A One-Night Homecoming: The Brobecks Celebrate Happiest Nuclear Winter’s 20th Anniversary in Salt Lake City
Article written by and photos by Morgan Newbold
On Saturday night, fans spanning 4 generations piled in together to see The Brobecks celebrate the 20th anniversary of’ Happiest Nuclear Winter’, with a one-off show in the heart of their hometown, Salt Lake City! Fans of both The Brobecks, who may have seen them play at beloved venues like Kilby Court and The Velour in the early 2000s, and IDKHOW, Dallon’s current band, all came to experience an exciting night of nostalgia and good music! I saw a few familiar faces, and saw that a large portion of the crowd had flown or driven in to see this monumental reunion. This show was special as the 4 original members were brought together. Earlier this year at Kilby Block Party, there was a brief Brobecks reunion for one song when IDKHOW played that weekend! However, they haven’t played all together as a band since 2013!
Opening for the show was Salt Lake’s favorites, future.exboyfriend! They put on a stellar performance, as expected, playing the hits and some new tracks as well, which I was stoked to hear! I danced and sang along, enjoying every minute. I adore this group and have seen them play many times and grow over the last few years. I saw other local artists that I love come to hang and show support for them! Issac Paul, of future.exboyfriend, is also the newest guitarist of IDKHOW, so naturally, the two bands now have a lot of mutual fans, and many of them stayed around to chat with FXB! I’m hoping there could be a collaboration in the future! I met up with some friends who were also photographing the show, and we chatted about how excited we were to finally see and hear The Brobecks play!
When Dallon Weekes and The Brobecks walked on stage, the room erupted in cheers. The band waved to the audience and started warming up their instruments. Excitement was a thick, tangible energy in that small room as the first chord of “C’mon Vietnam” rang out. The crowd danced and jumped around as they played through “Happiest Nuclear Winter” from start to finish. It was great to hear favorites like Better Than Me, Everyone’s a Jerk, and the original version “Boring!” The lights were sparkling, and the atmosphere was magical. As the album came to a close, fans kept cheering and jumping, hoping they would play more.
The band couldn’t help but oblige; they were having too much fun! In addition to the full record, they also played “Bike Ride”, “Sleeping Pills”, and in the encore, “Love at First Sight” and “Goodnight Socialite”. I was especially shocked and happy that they played the last one! It was so cute to see that the entire crowd knew to shake their hands in the air for the swelling buildup of the intro, just as fans did 15+ years ago. Phenomenal performance with insane vocals and energy from all 4 of them! All in all, I was thrilled to be able to experience this reunion show! It was clearly very special and likely not to happen again anytime soon, so I’m grateful!
