Dreamcatcher's First Eventful Week of "JUSTICE" Era Filled With VirtuouS Determination

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For over seven years, K-Pop's Dreamcatcher has delighted and entertained fans with new music twice a year, and as such, the first comeback that brings that music always has with it a sense of fresh newness, anticipation, and excitement. Though this was the case this week with the release of 10th Mini Album "VirtuouS", there was also a sense of dogged determination, both on the part of the group and of their fans. That's because Main Vocal Siyeon, sidelined with a necessary and needed break to prioritize her health, would not be present to promote the album that she, along with the rest of Dreamcatcher, had worked so hard on.

As such, Dreamcatcher and their fans wished Siyeon well and hoped to see her return when she was ready, soldiering on with promotions that have been seen as a milestone in more ways than one. Let's take a look at everything that happened during the group's 1st week with new music in 2024!

The final lead-up to the release of the music video for "JUSTICE", title track for Dreamcatcher's 10th Mini Album, was packed with the usual Dance Preview and MV Teaser. Normally, the visuals tell the story more than the audio (usually obscured) does. In this case, however, both highlighted what was gradually being revealed - that this would apparently be more rock-ish and aggressive than its opposite number in "OOTD". It was a good sign for those looking for a pivot away from the subversive nature of Dreamcatcher's last title track, and more importantly showed that Siyeon, though not involved in this album's promotion cycle, had recorded with the group for their choreography and music video. The presence of backup dancers was also confirmed from these videos, a welcome return to helping frame and enhance the song's choreography.

We also saw the first promotion activity of "JUSTICE" era, as Main Dancer SuA took to the baseball field to toss out the first pitch once again for the Kiwoom Heroes. As with her first pitch last year, SuA proved her throwing power, as well as showed that she might just be Kiwoom's good luck charm, as the team rallied from a one-run deficit to win the game.

Release day would be soon after the last of these final teasers, and with it would come the usual Press Showcase. The full 39-minute session is above, and consisted of a photography session with the group and individual members, an introduction of the album's tracks to attendees, and a brief Q&A session. Here's some of the highlights:

• Handong said she adjusted her vocal presentation to keep up with the harder, more aggressive rock in the album
• A confirmation that this served as the polar opposite to last album "VillainS" in many ways, not the least of which was the album's tracks for the most part highlighting how heroes think and what they believe in as they move forward
• Last but not least, well wishes to Siyeon, a promise that she'd be back, and a commitment on the part of the remaining members to promote the album well for her sake.

If you're curious about some high-quality photos from the press showcase, you can check them out below (click X to close any ads and wait a couple seconds to click the green button to expand the article):

• JiU
• SuA
• Handong
• Yoohyeon
• Dami
• Gahyeon

The "JUSTICE" era formally kicked off at 6pm KST on the 10th with the release of the music video for the title track. For my detailed impression on the title track and more, you can check out my 10th Mini Album review article but my TL;DR thoughts were that this was not a return to form but a re-affirmation that as stalwart heroes seeking to overturn the narcissism of the last comeback's concept, they were truly, as Rolling Stone India called them, the Face of Rock in K-Pop. It's an enjoyable alternative rock anthem whose simple but catchy chorus is easy to get drawn into, and first impressions by most fans seemed to echo this sentiment. As of this writing, 14 million views have graced the video, over half of the views last title track "OOTD" has in total, signaling an encouraging trend for the song's appeal.

Normally we would have also seen a fan showcase, but as internal circumstances prevented the company from holding one, instead we got official showcase version performances of both "JUSTICE" and B-side "2 Rings", the latter of which revealed itself to be a confident rock track with swagger behind it, both in music and in choreography.

This also gave us our first look into adjustments made to both songs and their dancing to make up for the absence of Siyeon, and the group appeared to have opted into substituting other members to sing Siyeon's lines. This was an opportunity latched onto by Handong, whose carrying of the first chorus' power vocal showcased her growth and the company's trust in her skill, and by SuA, who keeps proving, as I wrote two years ago, that she is Dreamcatcher's all-rounder talent.

In lieu of actual fancams you'd typically see at a fan showcase, Dreamcatcher Company also released their own for both official showcase stages, with each member getting one fancam angle for both songs. Though ideally, it would have been nice to get a fan showcase as previously, these were a nice touch and a recognition that fans might want to see how each individual member contributed to both songs' performance presentation.

