Pulp only has five cities listed on its long-overdue North American tour.
And — wow — were Bay Area fans ever fortunate that one of those highly coveted spots was in the San Francisco.
The thousands of fans who packed into the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on Monday night (Sept. 16) were absolutely thrilled to be able to witness the first local Pulp gig in over 10 years. For their part, Pulp was every bit as sensational as they were back at that April 17, 2012 gig at the Warfield, which came sandwiched between their two Coachella music festival performances.
Taking the stage right at 9 p.m., the iconic Britpop group performed a stellar two-hour show that featured 19 songs — a half-dozen of which came during two very generous encores. (Perhaps that tilt was only appropriate given that the road show being dubbed the This Is What We Do For An Encore tour.)
It was the 557th show of Pulp’s career, we were told via a message on the big screen, and vocalist Jarvis Cocker later shared that it fell almost exactly 30 years since the group’s very first Bay Area performance (Sept. 25, 1994, at The Fillmore).
Wonderfully backing the flamboyant front man on this night were longtime Pulp members Candida Doyle on keys, Nick Banks on drums and Mark Webber as well as a talented group of touring musicians.
The music was rich and just bursting with drama as the show began with “I Spy,” the first of seven selections that hailed from the group’s fifth and best-selling album, 1995’s “Different Class.” Cocker began the night in the shadows, singing the first few lines — “I spy a boy / I spy a girl / I spy the worst place in the world — while still mostly out of sight from our straining eyes. Then he made his entrance, still bathed in light in a fashion that only really showed his silhouette, and then climbed on top of his monitors — where he spends much of his time on stage — and seemed tower over us like some menacing creature in an old black and white monster movie.
Cocker is something to see onstage, as he waves his arms about while twisting and contorting his body in ways that seem equal parts Shakespearean and “Cobra Kai.” He’s one of the most mesmerizing led singers in the business, easily the best to come out of the ’90s Britpop movement and one that follows in the long line of exceptional U.K. front men like Mick Jagger and Bryan Ferry.
He’s part Nick Cave and part Leonard Cohen, with a dash of David Bowie and Serge Gainsbourg thrown in for added spice. And if that doesn’t get you to go see the Pulp the next time they are in the Bay Area — which hopefully won’t take another 12 years to happen — then I don’t know what will.
His stage banter between songs tends to be a bit flip, in an oh-so British way, and he’s certainly not above poking the bear at times.
“I am going to call you Frisco,” says Cocker, who drew boos for using that term that locals for some reason find so offensive. “Do you like being called Frisco? You’d rather be called San?”
He then turned the corner and challenged the crowd to help the band “create some magic in this place,” which led right into “Disco 2000.” The audience was definitely up to the task, responding with gusto as the group shimmied its way through that “Different Class” gem.
“You brought the magic,” Cocker admitted. “So, let’s go higher. I think we can go all the way.”
The 60-year-old Sheffield native was right on that account, as the performance — and the crowd’s reaction to it — just kept intensifying throughout the night.
One distinct highlight came when Cocker grabbed a guitar and journeyed yet again into “Different Class” territory for a touching version of “Something Changed” that he dedicated to Pulp bassist Steve Mackey. (The entire tour has actually been dedicated to Mackey, who died in March 2023.)
And, of course, “Common People” was a huge moment, resulting in, by far, the biggest sing-along of the night. And, yes, that was from “Different Class” as well.
The group only touched upon two tracks from 1998’s “This Is Hardcore” — the group’s sterling sixth album that is every bit the equal of the more widely celebrated “Different Class — yet both were absolute highpoints of the gig.
The first came with the dramatic rendition of the title track, which started with Cocker seated in a lounge chair and then escalated, both physically and musically from there. Then a victory lap of “Glory Days” — which is oh, so different than the Bruce Springsteen number of the same name — closed out the final encore.
It’s too bad that the group didn’t include more “Hardcore” material — notably, “The Fear,” “Help the Aged” and “A Little Soul.”
Still, it’s hard to quibble with a setlist where every single song was well worth hearing, which is definitely what Pulp delivered during their first Bay Area date in over a decade.
Setlist
1. “I Spy”
2. “Disco 2000”
3. “O.U. (Gone, Gone)”
4. “Something Changed”
5. “Pink Glove”
6. “Weeds”
7. “Weeds II (The Origin of the Species)”
8. “F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.”
9. “Sorted for E’s & Wizz”
10. “This Is Hardcore”
11. “Do You Remember the First Time?”
12. “Babies”
13. “Sunrise”
Encore:
14. “Like a Friend”
15. “Underwear”
16. “Common People”
Encore:
17. “Spike Island”
18. “Joyriders”
19. “Glory Days”
