Britpop stalwart Pulp brought its reunion tour to San Francisco on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024.

One of the biggest and best Britpop bands of all time triumphantly returned to the stage in San Francisco on Monday night, and no one played "Wonderwall."

Pulp’s North American reunion tour, which hit the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, comes at a time when the fervor of mid-’90s Cool Britannia is in full swing again. And while 14 million people tried to get hold of Oasis reunion tickets last week — leading to a national meltdown and a statement from the prime minister — it was Jarvis, not Liam, who was the defining frontman of the era for many aging 90s kids.

The band members took their places onstage in front of a digital moon, as an electric hum filled the packed theater, and then he appeared. One of the most recognizable silhouettes in British music, the spindly disco-dad icon in thick glasses and a black velvet suit. Jarvis Cocker, now 60, pointed his crooked finger at the crowd as the band rolled into its 1995 hymn to teenage voyeurism, “I Spy.”

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“Good evening. I’m going to call you … Frisco?” Cocker said with a wink, to a mixture of cheers and boos over our city’s often-debated nickname. “Oh you don’t like that. I’ll just call you ‘San’ then.”

Founded in Sheffield in 1978, Pulp predates the Britpop movement by about 16 years. But it was the release of its fifth album, “Different Class,” in 1995 that made Pulp a household name in the UK. That year, in reaction to the wet-dog, ripped-flannel lurch of grunge in America, British bands instead chose sharp threads, spiky riffs, big choruses and witty rock stars.

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