“You deserve more,” the posters promoting tonight’s concert at the O2 Arena read. It’s pretty fortunate, then, that Pulp are giving us plenty of that. Last week, Jarvis Cocker’s Britpop-era misfits released their first album in 24 years, aptly entitled More, and now London is getting a pair of back-to-back concerts, each one offering two sets of gloriously awkward anthems.
All those things together would be enough to satisfy any fan, but when the velvet curtain inside the venue peels back, it reveals just how extra Sheffield’s finest are being. In front of a mammoth video screen is a four-tiered staircase of a stage, plus an expanded lineup with a string section. Then, Cocker rises out of the floor during opener and recent comeback single Spike Island, one verse of which sees him sing, “I was born to perform.”
