Thursday night Sixteen Horsepower leader David Eugene Edwards was Bob. Not the designated driver (BOB = Bewust Onbeschonken Bestuurder) but Bob from the animation series God, the Devil and Bob. In that show God doubts the usefulness of his creation and worries about the future of mankind. But before he wipes us from the face of the earth, we get one more chance. If God finds one single human being who is worthwhile, he will spare us all. However, the devil gets to point out the test person and constantly tries to thwart the man in question, a certain Bob.

It is a well-known fact that Edwards is religious and so he could not but regard the technical failures during Sixteen Horsepower's concert at the Brussels Royal Circus Thursday evening as a vile trick by the devil. He did not yield, continued to play unperturbed, in spite of a persistent squeaking, whistling and creaking. That was especially audible between songs, but unfortunately too in a number of quiet songs during the first half of the show. But during the ominous 'Sinnerman' the drone provided an extra noise -factor, which did not clash with the rest of the music. Thanks to the growing intensity the song produced the effect of a slow strangulation, just like 'Blessed Persistence' later on.

After a likeable concert by Hawksley Workman, that amusing cross between Freddy Mercury and Jacques Brel, and a long interval Sixteen Horsepower, the missing link between Nick Cave and Joy Division, could start the second Belgian show in less than a month. They who had their doubts after the Folkore album, which was released earlier this year, and their recent show at the Pukkelpop festival, have to face it after Thursday; this band was never more ready, never played so well-balanced and never sounded as intense as nowadays.

Notwithstanding the technical defects, that was clear from the first songs of the set: 'Hutterite Mile' (with Edwards playing his guitar with a bow like a cello), 'Outlaw Song' (with the leader on banjo) and the plaintive 'For Heaven's Sake'. 'Beyond The Pale' floated on an Arcadian piano part, whereas an accordion impelled 'Alone And Forsaken'. After about an hour Edwards dismissed everybody, apart from Daniel McMahon, and the two of them unearthed the bluegrass-traditional 'Single Girl'. All by himself Edwards sang heavenly in the nevertheless overcast 'Black Soul Choir'. He usually growls with his unpolished voice, but 'Flutter' proved he could sing softly, almost touching, too.

After an hour and a half and a set in which rock, blues, country and folk had been blended into a sound very much of their own, the band put a stop to it. Excuse me: they put an exclamation mark at the end of the concert with 'Horse Head Fiddle'. The rendering of this Tuvan traditional would not be unbecoming on Sonic Youth' s Goodbye 20th Century. Meanwhile it was a quarter past midnight, a completely unchristian hour to end a gig, but hey, Edwards may be pious, he's not parish pumped.

Review:
Who: Sixteen Horsepower
Where and when: Royal Circus (Les Nuits Botanique), Thursday 19 September 2002
Our opinion: Despite technical difficulties a brilliant concert by a band at the height of its ability.