Dreamcatcher's Quiet July Proceeds, As "BONVOYAGE" Era Memories Continue

There are periods when a K-Pop group ducks back behind the curtain in order to either take a break or make preparations for the next set of activities and work, even in as hectic of a career as it is to be in entertainment in South Korea. In this vein, Dreamcatcher is no exception, but as I have said many times over the past few years as I’ve continued to write about them, the group and company always seem to ensure that there is always content to look at.

This past week’s content had a lot of nice “BONVOYAGE” era moments to look back on, but we also had a brief peek at Dreamcatcher’s current and future plans as well. Let’s take a look!

Pictures from Dreamcatcher’s R&R continued to roll in, and it seems that quite a few of them decided to spend time with family. JiU was one of these, and a few daily photos posted to her personal Instagram as well as Fromm showed the group’s leader taking in some of the outdoors and relaxing. We saw similar pictures from Handong (who appeared to have taken a trip to Thailand with her mom after having her visit South Korea), Siyeon, and Gahyeon, and while it does seem that the group is back to work now, much of the content dump still shows that they had plenty to do while off-schedule.

SuA really seems to be getting into the groove of her variety show “Solution SuA”, as shown by the release of the series’ third episode this past week. Luckily for her, this time around she was doing a job that she said she was familiar with from working part-time, being behind the counter at a Japanese restaurant. The group’s Main Dancer also was able to be a bit more comfortable flexing the cooking skills she’s utilized over the years for her fellow members in preparing and serving some of the restaurant’s most delicious-looking dishes. That said, her trademark energy and outgoing attitude was on full display, and even though the restaurant owner got surprised a couple of times he still held his ground when it came to making sure SuA was doing things correctly. This was funny and entertaining as always, so I can’t wait to see what the CeCi Korea crew has in store for SuA next.

Yoohyeon seems to be carrying much of the Weverse load these days as she dropped in during the weekend to talk with fans about what hairstyle or tattoos she might want to get, what the members have been doing lately, and what she wanted to do for the future. Considering the time of the live was past midnight in KST, this was, as always, appreciated.

A heaping triple dose of Dreamcatcher’s Notes served as the majority of the group’s content this past week, with memorable times from the group’s promotion period a consistent theme throughout. The Note talking about the group’s brief foray into Japan for the first Dream Concert Japan was a nice surprise for me, and, it seems, for Dreamcatcher, as some of the members got to meet idols they’ve long, well, idolized for years and do the “BONVOYAGE” dance challenge with. And the two other “BONVOYAGE” promotions behind-the-scenes Notes were well-anticipated by fans, as they covered the group’s third and fourth music show wins.

I was particularly interested in the backstage reaction to the latter, as it was completely unanticipated by the group, as evidenced by the public reaction and even emotion that came with beating far more popular groups. I know that on the fan level, this was still essentially a coinflip depending on how the points were assigned, so the narrow, 70-point win meant that even Dreamcatcher’s staff had to scramble to put something together to celebrate their victory. All in all, I’m proud of the fanbase for contributing, no matter how large or small that contribution was individually, as it created a nice memory for the group and a seeming re-commitment to working as hard as possible on behalf of who supports them. After four wins in a year after taking almost 2,000 days to get even one, it feels like the accolades Dreamcatcher have deserved are arriving “better late than never” style, and are proof that a group can get by quite fine doing things that aren’t as popular with the general South Korean music-listening public.

On the future plans front, we’re seeing that Handong is being invited back for an encore episode of her show on Spoon FM Taiwan. The radio station was taking questions to be asked via their Instagram account, and it does feel like this is a nice nod to how well Handong did during the previous two episodes. Once again, it seems that Handong is taking pretty well to being on the radio and on hosting solo, so I’m sure it’ll be yet another entertaining episode.

Finally, after what seemed to be a bit of a rocky start for communications for the event, the KPOP We Stand festival appears to be getting a bit more organized in their social media postings. Fans discovered the group photo will be a part of both shows, and there are specific benefits for each show that their Twitter put up. Additionally, the official KPOP We Stand website now has an FAQ that is of interest to event attendees, and in true festival style, they’ve said there will be other attractions at the New Jersey show. Hopefully with this information we’ll be seeing a bit more buzz around the event, with a Dreamcatcher performance that will, as always, be unforgettable.

We’re halfway through July and it’ll be August (with a whole new slate of Dreamcatcher gigs) before we know it, but you can always count on me to report what’s going on with the group - so for all that and more, see you here next Sunday!