16 horsepower calls at Stockholm just at the same time as the first autumn winds are blowing over the city. For the melancholic, dark gothic-country band from Denver, it's anything but sunny or summery. Yet the Americans have completely sold out the Göta Källare a long time in advance. In the heat, guys with band T-shirts mingle with Indian-like girls and old chaps in polo-neck sweaters, all devoted 16 Horsepower fans.

The atmosphere is full of expectation, and as soon as the front figure David Eugene Edwards shows himself on stage, the crowd starts calling for their favourite songs. It's difficult to say if David is listening. He doesn't say a word in between songs and lives up to the reputation of being a discriminating and anti-commercial rock star. But it does not play a part, because he compensates for it by putting his soul in the songs.

He makes you think of a lonesome cowboy on stage when he starts a melancholic country-rock tune on his banjo or guitar, whilst the band behind him jogs along at a trot. With a double-bass, accordions, guitars and drudging drums, they play a number of songs from their latest album "Folklore", mixed with old material. In a professional way, but it are mainly David's original voice, lyrics and melodies that elevate 16 Horsepower high above the marshland of the whining American rockscene.

Three wasps out of five

Translation by Kien