The Good China Farewell Show

It was very sad when The Good China announced they were calling it a day after six years together, so Mary and I were determined to make their farewell show last night at the Northcote Social Club.  The first band for the evening was Rich Davies and The Little Devils, who played a set of alt-country songs along with a cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game."  Next up was art rock two piece The Stiffys, who may be my new favorite live act.  A hilarious band with positive messages, both members were dressed in matching sailor suits.  They played songs about champagne, being groovy boys and (not surprisingly) sex.  The highlight of their set was when they got an audience member to ride a board on top of the crowd for "Boogie Boarding."

The Good China came out and launched into their newly released song "What You Learnt From The Self Help Section" (which contains the mantra "You won't die alone / You will find new love").  The crowd was really into every song from the start and sang and danced along to old favorites like "You Looked Better A Brunette," "If Pain Persists," "We Found 3 Whistles," and "No More Maps, No More Roads."  There were even a couple new songs in the set, including the other new release from this week "Your Ancestors Were Dinosaurs."  The group paid tribute to the band that inspired them to form with a cover of Arcade Fire's "Wake Up."  It was also nice to hear older and rarer songs like "A Million Little Pieces" that haven't been played live in a while.  I thought the band members did remarkably well to hold it together on stage, and many of them took turns telling little stories between songs throughout the evening. 

For the encore they started with a cover of Jen Lekman's "Maple Leaves" and then we were all ready to hand clap during "All Nothing."  Cara gave her farewell speech and thank yous before the last song of the night, which was the very appropriately titled "We Knew That We Had To Leave."  The band had a group hug before taking their final bows and leaving the stage.  It's so depressing when one of your favorite bands calls it quits, but at least we were able to attend this final show.  All the best to each of the members of The Good China- you will be missed!