Local Record Review: 'Live from the Lab' by Roosterhead

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Roosterhead

The Lab in this case being the studio setup that Huntington Beach's favorite Midwest transplants recorded this at–but they really should do a show at the Lab in Costa Mesa one day, it'd be a blast. In any event, Roosterhead recorded this free half-hour effort in front of a crowd of fans as a live-in-studio effort in the vein of The Beach Boys Party!, and if they had thrown in a cover of “Barbara Ann” it would have only been appropriate. (Though drummer Luke Johnson's brief story about how a previous live album attempt inadvertantly ended up like the end of the Beatles' “I Want You (She's So Heavy)” adds another angle.)
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With only two songs reappearing from previous releases — their most recent single “Yo (What's Up)” and their debut EP's “Cosmic Shipwreck” — Live from the Lab is a handy way for the duo to showcase what could be coming next from them formally while otherwise just kicking up some noise for the heck of it. The partway-to-80s-hip-hop moves of “Yo (What's Up)” turn out to be a bit of signpost, given the beats and back-and-forths on “Vertigo Williams” and other songs, but it's not the only thing at work — not when “Cosmic Shipwreck” gets a full on extended jam workout of an ending.

Ned Raggett