Jarvis Cocker at Showbox, Seattle 4/30/07

I really reckoned this one would be worth the six hours in the car. Jarvis Cocker doesn't really come to the US; Pulp never did a proper US tour, and after headlining festivals in the UK such as Glastonbury, playing to a less than sold out but highly enthusiastic crowd of a few hundred at Seattle's Showbox....well, it can't be said he is doing this solely for the money. Not to say he isn't a hero to some this side of the pond, but while here, he is an indie hero; in the UK, he is a big ol' cultural icon. Anyway, with this as a backdrop, it was a night for us to see his stadium sized stage presence from a couple of feet away. Material consisted entirely of songs from his solo album and a couple of (new?) songs I didn't recognize. Particularly fantastic were "Fat Children" and "Big Julie". He encored with a spectacular, fist-pumping sing-along "Cunts are still running the world," followed by "Purple Haze" (at which point my friend that works at the Showbox groaned with anguish, informing me that she had heard as many bands play that song for an encore than had made jokes about how much it rained).Whilst I wouldn't have complained if he had broken out in "Babies" or "Disco 2000," I really wouldn't want the man to play anything he wasn't excited about. I remember seeing Paul Westerberg playing a set a few years back in DC that consisted of what were really fucking bad faith attempts at Replacements tunes. After a while he just handed the microphone to someone in the crowd and let them do karaoke. Jarvis isn't ready for that yet. Six years out from the last Pulp album, his solo music is relevant, passionate, and fantastic live---well worth six hours in the car any day.