Jon Spencer is passionate, energised and angry. But not about his music. "We got a whole lot of fucked-up shit back in the USA," he drawls, with the intensity of a bar-stool philosopher. "George Bush doesn't give a fuck about black people. Or you. Or me."

Timely though his comments may be, Spencer is actually here to wallow in nostalgia and play the Blues Explosion's career-defining album Orange, live for the first time. Despite being dressed in a children's TV presenter's outfit of orange shirt and trousers, he's deadly serious. Eking out the dirty blues of his 1994 classic, there's little of the preaching and expansive movements that usually mark out the Blues Explosion experience; the odd crouch and lurch is as good as it gets.

Spencer introduces the funk-laden snarl of Bellbottoms, and twists the rhythm into tight knots, watching it collapse around Russell Simms' crashing drums. Chaotic rockabilly played with psychotic menace pulsates through the ever-changing rhythms, every note a perfect thrill, each shriek depraved. Flavor recalls the Stooges, Full Grown is laddish rock'n'roll.

Still, Spencer gets caught up in a colour-by-numbers rendition of his masterpiece and it's not until the second half of the set, comprising songs from the band's new album, Damage, and obscure singles, that he really comes alive. Flying high on clean, cosmic blues, Spencer and Simms indulge in solos, heart-stopping breaks and theremin shenanigans.

However, it's only when they play RL Burnside's Going South, in tribute to the recently departed, original Delta bluesman, that the band gain the cohesive song structure their own material lacks. Though the dark adventure of Spoilt is epic in proportion and scope, Spencer and co fail to make what should be a celebration special.