iDKHOW Burns the House Down @ The Hawthorne Theater

Portland, Oregon - april 21st, 2024

Part-comedian and part-musician, iDKHOW’s Dallon Weekes can do it all! He is the mastermind behind the music the crowd at the Hawthorne Theater so passionately connected with. The band’s second full-length album, GLOOM DIVISION, was released on February 23rd and those songs made up much of the set. The band opened with “SPKOTHDVL” from the new record, and segued into fan favorite “Do It All The Time”. From the very moment Weekes and his band stepped on the stage, the crowd was dancing and smiling from ear to ear. Being as it’s such a small venue, everyone was cramped pretty close together which made it feel like every person in the room was connected.

iDKHOW has experimented with all different styles of music, from alternative rock to more recently, a pop-influenced sound. Specifically, the song “SUNNYSIDE” featuring Will Joseph Cook. The crowd went absolutely wild when this was played towards the end of the set, singing the lyrics back to the band word for word. Some people were just born to be on stage, and one of those people is Weekes. His ability to bring the crowd together and unite them in a moment is extraordinary, even going so far as to go down into the sea of people during “Visitation of the Ghost”, a song from his old band, The Brobecks. He asked the crowd to part in two, and they did so more than willingly, and he waded through while singing a song for his day one fans. He transitioned this song into a cover of Sophie-Ellis Bextor’s track “Murder on the Dancefloor”, which being the groovy song it is once again made the crowd dance, jump around, and feel free to be silly. Shortly after, they played another fan favorite, “Choke”, from their first body of work 1981 Extended Play, and the room reverberated with excitement.

Plenty of songs from their first album, RAZZMATAZZ, were played, including “Leave Me Alone” and “Clusterhug”. They closed the show with title track and my personal favorite from the album, “RAZZMATAZZ”. At the end of the song, Weekes and the band stopped playing and let the crowd finish singing the song for them. It was easy to tell how adored iDKHOW really is just from the room full of voices screaming those words right back at the ones who wrote them.

But of course, that wasn’t the end! The band came on stage for two more songs, the first being “Nobody Likes The Opening Band” and the last being another by The Brobecks, “Boring”. It was an incredibly special night for both old and new fans, and Weekes brought a jovial spirit to the crowd with his comical asides and inviting personality.