It’s a sad moment when a favourite band decides to call it quits. You think of all the great songs, great shows and all the memories that they have provided. Far from being a sad time, the final show of Mach Pelican at the Tote was an eager party atmosphere with fans, new and old, selling out the gig for a chance to say “Thanks” to Kei, Atsu and Toshi for the fun and the music over the last 10 years.

The crowd built steadily over the evening and were appreciative to the other acts on the bill – The Shimmys, The Volcanics, and The Spazzys (who were fantastic!) while awaiting the main event of the night – Mach Pelican.

After several rounds of the “Mach Pelican chant”, the lads took to the stage to thunderous applause and cheering and after a few brief words to settle the crowd they broke into a pulsating opening bracket of ‘Anyway, Radio, and Arthur and John’. The latter of the three songs had the crowd singing and dancing as a single entity. Without stopping to take a breath or let the crowd settle, they ripped into the next bracket of songs which ended with the crowd favourite ‘Dance in Chicago’. This catchy song with it’s sing-a-long chorus is at the heart of what Mach Pelican do best – clean catchy songs that your average drunken punter have have a great time singing along with.

It was a great night for the fans as Mach Pelican pumped out the popular favorites including ‘She’s a Mod’, ‘Spit out the Rock’, ‘Born to Delivery’, ‘Airport’, ‘Ramona’ and ‘Ursula Finally Got Tits’.

The crowd wasn’t ready for the rock to stop nor ready to say goodbye and demanded three encores – and got them! The Pelicans obviously didn’t want to stop either – they came back and gave the crowd ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ and ‘Rock and Roll Honesty’. After boisterous chanting from the crowd, Mach Pelican came back a final time to play the all time crowd favourite ‘Gigantor’. The culmination of this song saw Atsu do a backroll across the stage while Kei and Toshi launched themselves into the crowd – a Grand Finale! Mach Pelican got to pay homage to their heroes The Ramones, and the crowd had a chance for one last sing-a-long with their heroes. It was a great night and they will be missed.