After two introductory evenings Bruges' Cactus Festival was ready for its first complete day on Saturday. Nevertheless, there were only six acts on the bill. That seems a small number, but it is the consequence of the organizers' highly commendable opinion that every artist should be able to play for at least an hour. At some festivals musicians are on stage for only forty minutes or, god forbid, even less, for mini-concerts that are over before they've really got started.

Not so thus at the Cactus festival, and the Walkabouts took advantage of this. The quintet from Seattle, for the occasion supplemented with a cello player, started out rather hesitantly. The sound was furthermore out of balance: the drums were far too loud, while the cello at times was barely audible. The concert once again showed that Glenn Slater's piano and organ playing is one of the absolute assets of the band. Full of soul, ominous or calm, the various moods flow effortlessly from the spectacled keyboardist's fingers. Thanks to him, the steaming 'Fairground Blues' grew into one of the highlights. The Walkabouts played an overall good concert that sadly missed the punch and sharpness of their best club performances. The emotional disruption that is so typical of songwriter Chris Eckman's work therefore wasn't tangible enough.

The Brazilian company Chico Science & Naçïo Zumbi just released their second CD, Afrociberdelia. Or rather: in some countries the album is in the shops, the Belgian buyer, however, for the time being, is deprived of it. Is this perhaps a new marketing strategy: putting a CD in the shops only a little while after a concert, 'cause, go figure, otherwise there might actually be someone who wants to buy that record.

The Brazilian octet played mangue, which is the Portuguese word for a mangrove and characterizes the ultimate crossover of Chico Science and company. On Afrociberdelia this leads to a richly varied result, but on the Cactus stage it fell somewhat short. The music was reduced to the rhythms and was embellished only by the singing and rapping of the front man and the too pushy guitar of Lucio Maia. It was only towards the end, with 'Da lama ao caos' and the funky 'Macô' that the band sounded convincing. Subsequently the French Skippies hopped on stage. An interview with Chico Science made me leave the noise pop of this quintet for what it was after fifteen minutes. Most park visitors informed me afterwards that I hadn't missed anything. An undoubtedly very wise man whispered me in the ear that the Skippies did have the sound, but not the songs.

Bible

Sixteen Horsepower, a threesome from Denver, recently debuted with Sackcloth 'n' Ashes. It comes as no surprise that this title is drawn from the bible book Daniel, since the Holy Book is the favourite reading material of David Eugene Edwards. Not only is he the trio's singer, he also plays banjo, guitar and bandoneon. His voice is very reminiscent of the recently deceased Jeffrey Lee Pierce. Sixteen Horsepower is musically related to Pierce's band The Gun Club anyway, but also to Nick Cave, for example. All of them take their inspiration from the same old American roots music, like blues, country and bluegrass.

Edwards's band, with he new recruit Rob Reddick (sic) on bass, sounded pretty solid, even though they played most of the concert with acoustic instruments. 'Black Soul Choir' and 'Heel on the Shovel' were highlights in the very powerful, tight set. Edwards is an excellent musician who does not give in to superfluous frills. Despite the fact that he remained seated on a stool during the entire concert and hardly spoke a word in between songs, he did possess a great deal of charisma. Just like Nick Cave, Sixteen Horsepower will be playing at the Pukkelpop festival at the end of August. King Crow's fans should definitely do a comparative commodity study. The Emiel Goelen (Belgian presenter of consumer TV-show) in me predicts that Edwards and Co. will prove to be the best buy.

Bettie Serveert, a quartet from the northern half of The Netherlands, served up the audience variously tailored guitar pop songs: from gloomy dragging songs to solid rockers, it all boomed from the loudspeakers. In addition to old material, new compositions were released onto the Minnewater park, which had become crowded in the meantime. The concert mostly babbled on cosily, without boring people, but didn't contain high-fliers either. 'Kid's allright' nevertheless did deserve an approving grunt. Afterwards, Gavin Friday closed off the day twenty-four hours after playing at the Zwemdockrock festival in Lummen.

Translation by Lot