Last fall, one of our most highly-anticipated shows had been World Party’s show in Santa Barbara.  Over the years, leader Karl Wallinger has put together some of our favorite songs (Ship of Fools, All Come True) and albums (Private Revolution) of any era.  Wallinger had been a part of the fantastic Irish band The Waterboys back in the day, but then left Mike Scott’s band to rock on his own in more of a Stones/Beatles-motif.  Wallinger put out a series of successful albums in the 80s and thereafter took intermittent extended breaks and odd-jobs.  We were saddened to learn that Wallinger had suffered an aneurysm in 2001 that left him unable to speak.  After an extended recovery, World Party began playing live shows again in earnest in the late 2000s and released the massive anthology Arkeology last year to deserved critical acclaim.

Unfortunately, Wallinger was ill in November, and World Party cancelled their Santa Barbara show (not surprisingly, wanting to preserve strength for mega-market LA).  Such is the allure of the band, that several we know caravaned down to the Troubadour in LA, followed by rave reviews.  To see why, check out the stripped down World Party performing the intelligent, exemplary Is It Like Today? for KEXP in November, but just released today.  Beauty.  How did it come to this?  Indeed.  After you can check out the full performance on KEXP, which includes the additional song Put The Message In The Box.