Pulp @ Radio City Music Hall - April 10, 2012
Photos/Review: James M. Graham
Pulp’s triumphant reunion, shouted about loudly from the European music press for the last year, was not exaggerated. It had been nearly 14 years since Pulp played NYC, June 16, 1998 at the Hammerstein, a show which I did not attend. I missed the Hardcore tour for some reason and since I thought then and still believe that it is the band’s masterpiece, what ended up being their final tour for We Love Life didn’t appeal to me that much. A decision I do not regret after getting to see them for the first time on Tuesday night, the 1st of two sold out shows in NYC.
The excitement was palpable upon walking into the auditorium. The world famous Radio City stage curtains hung in front of a smokey scrim while a rear-projected green laser beam displayed myriad messages on the scrim like “Hi, how are you?” “Are you ready to party?” and finally “Do you remember the first time?” which catapulted the crowd into a full standing roar. The first notes of that very song began and four huge neon lights spelling PULP sputtered on one at a time in the space over the heads of the band. Lights revealed the band; front man Jarvis Cocker in the center on a riser surrounded by a keyboard and a huge drum. He didn’t stay up there for long. As he belted out the line, “I know it’s getting late, it’s so strange,” he leapt from the riser to the stage and for the next two hours never stopped moving, dancing, vogueing and generally doing what can only be described as “that cool lanky boogie shit that Jarvis does.”
