If Elton John had retained his original sense of fun, he might now be doing something along the lines of Ben Folds' celebrated live act. Having long ago embraced his inner nerd, Folds employs spectacles, piano and wit as weapons against a world that is taller, cooler and sexier, and emerges victorious. Accordingly, there's an audience who want nothing more than to show their love for the man who describes himself, much to their delight, as a "piano-playing asshole." They sing every lyric back to him, pretend to be trumpets when requested, and generally assure the pocket-sized North Carolinian that brains beat brawn.

The set is heaped with favourites, each tinkling introduction provoking wheezes of excitement. Backed by bass and drums, Folds tentatively starts with Dr Pryser and Trusted, then offers a twitchy verse of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird. "I'm trying to make it special to make up for my low self-esteem," he says soberly. Ice definitively broken, he spends the next two hours raucously airing his neuroses.

From the current album, Supersunnyspeedgraphic, he gives us All U Can Eat, Learn to Live with What You Are and a cocktail-blues version of Dr Dre's Bitches Ain't Shit, the last of which is Folds at his keyboard-pounding naughtiest. Leading the crowd through the un-PC chorus ("Bitches ain't shit but hos and tricks"), he's a 39-year-old version of that angelic-looking kid next door who tries to lead the neighbourhood astray. That might explain the guilt and/or embitterment of other songs, such as Losing Lisa and Jesusland.

Folds' very physical playing reminds us that the piano is a percussion instrument, and he bends it to his will - as delicate accompaniment during a solo interlude, and aggressive mainstay elsewhere. For a little guy, he makes a big, clever noise.

· At Glasgow Academy, tonight. Box office: 0870 771 2000. Then touring.