Review: Jarvis Cocker at Powerstation

Jarvis Cocker. Photo / Supplied

Jarvis Cocker was last down this way a decade ago, fronting Pulp just as the sun set on Britpop - the band's album This is Hardcore helping bring the party to a close.

But the bespectacled beanpole showed in this electric Auckland performance why he has emerged from those days as a solo star.

Cocker's performance was a show in itself, offering both stand-up comedy (between-song monologues about significant events of that day in history) and physical (a dance style which swung entertainingly between "Who spiked the Head of English's drink?" and "Alarming results of Jagger-Cleese gene splice").

The show might have disappointed some of the sellout crowd by eschewing any old Pulp numbers despite having the band's bassist Steve Mackey among his backers. But the songs of his two noughties solo albums which sound more muscular than his old band - think a shift to Iggy/Bowie-swagger from Roxy Music archness - showed why he doesn't need a 90s nostalgia default.

Live, some of the more rock'n'roll numbers surged with increased voltage, whether it was opener Angela, the blackly comedic mugging victim's tale of Fat Children, or the Stooges-like blast of Homewrecker.

While there was plenty of room for Cocker's quieter, dangerously wry songs like I Never Said I Was Deep, Leftovers, and the Spector-esque (if necessarily sample-powered) grand slam of Black Magic. Though epic disco parody You're in My Eyes , complete with deathless drone-rock meltdown to finish, was a bore as a finale. An encore of early expletive-driven solo single Running the World was a better punchline to a hilariously good show.

In support, Wellington's wonders of wry art-rock, the Phoenix Foundation, showed old songs like 40 Years seem to have grown stronger live dynamics and impressed with new songs from their new Merry Kriskmass EP.