Having played the same venue in November of 2011 to launch their debut LP, Sydney's Royal Headache return tonight for another sold-out $10 show. It's not that they haven't progressed since then; on the contrary, it's that they still do things on their own terms. “I like to be honest with my audience, it was a dumb idea to take ecstasy,” says a suitably coy Shogun, the band's singer, before pulling off his shirt and bursting into Psychotic Episode. Whether the drug is performance enhancing is debatable, as the frontman alternates between being highly energised and self-deprecating at the best of times. They race into Girls, a track that lasts no more than 90 seconds and sees a slew of crowd surfers invade the already cramped stage. The band's music and their soul-inspired punk rock is impulsively danceable, whatever form that may take, but for a select few in attendance it becomes unnecessarily physical. For one rogue audience member, crowd surfing with a pot glass and throwing it in the air seems like a good idea, only for it to ricochet off the roof and send hundreds of shards directly into the front rows. As a result, two people spend the rest of the set in an ambulance outside the venue, being treated for cuts and lacerations, as the mayhem, though now tamer and more constructive at the band's request, continues inside.
They preview a number of new songs, which hold their own among favourites Honey Joy and Eloise, but the highlight comes in the form of closer Surprise. On an eclectic line-up that includes the post-punk of Deep Heat, the down-beat guitar drive of Zond and the hypnotic synth of Nun, it provides the soundtrack to the bedlam of a wild night and the spontaneity that has become a Royal Headache show, on and off the stage.