Release day also saw the group's US tour tickets go on sale, and I have a feeling that the mini album's concert-ready rock tracks may contribute to plenty of sales in the coming months before Dreamcatcher heads out in November. While I've always felt that the vast majority of Dreamcatcher's discography was produced with the fact that they're meant to be a touring, live performing group, these tracks in particular seem to have concert cheering, stomping, and clapping written all over them. I've secured my own tickets and you can look forward to yet another concert day report from me.

Finally, the day's events ended with yet another video drop in the form of a 22-minute vlog of Dreamcatcher trying out the Realworld Seongsu Escape Room event that was being promoted side-by-side with the album as an accompaniment to the ARG marketing of the album's storyline. The offline event promised to be a fun time for domestic fans, guaranteed as such by Dreamcatcher themselves, who went through the Escape Room activities with laughter, intelligent analysis, and a bit of chaos, as is the Dreamcatcher way. I hope fans will get a chance to experience this and support Dreamcatcher Company's partner in this endeavor, as it's been one of the most intriguing marketing campaigns for their albums to-date.

Thursday saw Dreamcatcher premiere their "JUSTICE" track on music show MNet M Countdown, and the company seemingly spared no expense to pick up 250 slots for fans to take up to help support the group through their first live performance. You can hear how loud they are in the first video above, and Dreamcatcher was even more thankful in their brief ment comments to them, highlighted in the "Meltin' Fancam" versions of their performances.

KBS Music Bank and MBC Show! Music Core would follow soon afterwards, with two more live performances that would show off different fashion styles and the continued resilience of Dreamcatcher's live vocals, given the demand placed on them for the powerful chorus of "JUSTICE". While not as wildly colorful or stylist as "OOTD" era, it should be noted that the superficial nature of that was part of the concept. This time around we saw casual fashion and coherency in outfits, highlighting the "superhero" team nature of the song and choreography.

The group's usual album promotion media also began to make appearances, as the first part of the album's jacket filming and a wide-shot dance video of the "JUSTICE" choreography made their way to the official channel. Between all the different concepts and extensive filming, along with a solid picture of just how hard the choreography for "JUSTICE" is (SuA rated it "8 out of 5" on the difficulty scale due to the footwork and aggresstion), these first behind-the-scenes peeks show us even more how hard the group worked in order to make good presentation.

And if seeing the styling and the dance wasn't enough, Dreamcatcher dropped into 1theK to do a "DancEAR" version of their "JUSTICE" performance, the concept of which strips away most of the post-production attached to audio to focus on raw vocals and spatial sounds. The result is a satisfying version of the title track's performance that highlights the sync that the group and their backup dancers practiced for, along with the degree of difficulty in singing live power vocals while doing fast-moving choreography. I'd definitely check it out, as it shows that in a time when recent discourse has surrounded the importance of K-Pop live vocal stability, Dreamcatcher has been built to have it from the start.

The difficulty of the choreography means that "JUSTICE" dance challenges are going to be pretty interesting to pull off for Dreamcatcher's idol friend network, but certainly some are up to the challenge of dancing it, or in ZEROBASEONE Zhang Hao's case, finding their own way to sing that reverberating vocal from the chorus. I'm looking forward to Dreamcatcher's collaborations in this vein as always - and shout out to Performance Director Hwang Sooyeon and choreographers Kim Keeyeoun and Kang Riye for outdoing themselves with the dance from "JUSTICE" - it's sure to be memorable.

With the return of Dreamcatcher also comes the daily media from the group's "Good Night" Instagram account, active only during promotions and featuring Dreamcatcher members wishing their fans a good night's sleep for the next day. I've always liked the videos as they're a bit more casual and fun, and in Handong's case, a bit of an entertaining meme as well. Don't forget about them!

Lastly we saw the beginnings of this era's fansigns, with Makestar and Ktown4u taking their first gatherings for yet more "JUSTICE" performances. It's clear Siyeon will be missed, but that the remaining members are making the most of these meetings and reassuring fans things will go well. We'll be seeing a lot more of these as promotions continue, but it was nice to see an early start with plenty of entertaining moments.

This one was a long one, folks, but it was a busy week for Dreamcatcher. Be sure to check back next Sunday for more Dreamcatcher promotions news and more activities from "JUSTICE" era - for all that and more, I'll see you then!

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