Photos and review by ALYSON CAMUS
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – Among all the British rock bands to come out of the ‘90s, Pulp could be the most underrated one. When almost everyone is waiting for this famous Oasis reunion, the real deal is the long-awaited return of the band from Sheffield, England.
Even though Pulp never quite surpassed Blur or Oasis’ fame on this side of the Atlantic, they had a solid following and had scheduled a few dates across North America. After two sold-out nights at the Los Angeles Palladium, their memorable performance at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Saturday night was their last show of this short US tour.
Los Angelenos were blessed with three shows on the band’s super exclusive itinerary, and many people had flown from all over the states (and the world as there were fans from Japan!) to attend Pulp’s “This Is What We Do For An Encore” tour.
For this special evening – Pulp’s 560th show and a night we would “remember for the rest of our life” as we could read on the screen before they took the stage – Pulp had put together a setlist that included their greatest hits, a few deep cuts, and even new songs.
This turned out to be a very satisfying 2-hour set of Britpop brilliance… The band was ready to play past 10 pm but couldn’t because of the cemetery curfew, but Jarvis Cocker left us with another demonstration of his great sense of humor: “Should we try just one more or half of one more? oh, the thing is at 10:00 pm all the zombies come out and I can’t be responsible for you all dying of a terrible death!”
His witty observations and his music, packed with grit, glam, and big choruses, had never sounded more alive and brought a great sense of joy and hope wrapped into a cinematic dimension in the middle of a cemetery.
Escape-ism, a duo made of Ian Svenonius (on guitar and vocals) and Sandi Denton (on bass and keyboard), opened the night with a minimalist set of original songs driven by a guitar, a bass, and a drum beat machine. Ian Svenonius, a funny frontman, constantly addressed the crowd and made us repeat his lines over his distorted guitar riffs.
“Escape-ism is a protest group do you want to protest with us?” … “This song is the first protest song against the electric car, it’s called “Black Gold.” Between songs with powerful to goofy statements, his sense of humor was constant: “Why do we bury people in the earth? That’s right, dinosaur bones, to create oil for future generations… that’s right, don’t cremate your loved ones!”… “We know our time is numbered, the holograms are coming. They’re not just going to replace the performers, they’re going to replace the audience too, so let’s have a good time before they make it a crime!” … “People become celebrities just to be buried here. There’s not much reason to be a celebrity except to be buried next to Greta Garbo.” Thanks to Ian Svenonius’s unique stage presence and storytelling, his monochord delivery, and his satirical humor, people had a great time waiting for Pulp.
Jarvis Cocker is undoubtedly a very charismatic frontman from the Britpop Era. At 61, he still has all the moves, his signature expressive hand moves, and an energy that served the songs beautifully. Restless, he moved from a platform in the back of the stage to a central riser in the front, and effortlessly commanded the audience from start to finish. Between a few jumps from the platform, he alternated between an agitated frontman riding the crowd’s energy and a calmer acoustic guitar player, while dancing his way through 19 songs including 2 encores.
With Jarvis hidden in the low lighting of the stage, they kicked their set off with an epic rendition of “I Spy” from their acclaimed 1995 classic “Different Class.” Unsurprisingly, we got to hear seven songs from this album including “Disco 2000,” “Something Changed,” “F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.,” “Sorted for E’s & Wizz,” “Underwear,” and of course their definitive hit, “Common People.”
Just before “Disco 2000,” Jarvis made a first allusion to the eccentricity of the venue, a cemetery: “You feel alive all right, and we’re going to make more and more life happen during this evening, maybe we’ll even raise a few dead to join in as well.”
Inviting both sides of the crowd to sing during “O.U. (Gone, Gone),” the energy didn’t collapse for a second and the cathartic nature of many of Pulp’s songs never stopped to amaze the crowd. He dedicated “Something Changed” to the late Pulp bassist Steve Mackey, explaining that “it’s a love song… that’s about when you meet someone, and your life changes and you just go off in another direction … you discover another floor of a building and that’s what Steve did in the band.”
