okay so Pulp just dropped the full trailer, the artwork, and an official streaming date for their new concert film What Do You Do For An Encore?, and I've already watched the trailer three times. All of it is over at NME, which broke the whole thing.

If you somehow missed this era of music (valid, no judgment), Pulp is Jarvis Cocker's band, Britpop royalty, the people who gave us "Common People" and one of the greatest frontman performances in the history of, like, standing on a stage. And What Do You Do For An Encore? catches them during their big reunion run, which by every account I've seen was less nostalgia cash-grab and more a genuine victory lap.

The trailer does the thing a good concert film trailer should do, which is make you feel like you missed out on something even if you didn't. Crowd shots, Jarvis doing his whole lanky swoon thing, the band looking genuinely thrilled to be back together. There's a moment where the audience takes over a chorus and you can feel it through your phone screen. straight up, that's the whole point of these films.

The artwork is very Pulp too, kind of wry and stylish without trying too hard, which tracks for a band that always had the best visual instincts of the whole Britpop crowd. Blur had the lad thing, Oasis had the attitude thing, Pulp had actual taste. Fight me.

And now the big news: it's getting a proper streaming release, so you won't have to hunt down some shaky phone recording or wait for a one-night-only theatrical screening in a city four hours away from you. You'll be able to watch it from your couch, which is where I'll be, probably with the subtitles on so I can catch every bit of Jarvis banter between songs.

I keep saying this but concert films are having a moment right now and I'm not mad about it. Watching a band at their absolute peak, in a room full of people who know every word, hits different than a studio album ever could. My grandma raised me on the idea that the tech doesn't matter, it's what people do with it, and a great concert film is the perfect example. Cameras are just cameras until someone points them at Jarvis Cocker commanding 40,000 people.

Also, quick sidebar, but if you've never gone deep on Pulp's Different Class album, this is your sign. "Common People" is the hit everyone knows but the deep cuts are where the band actually lives. Put it on tonight, thank me later.

Anyway. Trailer's out, date's locked, and I'm clearing my evening. Go watch it before the algorithm buries it under whatever Marvel thing dropped this week.