The 2022 documentary “Party Dream” ends with the words, “Gil Mantera’s Party Dream has not reunited … Yet.”

“Yet” is Saturday for the Youngstown duo of Ultimate Donny and Gil Mantera, who will perform together as Gil Mantera’s Party Dream for the first time in 15 years at Penguin City Brewing Company.

Ultimate Donny is Richard Bernacki, co-owner of Penguin City with his wife, Aspasia Lyras-Bernacki. Gil Mantera is Bernacki’s stepbrother Glen, who prefers to be referred to as Gil Mantera, according to Bernacki. What started as a one-off gig as Party Talk at Cedars Lounge in 1999 grew into a duo that not only packed places like Cedars and Nyabinghi with its outrageous, unpredictable live shows, it also toured nationwide on the Vans Warped Tour and sold out prestigious venues like New York’s Knitting Factory. Its music attracted the attention of The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney, who released GMPD’s “Bloodsongs” on his Audio Eagle label in 2006.

The Party ended in 2010, and the stepbrothers went several years without speaking to each other. Mantera didn’t participate in the documentary made by Aaron Hagele and Tim Slowikowski. It does indicate that the stepbrothers reconnected in Florida, where their parents live, but the movie didn’t offer much hope that a reunion was likely.

What changed?

“We had a nice little reunion where we just talked about all the old times, good and bad, road stories, stressing out, everything you can imagine, like why certain things worked, why certain things didn’t,” Bernacki said. “Then we just kept in contact and like five, six months ago, my brother sent me a surprising text message that said he had a crazy idea that we should do a show, and he was thinking do it in Chicago, because he lives closer to Chicago, and I immediately said yes.”

Bernacki suggested Penguin City over Chicago. He not only knows the building, he owns it. They would be able to control all the logistics and have a place to rehearse on Friday, which will be the first and only rehearsal before Saturday’s reunion.

But he also started having second thoughts. GMPD certainly had a following, but it had been 15 years. How many people actually would come to see them? He nearly sent a text backing out.

Bernacki didn’t need to worry. The show sold out quickly. Fans are coming from 35 states and from as far away as Zurich, Switzerland.

“It was very heartwarming to realize that this thing meant so much to so many people,” Bernacki said. “I was definitely just really pleasantly surprised.”

Demand was so great, they added a tailgate option. Penguin City will open its load-in doors, big enough to accommodate one-and-a-half semi-trailer trucks, so those outside will be able to get a live glimpse at what’s happening inside, and JAC Live is providing its projector and big screen for a better view of the action. Tickets for the tailgate are $15 and still are available.

“We’ll have a live feed going directly to that screen outside,” Bernacki said. “And then our sound engineer, Jesse, on top of that, he’s bringing some extra speakers that will go out to the back, and they’ll be time delayed, so that if you’re back there, you’re not just hearing muffled bassy sounds. It’s a really well thought out thing, and hopefully that translates into a great experience for everyone.”

Saturday’s performance will be closer to the Party Dream’s still-raucous, but more-structured live shows of its later years than its early, more improvisational gigs.

“When we first started, there wasn’t really music, it was just a show,” Bernacki said. “It was just us being complete idiots. I don’t even know if we enjoyed it. I’m surprised anybody actually enjoyed it. But every time we did that, we had this idea that next time we’ve got to give a little more and give a little more. And we would have been in the hospital like perpetually if we would have done that. So we got away from that and started writing some music.”

That doesn’t mean it will be a recreation of a late-aughts GMPD show. The gear those concerts were performed with no longer exists. Bernacki said Mantera is working with new equipment to create the retro futuristic sound, and on the event page on Penguin City’s website the group is billed as Advanced Gil Mantera’s Party Dream. He’s heard the tracks and won’t be making up lyrics on the spot, but some old favorites might not be instantly recognizable. Then again, predictability is the last thing any of the band’s fans should expect … or want, at least in theory.

Bernacki also held out the possibility that Saturday’s show could lead to a recurring Dream. After the Youngstown show was announced, the duo got offers for gigs in several other cities.

“We almost booked another show with a promoter in Chicago,” he said. “We could have had a show in September, but we decided, let’s just see how this thing goes, and we’ll go from there.”