K-Pop's Dreamcatcher Closes July With New Tour News And Individual Activities

As we come to the end of the hottest summer months on record, one of the things that those in warmer climes obviously have to deal with is being able to stay cool. It may, of course, sound a bit cheesy (and I regret nothing) but given the last week’s news, that’s not particularly a problem for Dreamcatcher right now. The group did a bunch of cool things this past week, and quite a bit of news dropped that gave excited fans a chance to not have to think about the temperature. We were treated to headlines that concerned the group as a whole as well as the members themselves, so without further ado, let’s get right into how Dreamcatcher finished off their July in 2023.

Gahyeon’s seemingly been on a content tear lately, and the journey continued last week through a brand new (and yet-to-be-named) bit of content covering her trip to Jeju Island to sample some of their trademark foods. Though denied cookies, Dreamcatcher’s youngest member made up for it with a double helping of gelato, a nice spread of seafood at a rockfish specialty place and some flat and flavored fossil cookies - not to mention that we got Gahyeon driving, too. This was just part one, so the hope is that we’ll see more of this food tour in the near future.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also had Gahyeon head into Weverse to do an hour and a half live with fans. We heard news about the group’s latest album recording (more on that in a bit), that she was able to film a dance challenge video, and about Gahyeon’s current pet preferences. We haven’t seen Gahyeon on live stream like this since her birthday in February, so this was a nice and fun stream to tune into.

Dreamcatcher’s individual activities, as is the trend this year, seem to go towards the new and interesting, and that’s what SingCarLive, featuring Dreamcatcher’s Siyeon, will be in August. The details are a bit general, but the idea appears to be a pickup for one or two lucky Dreamcatcher fans who happen to be traveling to Seoul in August and get to start it off with a car trip to their hotel with the group’s Main Vocalist. The application form appears to include a field for a song to hear from Siyeon as well.

In all likelihood, we will probably see a Dreamcatcher’s Vlog, Note or other video from this, but this is an interesting idea that I hope the company and Siyeon can pull off without issues. We’ve seen before that Siyeon is no stranger to somewhat random content (lest we forget the waffle iron experiments from a while back) so I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes, as this takes full advantage of what Siyeon does best in terms of quirky charm and great vocals.

Solution SuA continued this past week and this time, SuA changed musical careers temporarily, heading over to acclaimed actor Brad Little’s musical academy to learn a bit about singing in theatre. Little is pretty well-known as the longest-running Phantom from musical “Phantom of the Opera” along with a bunch of other roles, but in recent years has been more based out of South Korea with some pretty notable performances of his past roles’ most iconic songs.

Even though this played to one of SuA’s fortes in singing, it was really fun and interesting to see how Brad had to alter SuA’s pop tendencies to ensure she focused on the simple, vocal presentation of “Moonlight” from the musical “Cats” (Handong, who loves musicals and this one in particular, probably wanted to hear all the details after she saw SuA next, I’m sure). And, of course, it was great to see a teacher that could, for once, match SuA’s boundless energy with plenty of his own. I played in musicals as part of the band back when I was in school, and I can say from many rehearsals that Brad Little has that same “theatre kid energy” from long ago. It just goes to show that the barrier of language is much lessened when it comes to enjoyment of music and performance.

Finally, while we’ve seen plenty of JiU and Yoohyeon together this year, the content just keeps on coming from the duo. This time around, a Dreamcatcher’s Note featuring their photoshoot as the newly crowned brand ambassadors of global skincare brand NEOGEN was what fans got to see. This seemed to be a different beast from the group collaboration from a couple years back, as the two Dreamcatcher members had to frequently swap outfits, pose with products, and generally see how they took form as the new faces of the company’s Korean website. Hopefully this leads to a bit more for all of Dreamcatcher in terms of commercial opportunities, but for now, it’s nice to see a trusted partner put a lot of faith in two of the group’s members.

And speaking of one of those members, Yoohyeon’s gaming live stream is making a comeback on August 2nd. Prior livestreams of Yoohyeon playing Fall Guys as well as PUBG and Five Nights at Freddy’s have been pretty entertaining to fans, so seeing what Yoohyeon has in store this time will be interesting to watch. Yoohyeon’s shown that she’s taken an interest in a wide variety of games as a whole, so it’s hard to predict what she might spend the stream playing. But I do know that it will likely be another fun time of wild successes, potentially funny failures, and clippable moments.

Meanwhile, as individual activity continues onward, group content got plenty of love this past week, as Dreamcatcher’s plans over the next couple months began to unfold even more. One of these is the release of two new photobooks - “Dreamlantis” and “Dreamquest”. The former got a weekend concept video after the initial photobook announcement, with the latter certainly to follow. The small peek we got into Dreamlantis looks to be one for a journey on a ship and a potential voyage, something that seems to be a bit of a theme lately for the group. We have yet to see what Dreamquest is about, but fantasy or forest themes appear to be among some of the most prominent theories at the moment. Photobooks seem to be a permanent part of the Dreamcatcher revenue stream these days, and I can’t really think that’s a bad thing. Diverse and varied revenue streams are a good thing, and as long as the photobooks keep selling and a profit is made, it makes sense to continue them.

