Friday, May 24, 1996
Pop band captivates fans in their only L.A appearanceBy Michael
Horowitz
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
There’s something wonderful about rock stars who accept their
roles as rock stars, and Jarvis Cocker has it.
Cocker, the hyperdramatic vocalist of England’s next big thing,
Pulp, brought his aura to the Hollywood Grand Wednesday night and
showed impersonal rockers like the Gallaghers and the reluctant
Eddie Vedders of the world how it’s done.
From the second he walked onstage, Cocker was posing non-stop,
concocting nonsensical yet methodical moves for all to imitate.
After soaking up adulation, he and the band spun into "I Spy," a
tale of vengeance planned and then other tracks from their latest
album "Different Class."
He alohaed the crowd a few songs in, whipping his face with one
of many bras thrown onstage. Throughout the night, song
introductions were minimal but vastly appreciated by the frenetic
crowd.
Sadly, the initial intensity of the show could not be
maintained. After a midpoint highlight of "Do You Remember the
First Time?" which had the crowd bouncing and band rocking, Pulp
slowed the show down.
The band’s mocking tribute to the British rave scene, "Sorted
for E’s &Wizz" felt somewhat tired. Some of the slower numbers
from the album lost their lush arrangements and missed the recorded
intimacy of Cocker’s delivery.
On Wednesday, it was the faster material that worked well. When
Pulp cranked past mid-tempo into their danceable best, the concert
was rewarding. As to be expected, their biggest hit in the U.S.,
"Common People" closed the central set with anthemic drive and
palpable energy.
Belting out the lyrics throughout (often unhampered by a
guitar), stood Cocker — an ironic working -class posterboy.
Certainly Pulp’s class war rhetoric can’t work on the level it does
in Britain; in the U.S. someone like Steve Forbes can run for
office calling attention to his riches as a qualification.
But Pulp’s themes of angst and revenge are hardly
incomprehensible to Americans. Broad outlines of anomie are the
stuff from which bestselling albums are made, and there doesn’t
seem to be any reason why Cocker can’t suffer like everyone
else.
Besides, as demonstrated Wednesday, Pulp’s appeal is larger than
their lyrical wit. As Cocker pranced around the stage, thrusting
his skinny hips to the beat, pulling the microphone out of his
pants, pointing to women in the crowd, he showed that mystical
ability to be a rock star.
Somewhere between sex god and celebrity lies a quality that the
bony Cocker has claimed, and if nothing else Pulp looks ready to
grab its share of hardcore cult devoted.
(Left to right) Pulp: Jarvis Cocker, Nick Banks, Candida Doyle,
Steve Mackey, Mark Webber and Russell Senior.