Anyone who knows anything about Perth music will be familiar with the Mach Pelican story. Three Japanese kids arrive in Perth to learn English and end up forming a band. But despite being written off by some as a J-rock Ramones tribute, they’ve never failed to deliver songs that are catchy as fuck and live shows with more energy than a dexies convention.

Despite the band moving to Melbourne early in their career, Perth has always welcomed them back with open arms and, as they play their last-ever WA gig at Amplifier Bar, you need only a few seconds to see how much love we still have for the band. A packed Amplifier doesn’t mean as much today as it did in the past, but with the mass of bodies crammed in like sardines, frequently spilling onto the stage even before the band arrive onstage, you get the feeling this is going to be a gig to remember.

Making their way through a hyped-up crowd to raucous chants of ‘NIP-PON’, Atsu, Toshi and K-Rock wear grins the size of small planets as they pick up their instruments. Beer in hand, sticksman Toshi empties the contents of his mouth on the front-row faithful, only to draw more cheers from the sellout crowd. And with knowing glances at the countless friends, fans and family scattered across the room, it’s on.

It all kicks off with Anyway and Radio, both from swansong album Radio Action, which came out earlier this year. But this gig isn’t about selling records and everybody here knows that full well. As the gig moves out of that first bracket, the adoring crowd begins to pick up, with stage invasions becoming the order of the day, making security’s job for the night a busy one. With Arthur and John, Fashion Monkey and Spend My Time, the Amplifier dancefloor resembles scenes reminiscent of those early days, back when a ticket to the all-ages gig with Jebediah and Beaverloop was what every cool year nine had to have.

And it’s when the boys go back to those days that the building’s foundations really start shaking. Every paying punter sings along in full voice to Dance in Chicago, the definitive Mach Pelican track, and one punter even manages to share Atsu’s microphone to chip in with backing vocals on Born to Delivery. The first of two Ramones covers for the night, California Sun, adds something special to the already shining middle-order, but again, it’s material from Mach Pelican (1999) that provides all the highlights when the trio pull out frantic renditions of Ursula’s Finally Got Tits, My Sweet Ramona and Gigantor.

Though there are plenty more great Pelican tracks as the show powers on toward its end, it’s when they pay tribute to Perth’s The Victims with a cover of Television Addict and then the Ramones, bursting through the second-loudest sing-along of the night during The KKK Took My Baby Away that you get that icing-the-cake feeling. And as the trio exit the stage for the last time, that ever-so-slight sombre tone has all but disappeared in the wake of one of the most rock & roll performances you’ve ever seen.