The last time Royal Headache played at The Curtin was in 2013. People were throwing glasses at the wall and milk-crates into the crowd and then stage-diving like it was going out of fashion.
Miss Destiny were a worthy warm-up. Special mentions go to the calibre of supports for both Melbourne shows. Power and Miss Destiny are two mad hard rock bands.
Once Royal Headache started, the room seemed ready to let loose. This was confirmed by chucking one of Australian rock’s all-time favourite songs about being a creep, Down the Lane, early in the set. The rest of the set featured a whole bunch of brand new tracks interspersed between most of High and a couple more from the first LP.
It can be difficult to watch bands blood new tracks to crowds that are all of a sudden just left sitting there. The punters seemed to calm down a bit as the set went on, possibly because of the newer songs breaking up the flow, or maybe they just didn’t want to have fun and hurt their friends while stage-diving. Still, Royal Headache powered through the set until Shogun started complaining about being screwed and having nothing left.
In a weird way, the highlight of the set was when the band started playing a new tune and Shogun completely missed his cue to start singing, prompting him to yell until they cut the track and started the next one. This used to be almost essential in every Royal Headache set, so it brought up that nostalgia that had until then, been drowned out by a boring crowd and sitting through new songs.
Misguided expectations aside, Royal Headache deserve credit for keeping it real and playing the same small stage in Melbourne with great Melbourne support acts. It was the first chance for Melbourne audiences to see them with their new lineup, and new songs to go with it, and by playing until they started to keel over, it trashed any suggestions that they have gone soft.
Words by Filip Djordjevic
Image by Lee Easton
