It's never great to review a bad concert but some truths have to be told. I thought that the Woven Hand concert at the Brussels Cirque Royal/Koninklijk Circus was a real disaster. It hard to imagine that 16 Horsepower played in the same venue with a royal line-up. Some excerpts from that show are on the 16HP DVD.

The Royal Circus is a very beautiful and luxurious all-seated venue. So the scene was set for a wonderful Woven hand concert. But because I bought my ticket online, I wasn't informed that G. Love and Special Sauce was the main act and that Woven Hand was a support-act sandwiched between G. Love and another support-act, Little Axe.

Little Axe turned out to be a very good blues band. The bass-player deserves an extra mention for playing his instrument like Jimmy Hendrix (I don't know how he did that). And, the importance will become evident later, the drums sounded very good. After them we didn't have to wait very long for Woven Hand to come.

My first impression: David Eugene Edwards is in the best of spirits. Impression two: there's a real line-up with DEE, a drummer and an extra guitarist. Impression three, after a few seconds: the show will be a disaster. The extra musician is lame; he just stands there like a statue and plays like he's in the Ramones (I like them, that's not the problem). The second problem is that we only hear the drummer who believes that he plays in Motörhead. My friend thinks so too, she sums up the situation in this way: "we only hear the drummer, there were some melodies but we could barely hear the singer”. There's another problem, oh yes! DEE uses only one guitar during the entire concert and all the songs sound the same. Actually, there were only two highlights for me. Only God knows why, but for one song, DEE used his banjola and the magic was still there, whilst the drummer did his job without the extra muscles. The second surprise was that DEE played a new as yet unreleased song.

So, what to make of all this? The fact is that Woven Hand needs to be at the top of the bill. David needs a real band, no hired musicians just to do a show here and there. I would like to send the drummer to a very beautiful island for a very long vacation so I can forget about him, or another option would be to change the man behind the mixing desk. I still don't know which option to choose. Perhaps both. I hope there are no more shows like this in the future.

I don't have a good feeling about the 16 Horsepower's split. DEE had a real good line-up then and now he has the songs but not the musicians to perform them well. What a strange situation. I remember that he came to the Ancienne Belgique (also in Brussels) under the name of Woven Hand with five musicians [tyfc note: including the same drummer] and it was wonderful. So, good songs need good musicians.

by Alain

Blues performer Skip McDonald, a.k.a. Little Axe, functioned as a great opening act in a well-crowded Koninklijk Circus. This trio was founded circa 1992. Together with bass player Doug Wimbish and drummer Harold Sargeant, McDonald plays a brand of blues fused with influences from gospel, rock, reggae and funk music. Undoubtedly an enjoyable gig for the aficionados.

David Eugene Edwards had one hour to convert the unbelieving audience. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time for a proper soundcheck. Three years ago 16hp played on the same stage and then there were a lot of technical problems. So these were considerably bad omens. Admittedly, the Koninklijk Circus is a magnificent playhouse, with circa 1200 seats. Could this be an ideal location for a Woven Hand concert?

It would be a tight gig without a lot of frippery, but like always they would do their very best to give us the best performance. Knowing that the new Belgian guitar player had hardly rehearsed before the tour, explains why he seems so modest on stage. Without any doubt he cheered up after a few concerts.

Edwards clearly fancied the gig this evening. During 20 minutes the stage was on fire. “I am straw for Hell's fire”, he aptly sang. A dark and ominous atmosphere, that's what the man from Denver wants while he's performing. The audience has to feel uncomfortable due to his baleful preaches. When you want to hear cheerful texts, you're barking up the wrong tree.

Edwards is driven by evil and his conviction that mankind is damned without its belief in the Lord. Few people know that the title of the last album (Consider The Birds) refers to the Sermon on the Mount by Matthew the evangelist. But Edwards doesn't care one bit. Phlegmatic and driven by his faith, he and his apostle friends traverse Europe.

The tough and electric version of 'Sparrow Falls' - again a reference to the Bible- was wonderful. Guitar player Van Laerhoven gives the song what it needs, a heavy sound. Positively spoken, one cannot deny the huge difference between the live version of this song and the studio version. The brand-new songs 'Dirty Blue' and 'Deerskin Doll' couldn't really convince. They are pretty good, but Ordy Garrison's percussion was deafening. The volume of David's microphone wasn"t steady and his lasting combat with his humming guitar caused a lot of irritation. The sound technicians really made a mess of it. What a pity!

“It's nice to be home”, Edwards blurted out resignedly. He meant it, but the audience didn't feel like clapping. With a lot of devotion and full of good will he completed the set. The quality of the sound could have been better, but nevertheless, this was a good concert. Thanks to Edwards' beautiful voice, his total dedication on stage and the new Woven Hand sound the fans got value for money. However, it needs to be said that this band stands out best in smaller, more intimate places like the Box at the Ancienne Belgique or the Orangerie in the Botanique.

This summer Woven Hand will tour through Eastern Europe. Whether Ordy Garrison and Peter Van Laerhoven will be present isn't clear yet, because Edwards says that Woven Hand is a solo project and that he wants to be accompanied by people he'd like to work with at the time.

G Love and & Special Sauce closed the evening. Their inflaming pop, mixed with hip-hop and blues is a genre of its own. G Love has been on the stage for 10 years and that was really noticeable. His bass player (Jim Prescott) and his drummer (Jeff Clemens) didn't feel like playing. You wonder whether the dancing crowd was really fond of this.

By Bert