At the right moments - and we already knew that - 16 Horsepower can create genuinely magic moments on stage. Then namely, when the fervency of David Eugene Edwards and his men can spread unhampered from the stage to the audience and the exorcists by trade can diffuse their spiritual energy. It is very rare indeed to experience a whole evening of these moments - like in this case. And at first everything did look very normal: The Markthalle - and especially the open space in front of the amphitheatre-like arranged steps - was still filling up, when the support act, the Dutch duo At The Close Of Every Day which had been expended into a trio for this purpose, already launched out.

Well, that is to say, launching out is perhaps not the right expression. The project of the singing drummer sitting at the edge of stage Mino (sic) Eggersmann and his partner in crime Axel Kabboord is accustomed to a more leisurely pace. By now familiar sounding set pieces from the generic field of Americana were combined here into something fairly original. And that took place, with the exception of a few energetic outbursts, in the realm of slowcore. Selling points were Eggersmann's husky, but very forcible voice and the adept way of playing with the set pieces - sometimes a bit poppy, sometimes a bit folky, and furnished with comparatively unusual harmony sequences. On the other hand, it worked out negatively that nowadays such endeavours are served up in shoals and - that perhaps weigh heavier - you didn't want to hear something like that in this context. And therefore, all things considered, they met with rather restrained response - although the guys came across quite likable. In this case they only seemed somewhat out of place.

After a short interval things really got started and 16HP plunged into the usual mixture of American Gothic, and an amalgam of musical paranoia, honouring traditions and a torrent of words of forsooth biblical grandeur. Exactly that thus which constitutes 16HP's core. And core is the keyword here, for the nature of the task was to tour the "Olden" album, which comprises the first steps of the band. Quasi therefore they went back to their roots with the trio line-up without temp musicians. That the sum of 16HP is more than its individual constituent parts reveal, once again became clear this evening. With drums, bass and alternating guitar, accordion (sic) and banjo the band very successfully recreated their complete sonic cosmos, and nothing seemed to be missing or failing. With the exception maybe of the accordion's cord which failed, during "American Wheeze" of all songs, which made the execution falter. But once that had been redressed, there was no stopping them. With a very wisely chosen playing time of just over an hour (more would have become too much, sure enough) and a well-chosen song selection (comprising a few new tracks besides the old hits), 16HP managed to keep the audience spellbound from the first second until the last and to take them on a magic carpet ride through the musical setting described above.

What David Eugene Edwards perhaps lacks in virtuosity, he more than makes up for in emotional brute force. Those who see this man suffer on stage easily hit upon the idea that he must be something of a masochist, who simply can do nothing else, but dig out everything that is inside him. And he probably is. Jean Yves Tola is the opposite: the stoic drummer is the trio's placid pole - anyway as far as temper is concerned. Musically speaking he knows how to please by his versatile and pointed playing. A way of playing which created the right kick more than once - also, among other things, because of his restraint. During this show it were especially his and bass player's Pascal Humbert's ideas which shed new light on some of the well-known tracks, like "I Seen What I Saw" for instance. Remarkable when you take the closely demarcated genre into account.

The aforementioned Pascal Humbert treated his bass in turn like a woman or handled it like a weapon - sometimes also like a fragile surgical instrument - anyhow never casual or even careless. Humbert is pretty much the most empathic and physical bass player there is nowadays. A splendid sound - even the otherwise in this regard problematic acoustic bass came into its own and was distinctly audible - did the rest to come to an overall positive view. Like I said: it was a good night for 16HP and they could effortlessly reassert their reputation as a fascinating live act. Even when the event perhaps did not become the Greatest Hits affair that many people had hoped for - because this show definitely didn't have the halo of nostalgia. It would be desirable if more bands would succeed in reworking their own back-catalogue so fresh and dignified - respectively to keep their back-catalogue alive.