Brainwash Festival is the definitive antidote to autumn greys and winter blues, and the antithesis of any of its counterparts in the festival universe. For the main part comprised of two pubs that would be neighbours save for a veritable black hole of an international supermarket snuggled in between, you could order a Guinness in one, use the toilet in the other and still get back to the bar in time to watch your clover being etched into the foam. Prices stay lower than a limbo stick at Danny DeVito’s birthday party, there’s every kind of takeaway food imaginable on the MSG gauntlet that is Queens Road just outside, and you get to share it all with a Space Raider loving pub spaniel. As if that was not enough to pacify, between them there is a grand total of eight pool tables, two table football tables, three quiz machines, one snooker table, one pinball machine and a dart board, and if you’re not a sportsman you even get an honourable stampede of bands each evening for the measly sum of £15 all weekend. This year, as well as the hallowed Brudenell Social Club and Royal Park Cellars hosting the Saturday and Sunday, guests will be treated to a Friday evening upstairs at The Library pub on Woodhouse Lane. Boasting a sizeable if uncharismatic gig room and no doubt a swarm of drunken lunatics dressed as Where’s Wally? characters, the energetic line-up seems to have been drafted to counter the venue and should hopefully brighten things up along with the cheap beer. To top it all off you get to don a another trendy wristband to complement your fading summer tan and wear until it inevitably starts smelling like the back of a cave full of maturing cheese.
Each year the line-up is built on a pillar of Leeds-core stalwarts, the members of which would probably find themselves in one of the two host pubs anyway irrespective of the festival’s existence, creating an atmosphere of well-wishing and backslapping camaraderie before the event has even begun. A self-congratulatory showcasing of just how many quality bands there are in the Leeds neighbourhood. To add to these good vibes is the addition of more widely acclaimed talent from all over the globe, encompassing every hidden corner of the genre market. This festival has a band for every guest regardless of taste, having previously played host to Japanese screech-punks Melt Banana, Norwegian doom monstrosities Shining, and ethereal Danish uplifters Efterklang, proving a diverse international as well as local pull. If the weekend doesn’t sound enjoyably wholesome enough already, the emphasis is never on individual gain for the organisers and all profits are generously given to local charities such as Sheffield Children’s Hospital - this year guests will be given more autonomy in who their money helps, with the option to choose from three charities.
After much speculation, this year’s roster is finally complete, leaving only one thing left to do - build the excitement and believe the hype. It seems frivolously ambitious to have listed just fewer than fifty bands to play in pretty much the same number of hours, but if they’re going to pull it off you’d better be there to watch. However, in case at some point you experience a failure of will, a weakening of the mind and/or body, decide that eating is indeed not cheating and sneak out for a pizza, here are the bits we think you’d be sickened to have missed:
Dananananakroyd (The Library, Friday the 14th October)
Set to get the floorboards bending and chandeliers swinging upstairs at The Library pub on Friday, the Glaswegian proprietors of indie-pop ‘n’ shout will be on their farewell tour and no doubt overexcited top form. Having played a packed out but slightly subdued gig at the Brudenell earlier this year just after the release of their now slightly ironically title second album There Is A Way, the band will surely want to go out with the bang they deserve, and the intimate venue with a stage screaming out to be invaded should be the perfect setting for a grinning stage-dive, making non-attendance totally funacceptable.
Wot Gorilla? (Saturday the 15th October)
Their latest EP New Arrival is packed with jittery riffs mixed with odd time-signatures and tinkling high-hats aplenty. They have the scatty, bounciness of Foals at times mixed with the twinkling guitar sounds of bands like American Football and Castevet, all complemented by excellently earnest vocals that don’t make it simple to work out that this band are from humble Halifax. If they can pull it all off live it’s guaranteed to be nothing short of spectacular.
Maybeshewill (Saturday the 15th October)
Electronic, often piano-driven instrumental guitar rock that definitely has the stand-still-and-sway factor, you should expect to see half the audience with their eyes closed and minds in another dimension, and the other half gawping at the flashing gadgets the band fiddle with. Ignore the banal drunken chatter of your friends and allow yourself to be swept away on noisy crescendos that give And So I Watch You From Afar and 65 Days Of Static a run for their money. This is music to immerse yourself in.
False Flags (Sunday the 16th October)
These guys sit at the heavier end of the spectrum for the weekend and should inject a healthy measure of calculated chaos into the line-up, along with local favourites Humanfly. Including ex-members of Red Stars Parade, Whores Whores Whores and Year of the Man they play strung out, feedback-laden hardcore and recently supported The Locust side-project RETOX at The Well. Before you know it they’ll have you swinging from the light-bulbs in the concrete coffin that is Royal Park Cellars.
Trio VD (Sunday the 16th October)
A schizophrenic fusion of jazz rhythms and trumpets with punching guitar riffs and misty soundscapes; ‘Returns’ sounds like someone riding a drum kit down a ten-storey fire escape whilst throttling a goose. These guys are reputedly one of the tightest live bands around and have clearly used more than ten percent of their grey matter in writing their material, making them ones to watch if you want an enjoyable but challenging hangover.
Now go and wipe the saliva off your chin so that you can ask your boss for the Monday off work. You’re probably going to need it.