Dreamcatcher’s 2022 Kicks Off With Fun Unboxings And Entertaining Livestreams

K-Pop — Dreamcatcher Recall

K-Pop’s resident rock/pop girl group started off the new year at a brisk jog with new content for fans and an another unforgettable birthday vLive.

Dreamcatcher hasn’t ever really been a group to sit idle for very long, even during a bit of a holiday break and rest, so it’s no surprise that 2022 started off at a brisk jog from a content perspective for the seven-member K-Pop group. After nearly five years of activity, fans have come to anticipate that Dreamcatcher is always working on something, which translates into more fun and entertaining stuff for fans to sink their teeth into. And of course, with one member’s birthday early in the year, they’re guaranteed at least one entertaining live stream to kick things off in January — and they weren’t disappointed.

Here’s the news and happenings of how Dreamcatcher started off 2022!

When Dreamcatcher announced a 2022 Season’s Greetings package, their first, it certainly seemed inevitable that we’d get some kind of unboxing video at some point, and Dreamcatcher Company didn’t disappoint by providing one on their YouTube channel last week. The group split up into two groups (perhaps purposefully choosing by hair color, just for the aesthetic presentation) to check out the contents of both versions.

Light-haired JiU, SuA, Handong, and Yoohyeon, along with special guest dog Pie, literally tore into Celestial Dreams, reading New Year’s well wishes, showing off the many card sets, and, in Handong’s case, making sure people saw her visual presentation on the included desk calendar. Dark-haired Siyeon, Dami, and Gahyeon showed off the giant wall calendar, subunit pics, and brightly-colored photocards that made up the Sweet Dreams version.

These videos are always fun not just for the members enjoying looking at and being wowed by their own content but also of some of the behind-the-scenes insights, like Yoohyeon having to ensure her neck didn’t hurt too much from all the above-the-camera shots and Gahyeon asking the production staff for all of the pictures they took of her for safekeeping. It looks like fans have begun receiving their Season’s Greetings packages, so hopefully if you picked one up you’ll be enjoying the same packages the group did on-camera in the very near future.

In the unboxing video, SuA was blonde, but as we saw this past week, that was only a bleached transition to a brand new red color, the shade of which we hadn’t seen since “PIRI” promotions from 2019 . It’s been a while since fans have seen SuA with such a vibrant color, so this was a nice change to start 2022 and of course, fueled speculation that the first comeback of 2022 was just around the corner. Considering at this time last year we were surprised by the sudden arrival of “Behind” photos and a mystery code to solve that would eventually lead to the “Road to Utopia” promotions in late January, I’m not surprised fans are getting excited — but it looks like we’ll have to wait a little bit longer for news.

As for Young Street, SuA, Wendy, and Taehyun’s topic of the week was “friends that everyone dislikes”, with constant latecomers, moochers, and only contacting you when they want something being the three choices. SuA had to admit to being late all the time — though honestly, two to three minutes too late isn’t terribly bad (certainly a lot better than I am). As always, you can download this past week’s episode from the SBS Wendy’s Young Street website if you didn’t catch it.

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Dreamcatcher’s fifth anniversary is coming up on the 13th, and the company’s staff have announced a cafe event to take place for local fans, filled with drawings, door prizes, and decorations celebrating the group’s fifth year active. There will also be an online event for fans that aren’t local or can’t make it, though details are still to be announced here. Last year’s 4th anniversary vLive featured the reveal of the group’s first official lightstick and an unintentional reveal, thanks to Yoohyeon, of the group’s title track for their January 2021 comeback, “Odd Eye”, which incidentally was recently named as Rolling Stone India’s 6th best K-Pop music video of 2021. What Dreamcatcher and Dreamcatcher Company have in mind for the group’s upcoming 5th year celebration is still somewhat up in the air, but a fan cafe event signals that there are likely some other plans in the works.

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But perhaps the highlight of the first full week of 2002 for Dreamcatcher were fan interactions and broadcasts. Siyeon dropped in for a brief live where, clad in a black knit hat and trying to relax, commiserated with fans about Mondays, gave them a few fun interactions (“hugging” the phone being one of the funniest), and dodged a few thoughts about comeback spoilers. It was as far as Siyeon vLives go, as chill and comfortable as they usually are.

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If Siyeon’s was a cool and calm vLive, Yoohyeon’s birthday vLive was anything but. The newly 26-year old (in Korean birthday years) Lead Vocalist left her mid-20s with a bang — or in this case, an unfortunate eruption, as putting in too much baking soda (ten times the amount) led to an overflow of dalgona mixture that she ultimately took in stride. A pivot to mixing up a latte showed us Yoohyeon’s burgeoning barista skill, and the finished product — bread and a latte with some surviving dalgona bits in it — made it to in front of the camera without further incident.

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I wrote very recently about how Yoohyeon is Dreamcatcher’s most relatable member, and this entire vLive showed just why that is the case. Though her cooking/coffee vLive didn’t quite go as planned, it was, perhaps, a situation that many non-idol people could relate to — making a good effort to make something good only for it to have a few challenges along the way to an “E for Effort” dish. There’s really no way that I can give Yoohyeon grief over “Mt. Dalgona” erupting — as someone who’s tried to make dalgona, a popular Korean street vendor candy, it can get pretty dicey if you don’t control the heat, the ingredients, or the sugar crystallization. I can’t recall a moment where I did a science like Yoohyeon did, but I’ve had my fair share of mistakes in this seemingly simple recipe. In that sense, my laughter over this situation wasn’t directed really at Yoohyeon (who took much of this stuff in stride, even the fact that the choice of Dalgona coffee, an unintentional callback to 2020’s White Day vLive, tasted bitter) but more at myself for remembering my own screw-ups with the candy making. It’s part of why lots of Yoohyeon’s fans honestly appreciate her, and why I ultimate respect the Dreamcatcher members who even try these kind of cooking experiments live and on-camera. But then being entertaining, fun, and spending time with fans in this way is really what Dreamcatcher has always been about, I’d say.

Dreamcatcher’s fifth anniversary is coming up this week and you can count on me recapping all of the happenings from the group making it another turn around the sun, so until then, be sure to clap, follow, and signal boost this content if you appreciate it. See you next week!