"I'm a Mess!" David scolds himself halfway through the show. Oh, and boy, what a great mess it was. Just the mess needed to fill an entire venue with magic. An evening brimful of positive and delightful tension. A show where 16 Horsepower managed to tease and tickle the audience throughout the whole set. Le Magic! C'est Chic!

Location: Paradiso, Amsterdam. One of the most important (club)venues in The Netherlands. An old church turned into a musictemple (a rockpalast) in the sixties. With beautiful-stained glass windows. Three of which (gothic ones!) are behind the stage. And just above the middle one it says in Latin: The Voice of God. Need I say more? ;->

For some dates on this tour they brought along a Coloradan support act, The Czars. A very promising band that just released their second album, "before ... but longer" produced by Simon Raymonde (former member of the Cocteau Twins) on the Bella Union-label. Besides their beautiful and sensitive songs, the art on the cover of the album is a very pleasant treat for your eyes. Compliments!
Tonight they seemed to have gotten over their Tilburg experience, and they were full of confidence after a reportedly very good performance in Groningen the night before. The band with singer John Grant , presented themselves magnificently with their chillful rendering of Zippermouth. It won over the normally very skeptical Amsterdam crowd in a second.
Now if only John could ask for some clothing advice from Chris Pearson, the bass-player, I'm sure we will be hearing more of them. You have to look good in those magazines, boys. ;-)

What seems to be a difficult issue for a few bands when they play in Holland, (especially after they played in Germany ;-) is our constant babbling during a performance. Something which already resulted in irritation and incomprehension. Particular at the Tilburg concert. So this time David was well prepared and he seemed to have a lot of fun talking and provoking us (the whisky had its effects ;->) during the set that we now know by heart.
On a few occasions he introduced a song especially written for tonight. The first one was Straw Foot: "Listen, he! ... HEY! ... Let's pretend we wrote this song just for tonight, he? So give a listen, maybe close the mouth, and give a listen, he?" Pascal starts his menacing bass-part, which gives David the time to realize it's probably a lost cause and murmurs: "Oh, do whatever you want, I know you have to do it." and starts banjo-ing his banjo, and stressing some lines of the lyric more intensively: "... talking when you should be leaving ... ."
Applause!!

Then just before the next song, Clogger, he hoarsely said: "Oh, wait, wait. I forgot. This is the song that we wrote for tonight. This is the one. This is it." A lot of laughter AND of course new conversation-material for the talkative audience. (What did he say? What did he say? Shhhhhhhh ;->)
Remember what a Clogger was? David explained this in the Oor-interview: 'To me, that's someone who won't listen to reason. An inconsiderate loudmouth'. See, I knew Clogs and Cloggers are something-typical Dutch.;-) Oh, and how proud I am. ;->>

Talking about Clogger, (hey, but at least I'm talking after the show, and not during ;-) after the first verse, David broke a string of his guitar. When he went to the back to fix it, something exciting happened: The rest of the band continued to play in a jam-session manner where Steve was stealing the show with some great guitar work. (we didn't know you had it in you, boy ;-> ) David took his time to come back, sucked a couple of times on his 'American Spirit' (which also seems to be the brandname of cigarettes ;-) and proceeded on the other Hofner-slideguitar. An amazing version.

At times David gave us some great Diana Ross-impersonations (which he wasn't aware of himself, I guess ;-) when he shouted during the first set: "Everybody is okay?" … "YEAH"; the audience cheered back. Or when he said: "It's good to be home in Amsterdam". But he really topped it when they all went backstage after the first 50 minutes and he came out with a new outfit. ;-> The lack of airco made it incredible hot not only in the hall, which was crammed by the way, but on stage as well. During the first set his shirt had been soaked with sinner's sweat. … Hum … But how come Pascal could keep his beautiful white shirt so immaculate? ;-) What's his secret? ;-)

During the first set there also seemed some problems with the sound-adjustment of instruments. At the beginning Pascal could hardly be heard, which only took one song to fix. Steve now and again gave some dirty looks to the technician and David pointed his thumb upwards almost with each song. (but was he given the ride? ;->)

The spilled whisky, the chit-chat of the audience, the heat, the technical difficulties, ... and the enthousiastic reactions of the audience, the inspiring venue ... . Combined these factors meant that tonight was not a routine-job. And that brought a sense of freedom along. All members of 16 Horsepower could express themselves. They could improvise. They could have a wonderful time and enjoy themselves. On many occasions Jean-Yves, le grand batteur, was smiling from ear to ear.

Let me lead you through some songs of the encores:
Strong Man: This song always starts of very threatening and then has a benevolent twist. But this time, oh, I'm not even capable of writing what happened, after he sings: "… he is the one that brought down the son, let there be no 'goddamn' doubt.", he adds: "Oh! You know how the story goes …" Silence …, threatening silence…, and than literally an eruption of: "There is power, wonder workin' power." Great! And David agreed. Immediately after the last chords, a big hoarse 'YEAH' came out from deep in his hollow.

During Flowers in my Heart, which had been transformed into the Black Lungish version from the March-tour, David gave the others further room to display their craftsmanship. Elin, Pipi Longstocking with glasses for this evening, took her chance. She actually swept us out of our feet with her swamp'o'billy violin-part. And because of the higher yee-haw factor, there was a lot of clapping and cheering during the song. With the alternate lyrics from David, a little party was created. Beautiful!

As the encores continued the rest of the band was given even more freedom to improvise. And it became an even bigger mess (and I mean that in a positive way). It became even looser. And that really was the magic of this performance. Although the Dutch may talk a lot, we all felt that magic. To use a line from a friend standing behind me: "It was fucking brilliant!"

By Ing!