Luke Haines has a new job. "I'm working for the West Yorkshire police," he says. "As a consultant." It's a likely story that introduces the anthemically macabre Leeds United, a song in which the Plod's hapless Ripper investigation becomes a metaphor for 1970s poison. The line "It's a 13-0 defeat" refers to the amount of bodies Peter Sutcliffe left behind rather than a Leeds defeat, but it's guaranteed to go down well in Sheffield.

Over the years, Haines has developed a compulsively misanthropic character on record, and so, at gigs, a meagre but enthusiastic turnout fits with his worldview. Accompanied, unusually, by just two acoustic guitars and two glasses of wine, the show has a stripped-down feel at odds with his records' orchestration. However, in a dapper suit with intriguing facial hair, Haines carries middle-age better than he did youth and has a luxuriant back catalogue that provides the bulk of the set. He gives us only three tracks from his excellent new glam-tinged album, Off My Rocker at the Art School Bop - perhaps because he hasn't got the instruments to replicate the record's stomping beats.

"Do you want a song about terrorism or Gary Glitter?" he asks, but plays both, leaping from 1996's Baader Meinhof to the new Bad Reputation, with sinister yet funny lyrics underlining his obsessions with glam rock and darkness: "Gary Glitter is a bad, bad man ... sullying the reputation of the Glitter Band." A 25-minute, nine-song set feels far too brief, but after someone shouts "Wanker!" he comes back, quipping: "Because you asked so nicely."

Haines encores with Showgirl and Future Generation by his old band, the Auteurs. Both are rapturously received, then he's off. "Wanker!" someone shouts hopefully, but it doesn't work twice.

· At Nottingham Social on Sunday (0115-950 5078), then touring.