Dreamcatcher’s 2022 Tour Moves West Across The US, Catching And Stealing Fans’ Hearts
K-Pop — Dreamcatcher Recall
The North American leg of Dreamcatcher’s 2022 World Tour continued this past week, while the seven-member K-Pop group released more content to excite InSomnia around the globe.
The summer of Dreamcatcher continued this past week, with the group’s Apocalypse: Save Us 2022 World Tour rolling westward across the US to three cities. Denver, San Francisco, and one of two shows in Los Angeles made up the bulk of Dreamcatcher’s time spent this week, but as if that wasn’t enough, they and Dreamcatcher Company had a bit more content and news to deliver about future plans. There’s quite a bit to talk about from this past week, so let’s get right to it!
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To rewind to the earlier portion of the tour for a second, one thing that I wasn’t able to mention before was that tour vLives are back. With an already-demanding schedule and long hours of travel, the fact the Dreamcatcher takes the time to do the occasional vLive to check in with fans is great, and the tour vLives in particular tend to produce some pretty memorable moments (like the “waiting for Whataburger” vLive from 2019).
This tour was no exception, as we got, for example, JiU and Yoohyeon doing a video vLive together as duo for the very first time in five years (there’ve been previous ones but all voice only), Yoohyeon dropping in late at night after a show to chat before going off to the gym, and SuA and Handong continuing the fun by first walking in on Yoohyeon’s vLive and then doing one of their own, the highlight of which was the two tour roommates making fun of each other for their odd sleeping habits. Of the three vLives so far, the last one takes the cake for me. SuA and Handong have proven to be an entertaining duo, especially as it seems to be that Handong is one of the few members of Dreamcatcher able to keep up with SuA’s seemingly boundless energy and exude some of her own. It’s Handong’s first opportunity to really show off the confidence and assertive attitude she brought back to her from her time in China, as well as her first time on tour through the US, so her clowning on SuA for basically sleeping like a corpse is fun to see and hear about.
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As Dreamcatcher rolled into Denver, there was a nice fan-created event created for locals and those coming into town to see the group. ColoradoKpopper and Dreamcatcher US teamed up for a cafe event, of the type that sometimes happens in South Korea, where a cafe is typically decorated and outfitted temporarily with a K-Pop group’s or individual artist/member’s photos and items. Reserved for special occasions such as birthdays or milestones, cafe events don’t often show up outside of Dreamcatcher’s native country, but this was an exception. With Dreamcatcher-crafted cupsleeves, some photo standups to take some fun pictures and other Dreamcatcher-themed elements, this was a fun way to not only promote the group’s presence in the city but also have a bit of a community event. By all accounts, it seemed to go well, paying off the fans’ hard work.
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In Denver, there were plenty of fun moments, as Yoohyeon showed off her pushup style (with the legitimate excuse of not doing more to save her energy for the show), a close up of some of those signed balls that the group was throwing out to fans, and Dami doing her best (though unintentional) pro baseball pitcher imitation with a fastball that zoomed into the crowd. And of course there were a few impromptu interactions with the members, such as SuA randomly sitting on JiU until they both tumbled laughing onto the stage. On tour, much of these fun moments happen spontaneously and with little planning, and really help to keep the shows fresh and fun for those following the tour outside of the stops they attend (if they attend any at all). Dreamcatcher, in particular, is great at this.
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One of those impromptu interactions and performances surrounded what the group would do during their solo medley’s “No Dot” segment. SuA’s solo song and its femme fatale concept have created some truly entertaining parts of the tour throughout the month, but with every individual member having imitated the signature choreography/concept at least once, there were questions about how it would evolve. Cities like San Francisco got the answer, as duo subunit performances were now called up by SuA to double the fun. In the Golden City, JiU and Handong reminded fans why their 2018 “Trouble Maker” subunit performance in Chile has over 525,000 views on YouTube with a subunit “No Dot” performance that wowed the audience. SuA bleeding over that type of performance to Gahyeon’s normally light “Playground” rendition was also funny to see.
Not all the memories were from provocative dancing moments, of course. “New Days” saw the Dreamcatcher members attempt to pick each other up piggyback, with the highlight for me being Handong singing perfectly with Gahyeon on her back (who also then sang just as well), while Siyeon was kind enough to share some of her stage fan with the slightly overheated InSomnia in the front portion of the audience. Overall, I saw a ton more engagement from the group towards fans than in 2019, and much of this honestly just shows how much the group has missed performing for fans as well as getting those dynamic reactions from them.