From songs from their 1994 “His ‘n’ Hers” album to cuts from their 2001 final release “We Love Life,” the seven-piece band seemed to have a lot of fun on stage. “Palm trees are one of the very few trees I can identify,” Jarvis told us Jarvis while looking at his surroundings before the very atmospheric songs “Weeds” and “Weeds II.” The spoken words of “F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.” had a Nick Cave feel while “Sorted for E’s & Wizz,” performed on acoustic guitar, and the catchy, crowd favorite “Do You Remember the First Time?” had a sort of Bowie vibe. “I never understood exactly what this song was about,” he joked before performing the song. “Babies” got plenty of convincing “Yeah Yeah Yeah” from the audience and was followed by the grandiose and expanding “Sunrise,” a song that wrapped the main portion of the show. “The sunset was at 6:50 pm? So, this is a song you’ll have hopefully in your mind at 6:50 this coming morning after the 12 hours exactly of darkness.” The eccentric frontman told us.
The band – which consists of “the queen of the band” Candida Doyle on keyboards, Nick Banks on drums, Mark Webber on guitar, Andrew McKinney on bass guitar, Emma Smith on violin and guitar, and Richard Jones and Adam Betts on multiple instruments – came back for an expected encore followed by an unexpected second one, which was the occasion for them to try new songs.
At the beginning of the encore, Jarvis showed us a slide show about the cemetery tour that the band took earlier: “My grandfather was an undertaker, I didn’t inherit it in the family business.” From a slide of the LA Brea Tar pit museum: “That’s how big things passed away in the older days, sinking in the tar be and mauled by a Sabertooth tiger… we come a long way,” to a picture of an impressive grave like many lying in the cemetery: “ I guess the bigger the grave you have you think the more you’re going to be remembered!” he commented with a funny tone despite the gravity of the subject.
However, this was the most serious moment of the show. He added: “I think that the way to be remembered isn’t by building a big grave but by making thick slabs of musical fudge or anything creative… if you create something that people like and they are still looking at it 100 years later, you live on through that thing and it also says something about you.” Showing us a slide of a modest grave, he reminded us that Leonard Cohen, “the greatest lyricist known to mankind” was born on this day (September 21). “You’ll notice he hasn’t got a big grave because his music and words will enable him to live. I met with him once, not that long ago, 2-3 years before he passed away, and then I tried to talk to him about songwriting because I thought I might get some tips. He looked at me very very seriously and he said ‘Jarvis, we must not discuss these sacred mechanics.’”
This was the most moving and inspiring moment of the show, Jarvis Cocker sending us back into the wild with the message “be creative,” telling us to be “magical and not a magician” while dealing with mortality – what better venue than a cemetery for that? – joking about the ultimate meaning of life and quoting Cohen reminding us that there is “a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
Announcing what is probably their most famous song (“Common People”) Jarvis told the persons in the front rows, who had attended all Pulp’s Californian shows: “May be this one is not for you because it’s about… what is it about?”
During the second encore, they played two new songs, “Spike Island” and “Farmer’s Market,” bookending the energetic “Razzmatazz” to end the show, and they certainly were ready for more if they could have ignored the strict curfew of the Hollywood cemetery.
“I was born to perform, it’s a calling” sang Jarvis in “Spike Island” but this sounded like an unnecessary confession after such a powerful live demonstration. The brand new “Farmer’s Market” was certainly quieter and confessional, probably a bit too calm for a final song – again this damned curfew! However, the last lines of the song, “Ain’t it time we started living?” were totally fitting for the occasion.
Setlist
I Spy
Disco 2000
O.U. (Gone, Gone)
Something Changed
Pink Glove
Weeds
Weeds II (The Origin of the Species)
F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.
Sorted for E’s & Wizz
This Is Hardcore (This Is Hardcore)
Do You Remember the First Time?
Babies
Sunrise
Encore:
Like a Friend
Underwear
Common People
Encore 2:
Spike Island
Razzmatazz
Farmer’s Market
Listen to Pulp here:
