In addition to recording two fantastic LPs in their brief but explosive lifespan, Sydney Australia's
Royal Headache
took their blisteringly melodic, unusually soulful garage punk to stages across the world, establishing themselves as a furiously great live band before breaking up in 2017.
Live in America
is a document of the group's performance power, capturing a radio session from 2012 and also an electrifying club show from a few years later. The album's first half was tracked at legendary New Jersey independent radio hub WFMU and finds the band running through high-energy numbers from their self-titled 2012 debut like "Really In Love" and "Distant and Vague," as well as debuting the strikingly counter-melodic and hooky song "High" (which would be recorded for their 2015 album of the same name) and running through rarer track "Stand and Stare." The second half of
was recorded three years later at Chicago bar the Empty Bottle, the historic proving grounds for some of the city's best artists. Though the difference in setting is clear---
playing to three or four attentive listeners in a radio studio versus a packed house of excited concertgoers--- the band's energy remains at a fever pitch for both performances. Vocalist
Shogun
belts out razor-sharp melodies with remarkable precision for any punk band, let alone one so volatile. Scrappy fast songs like "Another World" or "Electric Shock" deliver hook after hook at top speed, and the band slow down for the equally captivating "So Low," a burning R&B ballad so thoughtful and restrained that it seems to take even the band themselves by surprise.
created an impossibly rare kind of punk, one that was as sunny and positive as it was sneeringly raw.
is a portrait of this rare sound in top form, one that finds the band connecting both live audiences and those listening on the other side of the radio with their unique and endlessly exciting interpretation of rock & roll. ~ Fred Thomas