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As the show moved westward, we also saw a few minor setlist changes as well. 2019’s “PIRI” joined the list, as did 2020’s “Sahara” and 2021’s “Airplane”. And so too, did the energy of the group seem to just go up, despite an apparent flight delay and an aggressive LA schedule that had them doing a fansign, the first day of LA concerts, and the soon-to-be-performed second day of LA, all in the span of three days. Between this, the introduction of triple member subunit versions of “No Dot”, and great styling changes (the latest being a classic black-and-white rocker themed look from the early 2000's), there seemed to be no end to Dreamcatcher’s stamina and desire to entertain and perform for their fans. The group will get a slight break after the second LA show before heading off to Mexico City, and then a longer one prior to dropping in on Anime Matsuri in Houston to cap things off, so the hope is that the group will get some brief R&R/tourist time before they finish up their trip.
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On the variety front, Dreamcatcher and recent new-ish partner iHeartRadio combined forces to put out some insightful and entertaining content for fans. Part 2 of Stacy Nam’s in-depth Dreamcatcher interview made its appearance, highlighting even more stories from the group as well as deep questions about what is important to them as musicians, their trainee days, and more. This interview has been long in coming (it was filmed prior to the group’s comeback in April) but the wait has certainly been worth it. An hour with Dreamcatcher for an interview is chock-full of content enough, but for Stacy to draw out some really good answers from Dreamcatcher through her trademark style of making them comfortable through conversation was also impressive. It seemed to be a great time all around for the group, and for Stacy, who got to ultimately don the group’s signature robe and lightstick for a few pictures.
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The group’s trip through New York also allowed iHeartRadio to work with Dreamcatcher to go head-to-head with one of their biggest fans in a trivia back-and-forth. And though local InSomnia Rachel had a few nerves to start by fumbling the group’s debut date, she ended up recovering enough to win out, and ultimately live out a “dream come true” in her words with some autographed gifts, interactions with the group, and some pictures.
I really liked iHeartRadio for doing this, as there are ton of fans that may not have the means or opportunity to see the group locally in Korea, or get into their video call fansigns consistently. Having a local superfan get the opportunity to see and talk with Dreamcatcher and play a game with them is not something most folks get to have and it was clear the fan they called in was over the moon about it. Truly a memorable moment.
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But just because Dreamcatcher is away from home doesn’t mean that the company and the group have stopped putting out cool content and surprises as well. This past week saw a new Dreamcatcher’s Note about Gahyeon’s “Playground” video filming, with Dreamcatcher’s youngest member working with the group’s ever-present backup dancer crew to produce a film that captured the airy, fun, flighty nature of her solo song. Bright weather, a nice park with a fountain, and some light-themed styling along with Gahyeon and crew’s dedication created another fun special clip for fans to watch.
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There’s also been a ton of talk about “No Dot” on the tour for obvious reasons, but there’s nothing like the “OG” version, and that’s what dropped late this past week with SuA’s solo performance. While I wish this video had some of the thematic setting or storytelling of some of the other Special Clips for member’s solos, having “No Dot” be mostly a dance video seems entirely up Main Dancer SuA’s alley, choosing to emphasize the performative elements of the choreography sprinkled with a bit of alternate styling for variety. The result is an aggressive, in-your-face presentation that true to the song’s name, doesn’t seem to have an end or stop to give you a break. It’s exactly what I’d expect from SuA and it’s clear there’s a reason why its imitation has been so popular over the past few tour weeks.
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If what I talked about previously wasn’t enough, Dreamcatcher Company has, on occasion, been about the sudden surprises as far as content, and that’s what happened this past week when two short films for what will appear to be two versions of a Concept Photobook were uploaded to the Dreamcatcher official page. Much like the Mysterious Mansion and Dreamcatcher Mind sets from last September, these appear to be visual bits of merchandise featuring Dreamcatcher in rocker and thief mode, respectively. Pre-order opens on July 19th with the release to happen slightly over a month after that, and it remains to be seen if there will be more than just the photo books. Still, it’s great to see that the company saw the previous merchandise of this nature be an apparent lucrative success to ensure there would be new versions, and for concepts that the group has no doubt wanted to explore in visuals if not musically. We’ll have to see the details and the cost when they appear, but if successful, Dreamcatcher and Dreamcatcher Company will be continuing to rake in the money this summer for certain.
We’ve got more tour stops, more memories, and more Dreamcatcher performances and chaos in equal measure to cover as July rolls on, so you can be sure I’ll be here at the usual day next week covering the latest. Until then, enjoy the tour media, support the group if you can, and keep on reading all the updates here from everything Dreamcatcher!
