Pulp in Buenos Aires: The Glory Night of Jarvis Cocker, an ordinary man who dreamed of conquering the world

Let’s make history. Let’s go back to the 90s, to the good 90s, in 1995 Pulp published Different classes, his fifth album, which would take him to the top of the UK charts building on the danceable and infallible hits that were and still are “Disco 2000” and “Common People”. Three years later, he edited it This is hardcore, with a darker, edgier sound, crossed the fury of British pop, remaining at number one in their country and reaching the US. It was a dream come true Jarvis Cocker: A tall, skinny, broken man, born and raised in Sheffield in the midst of music Contract. The singer who at the start of the decade saw his music – and his desire to be a rock star – slipping through his fingers, and who returned to studying film with four recorded albums to give him a survival plan. But above all, a man knows how to take advantage of this moment: when Blur And oasis They put English music on the world stage, and now they’re turning heads on television, exploding with their band, lyrics and charisma.

Today, twenty-five years after that shining moment, at 9pm on November 23, 2023, the lights went out at Movistar Arena, in the Villa Crespo neighborhood, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The screens say it’s the 539th concert Pulp, a show that brought the band to the country after more than ten years – they played in 2012 in Luna Park – and in the middle of a Latin American tour that has already had them in Mexico and Uruguay and will end in Chile. The tour is called This is what we do to show up. This is what the screens are about, the encores, the encores that the band does when the audience asks for more. In the middle of the sermon and the dark introduction, a moon appears on the screen, occupying the entire length of the stage. Then the screen turns orange and in the middle is drawn this shape, with clear curves, Jarvis Cocker: The man everyone came to see, the leader Pulp.

As “I Spy” opens the show, Coker — 60, wearing an ’80s-style suit, gray beard, and glasses — moves as he did forty years ago, when at the end of the 1970s he started his life’s band. He cracks his joints, shakes erratically, and plays on the microphone with the cable surrounding him. He sings with a poetic degree of interpretation. It’s dark, sad and sensual. All of them at once. She is like the character of Alan Poe, romantic and seductive.

Darkness is followed by lights, but first Cocker greets in labored Spanish and asks – now in closed English – that they follow him with their palms and shows the rhythm of the song that is to come. Then the mirror ball, and the guitar Mark Webber The dancing and formation of “Disco 2000” prompted the night’s first big pogo game, the corollary of which was the celebratory streamers in the air. With “Joyriders,” the band — made up of seven members excluding the bandleader, keyboards, percussion and violin — deploys its entire arsenal. The song begins as a disgusting rock, then descends into the bleak underground only to rise again. And there is Cocker, moving from one side of the stage to the other, jumping, throwing himself to the floor, climbing on his props, looking out at the thousands of people who have come to see him: making a time capsule, becoming eternal in his life. movements.

When the show reaches the middle it reaches its climax with “Pink Glove” and “Weeds” (and “Weeds II”). Pulp is reviewing its repertoire – although it is focusing on its three core albums: His ‘n’ her, Different category And This is hardcore– And the Brit Pop title is obviously short. Perhaps it’s because Cocker had prepared his life to found his band – in his memoirs written when he was 15, you can read his “master plan” to conquer world music – and he knew how to move beyond the trendy sound that defined his golden style. Era. Pulp It is a theatrical work with international music, it is rock, it is danceable, and it is romantic. Pulp It is elegance in its purest form. It becomes clear when “This is Hardcore” arrives. Cocker spreads his long legs on one sofa, crossing them and getting into the singer’s mood. At the back, an LED screen depicts a flame-filled chandelier. For a moment, a rock band show goes further and becomes a full-fledged art show.

Already in the finale, noted by the band – there is an alchemy between the choice of songs, the settings of the lights, the images on the screens and the volume that fuses climates like pieces of a puzzle – “Underwear” continues the theatrical streak with drums and acoustic playing ending the concert in epic fashion, filling the screen with orange light, Like sunrise. Then, after a fun introduction to Cocker interacting with people, the song “Common People” begins to play. And this lanky 60-year-old, who has already sung it thousands of times, makes it unique to us here tonight. It sounds that way when he says “common people” that it sounds like he wrote it for you. Greatest agile performance.

There was no room for more. Or so it seemed, because when several of them were already leaving the room, the band returned to the scene and launched into a four-song series, which included “Background Noise,” the song the band would be performing for the first time on this tour that demonstrates that Pulp She has a comfortable appearance.