World Party delivers "the history of the world in four verses" to Bumbershoot

Karl Wallinger didn't grow up with a vast record collection back home in Wales. He remembers the "West Side Story" soundtrack playing on a radiogram and a Springfields Christmas single called "Bambino," about the donkey who was in the stable when Jesus was born.

And yet, Wallinger's band, World Party, draws from all genres, as it reminded us Saturday night on the Starbucks stage at Bumbershoot.

Watching Wallinger walk onto the stage was like seeing an old friend walk into a bar, and wondering where he'd been.

Before the show, he called his Bumbershoot appearance "an unwelcome break in recording a new album.

"But now that we're here, might as well get into it."

And that's just what happened, as the trio — Wallinger on guitar and keyboard, David Duffy on fiddle and John Turnbull on electric guitar — went through World Party greatest hits, of sorts, starting with "Put the Message in the Box," followed by "Is it Like Today?" which Wallinger called "the history of the world in four verses."

For just three people, they had a full, clean sound, smiling through "When the Rainbow Comes," "What Does it Mean Now" "'Til I Got You," "Sweet Soul Dream," "Ship of Fools" and "Is it Too Late?"

Wallinger took to the keyboards for "She's the One" and "Sunshine."

Every time Wallinger paused to tune his guitar, Turnbull started playing the opening of a Beatles tune. "Blackbird," for instance. Or "I Feel Fine."

"I'm trying to do a painting and he's showing off Leonardo," Wallinger quipped.

In an interview before the show, Wallinger talked about his admiration for philosopher Bertrand Russell, and the 2001 aneurysm that took five years of recovery time and stole Wallinger's peripheral vision.

His last release was his 2007 greatest-hits compilation "Best in Show," which he chose by going through the most downloaded World Party songs on iTunes.

"I just phoned up and said, 'Give me the (sales) figures,' and then put them in order," he said.

He's not a big fan of contemporary music. Kings of Leon "sort of entertained me for a while, but then I thought, 'Where did they go?' They went somewhere really weird."

He's fretful about designer drugs and a a type of marijuana called "skunk," which is prevalent in Britain.

"It's very suspicious, very super-strong grass," he said. "I think if people just had some nice pot, they'd be fine."

And it seems that, eight years after his aneurysm, Wallinger is fine, as well.

"I should have been paying attention, maybe," he said of the months leading up to it. He had hit his head after falling on the stairs and noticed once pupil was larger than the other.

Three months later, the aneurysm hit.

"It sort of tends to illuminate what's important, which is quite good," he said. "I would rather not have done it, although, in a way I'm kind if glad that it happened. It's a weird thing, an aneurysm.

"But it's been good. Just being alive is good."

Nicole Brodeur: 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.