The biggest news this past week, however, came on the tour and travel front. In not-so-great news, the originally intended-to-be-held festivals for KPOP We Stand in both Houston and New Jersey were canceled, citing “commitment to delivering an exceptional and unforgettable experience for all the fans”. This wipes out two appearances for Dreamcatcher outside of South Korea, and it seems that initial skepticism of the first-time organizers’ ability to plan and pull off an event with three K-Pop artists was warranted.

From my perspective and mild experience with bringing foreign artists to the US, the somewhat rocky start to the organizer’s social media communications appeared to be taken in hand by a bit more of an experienced group, which set up a website, ticketing and more consistent media that helped smooth the road a bit. I don’t really believe this was a scam thing (if it was, the organizers would have likely just continued onward to put on a substandard show after taking money). To me, a legitimate attempt was made to put on a good event, and logistically, something simply didn’t come together to allow the event to happen at the standard the organizers expected - what that is, we may never know. These things have a ton of moving parts, and while it isn’t confirmed Dreamcatcher will be part of the lineup when a future date is dropped, we’ll have to see how it pans out.

Disappointment over these cancellations, however, was somewhat tempered by the news of a tour through North America for Dreamcatcher in September, featuring four cities the group has never traveled to including two in Canada, marking their first trip to that country. Sales went live this past Friday, and we saw a fair number of fans plunk down their cash to head over to see Dreamcatcher live with what will likely be a setlist with songs from latest album “Apocalypse: From Us”. But we also might get something extra - English version remakes of prior songs. This comes from speculation from an article that seemed to herald the fall North American tour news, from a reporter that had a statement from Dreamcatcher Company’s general manager that not only was an English remake album on the way, but that an expansion into the Western market was intended.

There’s been a lot of debate about decision-making regarding tour locations this year, especially in the wake of multiple tours into the North American region and even some dismay from some Dreamcatcher fans about not being able to easily see them live in their locality, which I get. While I have been happy to see Dreamcatcher live multiple times over the past  year, I definitely would rather see the group head to regions they haven’t been in a while - and while the first-time travel to Canada is nice, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Oceania have gone years without being able to see Dreamcatcher live again (the last Dreamcatcher tours through these regions were in 2018 - 2019 or so). I believe everyone deserves to see Dreamcatcher live at least once, and on a regular basis if at all possible, and I do still feel we may yet hear news that will make this happen for less-traveled regions. I feel for my fellow fans and friends who have gone years without seeing them live, or ever.

All that said, however, I have the benefit of some experience that, as I said before, tells me that a lot of things go into planning tours and ensuring they are viable. It isn’t just a matter of wanting to go - and I do honestly feel that Dreamcatcher and Dreamcatcher Company want to go to as many places as they can, if they could. Things such as venue availability, local sponsorship/organizer interest, booker reach and connections, logistics in travel, equipment, merchandise, and more make planning these tours a months-long process with any one of those things serving as a blocker to being more present in a region and even more so for smaller companies that don’t have as deep of pockets. And from a business standpoint, with things like the US market now known to be K-Pop’s 2nd largest importer, strict numbers decisions also have to be made as well in terms of what will reliably bring in revenue. There are a lot of challenges for tour planning the average K-Pop fan isn’t aware of, and one local French K-Pop booking company’s account in the video above from 3 years ago gives you just a glimpse of how challenging it can be to drum up interest for an act in a region, country, or venue.

In the end, while I do think that there is some legitimate criticism to level against Dreamcatcher Company or My Music Taste when it comes to their tour organization, not wanting to go to or ignoring a region, in my opinion, isn’t one of them. Until we do find out more confirmed info, I’m more than willing to default to the idea that Dreamcatcher Company (and Dreamcatcher themselves, as people forget they likely have some agency to dictate what they do given contract renewal) are the ones with direct access to the financial picture and sentiment, and are making the best decisions they can based on the facts they present. I’m optimistic that we will see many more live Dreamcatcher performances in more regions and countries in the future, especially as this latest tour takes them to at least one brand new country and two new ones in the past year (Mexico being the other). I don’t think I’ll be traveling for this one, but look forward to seeing all the fancams and pictures from people that do.

And that does it for this week, folks! We ended July with a bang as far as Dreamcatcher news and content is concerned, and next week and the coming weeks are likely to be more of the same. As always, you can count on me reporting that news and catching you up, so for all that, and more, I’ll see you then!