Perhaps because they never had to carry the same weight of expectation as the Sex Pistols and the Clash, the Buzzcocks have been able to pick up the pieces from their 1981 split and hammer out their own successful, if slightly improbable, sequel.

Ten years ago, original members Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle hired Tony Barber and Phil Barker on drums and bass, made the Trade Test Transmissions album and discovered that not only were they having a good time, but audiences were glad to see them too.

Long renowned for their knack for mixing pop hooks and harmonies with a bludgeoning wall of guitar scuzz, the Buzzcocks were the founding fathers of a new wave of punk-pop. On top of that, they didn't sound like some tragically superannuated cash-in novelty act.

With a nifty new album out, the band are back on tour, with a lengthy American trek scheduled for when they finish in the UK and Europe. Cunningly, they have realised that their unique selling point is their genuine punk provenance, so they have avoided any temptation to play ballads or mock-symphonies, concentrating on honing and focusing their original sound.

The tempo rarely dips below hectic, Shelley and Diggle mesh their guitars into a rolling wave of pain-threshold noise, and the songs cannon chaotically into each other.

Diggle is the more demonstrative of the frontmen, jabbing a declamatory finger in the air, yelling encouragement at the crowd and delivering some time-honoured "one-two-three-four" punk intros.

But it is Shelley who exerts a quiet controlling influence. Jigging around the stage like a puppet whose bleach-blond head is slightly too large for its body, Shelley surveys the proceedings with a quizzical smile as he maintains his rolling guitar barrage and hacks through the extensive Buzzcocks catalogue.

Boredom was fast and riotous; so was Harmony in My Head and Promises. Something's Gone Wrong Again had been varnished with menacing raunchiness, while Diggle's Sitting Round at Home ricocheted between frantic pace and slow-motion choruses.

They teased out the encores like the grizzled old pros they have become, piling on the power-pop harmonies for Girl from the Chain Store and leaving the mighty Ever Fallen in Love until the very last gasp. "Nostalgia? Naaaah," claimed Shelley, and it wasn't.

· The Buzzcocks play the Belfast Empire tonight. Box office: 02890 249276.