Set List:
1 – Is It Like Today?
2 – Mystery Girl
3 – Sunshine
4 – Put the Message in the Box
5 – Kingdom Come
6 – Ship of Fools
7 – Is It Too Late?
8 – Radio Days/Is It Too Late
9 – Love Street
10 – Sooner or Later
11 – Way Down Now
12 – Give It All Away

Few artists have worn their love of 60s rock (Byrds, Beatles, etc) as purely as Karl Wallinger, better known as the man who is World Party. Wallinger has been the source of several great songs in his 25+ year career, the majority coming during a particularly vibrant stretch of the early 90s. This show from the 1993 Bang! tour captures he and his band riding that wave.

After a somewhat subdued opening trifecta of Is It Like Today, rarity Mystery Girl, and Sunshine, the energy of the show picks up with an effervescent version of the Goodbye Jumbo classic, Put the Message in the Box.

A rousing Kingdom Come follows before Wallinger and the band launch into show highlight, Ship of Fools. If 1990′s Goodbye Jumbo is their definitive album, Private Revolution’s Ship of Fools may be their classic song.

The highlight of the second half of the set is a gritty Way Down Now, during which Wallinger segues into a stanza of Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life.

The 80 minutes set closes with an uplifting Give It All Away. One minor quibble – Egyptology’s gorgeous She’s the One didn’t make the cut.

The Karl Wallinger site says that a new album is coming in 2012, which is terrific news. In 2001, Wallinger suffered a brain aneurysm that took him nearly five years to recover from. The band’s last proper album was released in 2000. Glad to have you back, Karl.