Having a double-header concert out of town is always something quite electric. It’s only happened once before for me but the 2002 trip to Washington D.C. to see The Rezillos one night and Simple Minds the next was legendary! That time my good friend chasinvictoria was my accompaniment. This time, in seeing Pulp one night in Atlanta and Sparks the next [each in the same venue; The Tabernacle] was enhanced by my good friend Sandra and another friend that I’d lost contact with 30 years ago.

When my loved one bowed out of attending the shows due to her busy schedule, that left me with tickets to flip for Pulp and Sparks. I knew Sandra would be attending Sparks, and she didn’t need much convincing to take the extra Pulp ticket off of my hands. The extra Sparks ticket was trickier. I couldn’t re-sell the ticket on TicketMonster due to the band preventing resale. I get it. They want to avoid profiteering and exploiting the fans.

So Sandra mentioned on her FaceBoot that there was an extra Sparks ticket. Savvy PPM readers may be aware that we avoid social media. This circumvented that issue and best of all, the person desiring this Sparks ticket was my old friend Pam, who I had not seen in 30 years! She’d moved away from Orlando in 1995 [pre-email] and I did the same in 2001. In the noughts I asked the mutual friend who had introduced us if he had any contact info but he didn’t. This was going to be a fun time catching up with Pam!

I was thrilled that I was finally seeing Pulp not just regrouped and playing the hits, but with a vibrant new album under their collective belts. It’s just how it’s meant to be for this band. Though I still would have seen a reformation tour without a new album, this movement forward helped to mitigate the seductive drug of nostalgia. As vocalist Jarvis Cocker shared with the audience, the new phase is more about getting in touch with feelings and leaving thoughts and ideas by the wayside. At least for him!

The eight piece band were still all about giving life to the cinematic and often anthemic soundscapes that sought to unite the band’s New Wave roots with an often Ennio Morricone vibe. That had been the Pulp brief since their fortunes had turned with their 1992 singles for Gift Records through to their latest album; “More.” The core band of Mark Webber [guitars, keys], Candida Doyle [keys], Nick Banks [drums] along with new bassist Andrew McKinney, were abetted with a second drummer plus a percussionist, as well as a pair of utility players who carried either secondary synths or guitar and each with violins to do the magnificent songs justice. Take that, King Crimson!

The band started the set with two singles from their “Different Class” album with “Sorted For E’s + Wizz” followed by the unique anticipatory pre-nostalgia of “Disco 2000.” Both songs were mired deeply in the outsider-looking-in persona that informed Jarvis Cocker’s engaging songs. Next we had a pivot to the strong modern material that the new album, “More.” offered with the excellent pre-release single, “Spike Island.” I was pleased to hear that the crucial Syndrum® hooks survived translation to the live arena.

A rush of anthemic Pulp energy followed with the fortissimo stylings of “F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E” as the concert had its first peak experience of the kind that their strongest material readily delivered where the synergy between the lyric and the vitality of the band’s music was in a class all its own. The eight member band onstage with Mr. Cocker certainly earned their stripes on material like this.

The vibe transitioned to something less brash with the sardonic deep cut “My Sex” from the new album. When I first heard that Cocker was reusing the title of the Ultravox! classic from their debut album, I felt that he had to know what energies he was trafficking in. This was more than borne out after finally hearing the song and discovering that it had a very similar vibe to another song by John Foxx, albeit one released twenty years later. Fans who have Foxx and Louis Gordon’s “Shifting City” album could attest to the simpatico between Pulp’s “My Sex” and Foxx’s similarly languid yet astringent, “Everyone” from the 1997 Foxx album.

One of the most impactful tracks on “More” got an airing with the intimate and heartfelt ”Farmer’s Market.” Cocker admitted that this one cut close to home as it was inspired by his relationship with his wife. The insouciant interplay between the piano, violins, and the gently shuffling drums were far from the vibe of Rock and that suited the song wonderfully. The coda the saw Cocker repeat the lyric “ain’t time we started living” until he switched out “living” for “feeling” to deliver the thesis at the heart of the new album. It was a lovely epiphany on the stage this evening.

Next the set to a much grimmer turn with the intense title cut to “This Is Hardcore.” I was very gratified to see that the “difficult” album wasn’t going to be glossed over this evening. Particularly this darkly cinematic track where a chair was put at the back line of center stage where Jarvis sang the song from his throne of self-abasement. The curdled and dramatic quality of the song reached epic proportions in the hands of the large band and as the song neared its fevered climax Cocker sprung up from the chair and came to life as a participant, not spectator.

As if to dispel the demons that the song conjured up, the band shuffled positions on the stage for “Something’s Changed” with the four core members coming together at the front of the stage to replicate the rehearsals that led to this new phase of the band. With Jarvis and Mark on acoustic guitars, Candida on a small organ, and Nick Banks just sitting on a box and drumming with\ his hands. Fortunately, they liked the feel and this new phase has quickly come to pass.

Another vibe shift came with the startling 1992 single “O.U. Gone Gone” from their transitional “Pulp: Intro” compilation that arrived just ahead of their “His ‘N Hers” breakthrough. This “banger” was built with a motorik beat complete with Farfisa drone with violin soloing over it attained a nervy, headrush feeling that was exhilarating to hear. I never would have expected any of the Pre-Island material to be included in the set but in my opinion, the Pulp saga really began there on those 1992 singles for Gift Records. This was a much deeper deep cut than I had been expecting!

I appreciated how Cocker told the Atlanta audience how he was last in the city half a lifetime ago; playing at Masquerade while opening up for Blur. Asking if Masquerade were still there and though it had been years since I’d visited the iconic [and large] club, I’d certainly have driven up to Atlanta had I known about it at the time. Alas, I only found out about that gig in the internet era; annoyed that I missed what I thought was my one chance to see Pulp, right at the point where they first looked large in my universe.

The vibrant anguish of “Acrylic Afternoons” followed for a deep cut one-two punch. It was hard to believe that this feverish song hadn’t been a single back then, though it certainly had that feel. As the set aimed the prow of the good craft Pulp for the shores of Lake Climax, it was now time to start offering up the band’s crown jewels. I next thrilled to the orgasmic shimmer of that first song to alert me to the abundant merits of the band; “Do You Remember The First Time?” The song simply excelled at raising goosebumps this evening as it had for the last 31 years. Mark Weber’s soloing in the ebullient climax being a thing of particular beauty.

Next: …The One Thing That We Have More Of