World Party, Jellyfish

The Ritz, New York, NY....

Karl Wallinger is fascinating to watch on stage. He's a left-handed guitarist, but like Hendrix, he plays a right-hand guitar. So all of his chords are backwards. On top of that, he normally strummed with a pick but he used fingers only for solos. Each time he went into a solo, he had an eye-catching way of tossing aside his pick to the stage floor to play with his fingertips.

 

I was there with my friend Tim, and he bade me goodbye to catch a train back to Jersey during the encore break. Just as he was exiting the building, World Party returned to the stage with Sinead O'Connor in tow to lend her voice to a few numbers. World Party was originally scheduled to open for  her summer 1990 tour (including when I saw her at Jones Beach), but World Party ended up not being the opening act. Instead, that gig went to Sinead's boyfriend Hugh Harris. (Harris was described in the press as "her new man" or "reported paramour.") It seemed to be a last-minute change, at least at the Jones Beach show on August 23 and the next night at the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ (both of these shows had World Party listed as opener quite late). It was whispered that Sinead unceremoniously kicked Karl Wallinger & Co. off the tour so she could be with Harris more.

Either way, by the time of World Party's show at The Ritz, Sinead had broken up with Harris and she was joining Karl on stage. Sinead was in NYC at this time as she was rehearsing to be musical guest on Saturday Night Live for the first time that weekend (on September 29, with Kyle MacLachlan). This was not her second, notorious pop-ripping appearance in 1992. On this 1990 episode, she performed "Three Babies" and an incendiary "The Last Day of Our Acquaintance."

 

The first thing one noticed when opener Jellyfish would take the stage--well, apart from the Christmas lights, colorful bric-a-brac, and little white picket fence that the band set up as stage dressing--would be that the group stood fully side-by-side while performing. Drummer/lead singer Andy Sturmer was integral to Jellyfish's rich vocal harmonies and would not be relegated to back-of-the-stage status, and he played on a minimal, stand-up drum kit at the front of the stage with the rest of his bandmates.

The sound at The Ritz was top-notch, but Sturmer's voice was not on this night. Fighting off a sore throat, he started off okay but rapidly deteriorated. By the time they got to their showpiece cover of Badfinger's "No Matter What," Sturmer was painfully struggling to hit the high notes. 
 



 

World Party setlist:

  • Private Revolution
  • When the Rainbow Comes
  • All Come True
  • Put the Message in the Box
  • Is It Too Late?
  • Love Street
  • World Party
  • Way Down Now
  • Show Me to the Top
  • Thank You World
  • Take It Up
  • Ship of Fools
  • Hawaiian Island World
  • Stand!

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