Individual Activities And Final Notes From Dreamcatcher's "BONVOYAGE" Era Take Up Late July

July is nearing a close and with it comes the late-summer vibes that usually accompany it. And given what Dreamcatcher has planned for August so far, it seems the latter part of the season is going to be a bit of a busy one for the seven-member K-Pop group. But that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t content this past week, either. Though a bit of a lighter week by Dreamcatcher standards, we did get some things that showed that the work continues leading up to a month of festivals and concerts. Here’s what we saw this past week from the group!

The last of “BONVOYAGE” era content from the group’s promotions back in May and June appeared to be set this past week as the last two Dreamcatcher’s Notes from behind-the-scenes of their 8th Mini Album were uploaded to the group’s YouTube channel. There were quite a few fun moments from the videos as per usual, with a Dreamcatcher song-guessing game proving that JiU has a pretty good handle on the discography (and that Yoohyeon, like Dami, forgot the lyrics for “Scar”) and that there are quite a few fun minigames (like word guessing) that they play while waiting around for performances and rehearsals.

Given that we’ve heard that days for music shows can start as early as 2am in the morning to get makeup and hair taken care of, and that actual shows don’t broadcast until 6pm, there’s quite a bit of downtime out there. Thankfully, as we’ve discovered over the years, Dreamcatcher has many ways to kill time and that hasn’t stopped for this era’s promotions. Of course, it did help this time around that “BONVOYAGE” is essentially one of Dreamcatcher’s brightest tracks out there, allowing them to leave a bit of the dark and foreboding concept behind for a some smiles and laughs during performances. They seemed to enjoy the change in pace and frankly, so did the fans.

That said, the focus of current activities lately appears to be individual work by the members. Handong scored an encore gig with Spoon FM Taiwan. The original plan, according to her, was to only do the two episodes that everyone else who’s appeared on the radio station was given, but support from fans as well as the companies involved meant that Handong was able to drop in one more time to take questions and have fun with listeners. Once again, I have to say that Handong making inroads into Chinese-language radio is good for her and for Dreamcatcher, and the solo experience continues to build on her already-solid confidence.

Handong talked about being able to visit home (and her cat Nannan) during her vacation, what kinds of food she enjoyed with Gahyeon, dropped in an MBTI game, and even sang a bit of her single “That Day”, so there was plenty to talk about. The broadcast, however, wasn’t without a couple of surprises as both Yoohyeon and Dami left voice messages encouraging and talking up Handong for the radio work she’s been doing. It did seem this made a normally stoic Handong a bit emotional as she heard the support from her fellow members, and as such,  it was a nice, wholesome way to end her latest radio gig.

Not to be left out of all the individual work that’s been done this year from Dreamcatcher members, Gahyeon dropped in with two videos of her own this past week as well. One of these explained the reason she’s been seen in Doosan Bears jerseys and at baseball games - she’s gotten bitten by the baseball bug and did a trademark Gahyeon Vlog about the day she attended a game. The Doosan Bears ended up having a bit of a comeback win that day, so I’m sure we can safely attribute that in part to “winning fairy” Gahyeon with her loud and passionate cheering and her growing baseball photocard collection.

From baseball, Gahyeon seemed to head to fishing, as YouTube channel “Hit Fishing in Korea” seemed to be delighted to have a girl group idol on for the first time on their broadcast to spend a day of fishing, working, and cooking. In case people didn’t know, this isn’t the first time Gahyeon has been out on the water and catching fish - her Jeju Island vlog from 2019 shows that she’s actually quite capable.  This time around, she netted a whole bunch of them, including a red snapper that looked positively giant in her hands. Throughout the video, Gahyeon was an extremely good sport, laughing along with the jokes, helping out with some of the cooking and fishing tasks, and generally not minding getting a bit windblown by the great outdoors and weather that seemed to be threatening rain at any time.

Things like the fishing video are honestly the sorts of gigs that I’d like to see more Dreamcatcher individual members and subunits take up as they move further along in the latter parts of their careers. Not only does it provide a break from the standard content that we expect to see as part of the group’s official channel, but it also allows each member to show off individual character and color in fun and interesting appearances. We’re seeing this already in the “Solution SuA” series, the aforementioned Handong radio gigs, and more. Though the reach of Dreamcatcher Company appears to remain a bit smaller compared to their peers, hopefully we’ll still see more of these opportunities in the future for the members.

We’re just about in August, and what will be plenty to report on as the group heads out of the country real soon, so be sure to drop in for more updates every Sunday, as I’ll be here as per usual to talk about more Dreamcatcher news. See you then!