On Monday, I had the rare opportunity of seeing one of my musical idols perform: Jarvis Cocker, frmr lead frontman of the 90’s Britpop band Pulp. While most of my obsession with Jarvis stems from my adulation of his tenure in Pulp, I was still taken aback when he got on stage and launched into “Fat Children.” He continued to stun the audience through the rest of his set which included most of the tracks off his solo debut and one cover - Bruce Springsteen’s “State Trooper.”

Highlights of the show (for me) included “Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time,” “Still Running the World,” “Big Julie,” and “Black Magic.” Jarvis did not play “Black Magic” during Sunday night’s show, which is their loss as the performance of the song embodied and confirmed all my notions of Jarvis as a pop star - passionate, charismatic, dorky dance moves. He even kinda spazzed out at the end of it.

The Sunday crowd did get a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and The Talking Heads’ “Heaven,” so that was kinda a bummer (depending on your tastes).

As always, his between song banter was priceless. The only dissapointment was the decision to not include any Pulp songs in the set. Former Pulp bass player Steve Mackey is a part of the touring band, which was kinda cool. He got the loudest response when Jarvis introduced the band.

Here are some more pictures taken with my new digital camera. Not too shabby, I was a stone’s throw away from him on the floor level.

Massive props to my friend Megan for scoring the ticks and the invite.

For more better reviews of the show go here, here (Sunday) and here (Monday).

Ack. Note to self: Mind the headroom next time.

Bonus - one of my favorite videos of all time. Only recently was I able to associate the song with someone in my life.