Brainrotter Fest Review (Hellride Zine Exclusive)

A weekend of real Hardcore Unity.

In June Bobby Cole of Brainrotter Records put a fest on. I’d been as excited as I could be from the second I was asked to play. 

I was fortunate enough to be playing twice with Warhead 97 and Scab, aswell as adding a secret Lost Cause set in between after talking to Bobby about it. 

After months of waiting finally the weekend arrived, on Friday the 20th of June after a Scab practice in Portsmouth the night before, we embarked on our journey to Bradford for the first show. Jai, Joey Badge, Jacob and myself drove up at about mid-day and made it to 1 in 12 Club just in time to catch Special Branch. 

Upon our arrival to 1 in 12 club, as I walked into the back alley where the venue is, I was tackled to the ground by my good friend Olly Piece (Who had played earlier but we missed his set due to being stuck in traffic) After drinking a few beers and catching up with our friends from up north we headed up the spiral stairs and into the main room of 1 in 12 Club. The venue was perfect, not to big not to small. Not to Pro but not to crusty and a stage that was the perfect height for stage diving. 

Special Branch was a high light of the whole weekend for me, I’d heard of them but never listened before seeing them and they blew me away, exactly my type of Hardcore.

After catching the rest of the bands we headed back to Oliver’s house (another good friend of our’s in Leeds). After dropping our stuff off we headed to Pitza Cano in Hyde Park for a nice dinner and then off to sleep. 

In the morning after a 10/10 Weatherspoons breakfast we headed over to the new Boom location for Day 2. Not long before doors a car filled with homies arrived. Matt, George, Oscar and Athol came in and met a lot of our friends in Leeds for the first time and then it was time to watch some bands. 

Dead Weight was a nice but surprising opener to the day as they’re more on the Heavy Hardcore side but it made for a nice change of pace. No Ambition played next and they were great too.

Then it was time to rock. 

Warhead goes up to play and the set went off, side to side, front to back! As soon as the set was over me and Dylan swapped instruments, Jai and George came up onto the stage. Matt is no where to be seen. After what felt like 5 minutes, I see him run through the crowd and onto the stage as he’d taken an inconveniently times piss.

After both sets I was shattered but went up to play again with Scab and that set was great too, we opened with a Youth of Today cover with Wakefield Fin on vocals. 

After the 3 sets I was shattered so spent some time outside talking to friends and enjoying the weather, watching bands from the back and enjoying a few beers.

The next band that blew me away was Terre Nueve. A band from Belgium that I’d been excited to see for a long time. Their set was great and I had a great time watching them but I think a lot of the crowd there didn’t really get it as it was more Oi than the other bands on the bill. Even with this I had a blast and it was definitely a highlight of the weekend. 

And after a few more great bands we came to the final set of the Saturday. 

The Flex. 

This set felt like Oasis at Wembley to me. 

After a long day of moshing and drinking everyone seemed tired before they began playing but that didn’t stop the whole room from going mad for every song. The Flex will always be one of my favourite bands to see live. 

We topped off the weekend with a few quiet drinks at our friend Harry’s house. 

And with that, it was time to go home, unfortunately I didn’t get to stay for the Sunday which is a shame as I wanted to catch Necrotized and Necron 9.

Shoutout to:

Bobby for putting on a great fest, Harry, Olly, Oliver, Fin, Cole, Leeds Hardcore, Brighton Hardcore, being bald, Hobgoblin, Jai-Boy Mcgee. 

Hardcore Unity.