop — Dreamcatcher Recall
K-Pop’s resident rock/pop girl group finishes out their latest album promotion cycle in August 2021, but show no signs of slowing down.
As we speed along in the latter months of summer in South Korea, Dreamcatcher managed to complete promotions for their latest album “Summer Holiday”. While it seemed like it was a bit shorter than usual due to the fact that one week of music show appearances were preempted for the Olympics, it was nevertheless another three weeks of non-stop Dreamcatcher content — and as we discovered this past week, not the end of their plans for the near future. Let’s take a look at what Dreamcatcher was up to as they ended their “Summer Holiday” promotions.
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Show Champion this past week was Dreamcatcher’s Goodbye Stage for “Summer Holiday” title track “BEcause”, and it was a great finale to a set of (albeit shortened) music show appearances. This comeback had Dreamatcher return to their roots a bit with only the seven of them on stage and matching stage outfits, which did a lot to match the creepy doll-like vibe they were trying to convey. Timing for ending things may have been driven in part due to some news that two producers on last week’s M! Countdown broadcast tested positive for COVID, triggering a flurry of tests for anyone appearing last week, including Dreamcatcher. Luckily, initial tests have come back negative, and with vaccinations finally rolling out to Dreamcatcher’s age group, we’ll hope that they get protection against the virus that has changed the world over the past year and a half. For now, it was nice to have them finish up music show promotions healthy and safe.
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On the variety front, this last week of promotions was a chance for Dreamcatcher to do both new things and return to previous haunts. Beginning the list of stops was “Kiss the Radio”, a show Dreamcatcher last appeared on just shortly after debut, and now hosted by Day 6’s Young K. It’s been great to see how far the group has come in the last four years and for all of them to have grown in terms of confidence and interviewing since their early days. Quite a few Dreamcatcher members are Day 6 fans, so it was just another bonus for them to meet someone from the band on a show. There was, of course a bunch of entertainment to be had, including a game played that resulted in a “penalty performance” of BEcause at twice the speed, so be sure to check it out!
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We also saw JiU and SuA return to Hope Song at Noon, this time appearing alongside Weeekly members Jihan and Jaehee. The connections between Dreamcatcher and other groups continue to grow, and it was nice to have a dynamic of veteran idols in Dreamcatcher and relatively new performers in Weeekly. As a bonus we also got JiU and SuA singing a couple of songs and verses, and JiU doing a close-up cam version of “BEcause”, capping off another radio appearance that shouldn’t be missed.
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But for all the returns to old stomping grounds, it wouldn’t be a Dreamcatcher comeback without them doing new things on the variety circuit, and they came in a flurry this past week. We saw Dreamcatcher play a new “liar’s game” on their IDOL Live appearance, send “beagle-energy” duo SuA and Siyeon to YouTube channel Icon Chips to do a fun and meme-filled interview, perform “BEcause” in their blood red outfits for culture NEON, and do an interview with iconic magazine/music culture publication Rolling Stone (via their Korea division). All the new opportunities Dreamcatcher are getting every comeback just go to show that their footprint is slowly rising, especially domestically, where their reputation has been on a gradual uptick these past four years. I’m pleased to see all of the places that are beginning to realize the appeal of Dreamcatcher outside of the performance stage, and their growing clout among peers and outlets.
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A pair of vLives showed up from the group this week post-promotions, with Yoohyeon stopping by to talk a bit about finally getting to apply for COVID vaccination and trying to kill some time before bed, and Siyeon and Gahyeon chatting with fans about things like Siyeon’s shopping habits and (now that she’s a bit more comfortable financially) her generosity buying slippers for JiU and Gahyeon. Fans know that the group has been pretty busy lately and hasn’t had much time for vLive, but now that we’re past the meat of promotions for “Summer Holiday”, we should see (and hear) a bit more from the group.
Of course, we were also treated to SuA’s usual appearance and energy on Wendy’s Young Street Radio this past week, where the hosts discussed must have foods after having meat, and also all celebrated Red Velvet’s first group comeback in nearly two years. Wendy, generous and kind host that she was, gifted the album to her co-hosts and also included a nice little skincare lotion bonus for SuA. With Red Velvet promotions just beginning, I’m sure SuA will be there to support Wendy to return the favor of her shouting out Dreamcatcher’s recent comeback and having some of the members on a radio broadcast.
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On the official channel front, Dreamcatcher continued the content march, with both expected and unexpected media. We’ll get to the surprises in a moment, but what we got this week in existing content was headlined by the long-awaited return of Gahyeon’s Dreamcatcher VLOG series, as she filmed herself and the rest of Dreamcatcher behind-the-scenes at their “Summer Holiday” all night photoshoot. The pandemic has really robbed Dreamcatcher of this kind of content due to the restriction of places to go safely, so it was nice to see Gahyeon, who commonly helms these vlogs, to pick up the selfie stick once again and take fans through what it’s like to shoot photos for an evening. These are always fun due to how candid the shots and video are, and how (mostly) unedited they seem. Gahyeon’s always been a bright and informative vlogger, so here’s to hoping we see more of these in the near future.
Other than that, we got expected behind-the-scenes video of the “Summer Holiday” showcase (featuring JiU receiving a generous gift of ginseng on behalf of the group from their CEO), and album unboxings of all versions of the newest release, which featured a bit less album destruction than previously but no less chaos. With Dreamcatcher’s Notes to come from promotions and the potential for other staples of recent Dreamcatcher comebacks (what B-side will Dreamcatcher choose to make into a self-made MV this time, for example) fans will be fed with content for weeks to come.
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All that said, if you’re reading this and might be feeling just a little sad that “Summer Holiday” promotions appeared to go by way too quickly, you’ve got to remember that Dreamcatcher has always prided itself on being a content-heavy group that loves being busy. Future plans are already in the works for a little later on, with Dreamcatcher confirmed as returning to the KCON:TACT stage in September as one of the artists, as well as being set to record an episode for a new series featuring SNSD member Sunny’s called “Legendary Trainee”, where the veteran idol will turn back the clock and get interactions and tips from newer generation groups. Dami in particular is a big SNSD fan, so she’ll certainly be living her best fan life when the group records with Sunny at the end of the month.
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But outside of the company is not the only place where Dreamcatcher have future plans. Aside from dropping a nice little new content piece called “Dreamcatcher’s Color”, where a swapping fancam-style performance of “BEcause” was done on a skyblue background, we got two cryptic, yet high-quality story films/trailers which appear to be shot in a remote area/residence. The films evoked much of the creepiness and dark flavor of early Dreamcatcher trailers for new content, and of course both the styling and the expressiveness of the group were on full display, from everyone stopping their conversation to stare into the audience, to Handong lying in a discarded picnic setup to Siyeon literally shooting the camera.
This came out of nowhere and set of a firestorm of speculation, but the official tweets about these films being tagged with “#MD” plus a confirmation from Siyeon and Gahyeon on vLive this past week revealed that these are for high-quality merchandise, with pre-orders to start on the 24th of August and release for near the end of September. What exactly that merchandise will be is anyone’s guess, but a photobook appears to be the current prevailing popular opinion among fans.
Dreamcatcher might be done with formal “BEcause” promotions, but their content train continues to roll on. We’ll be seeing a lot of delayed and pre-recorded content from the group from promotions for quite a while to come, and future plans look to keep Dreamcatcher busy and fans engaged into September. As always, I’ll be here every Sunday to cover and recap all the activities and news you missed, so feel free to clap, comment, follow, and signal boost if you like what you see!
