Over the course of 16 prolific years of songwriting, Vic Chesnutt has honed his morose southern-gothic balladry to a heady, burnished peak, and picked up a lot of first-class collaborators along the way. In 1996, REM and Smashing Pumpkins queued up to make a tribute album to him, and since then he has counted everyone from Kristin Hersh to Van Dyke Parks as bandmates. But his latest - and loudest - incarnation, with a six-piece band featuring members of apocalyptic post-rockers Godspeed You! Black Emperor and art-punk gods Fugazi, is one of his most powerful yet.

Unfortunately, no one seems to have been told. Tonight's meagre crowd would embarrass a venue half the size, and the atmosphere does suffer because of that. Things open with Chesnutt plucking unaccompanied at a tiny acoustic guitar, and even if the strings buzz and twang with a rather forlorn sound, his voice is stunning - rich and rumbling, and all the more extraordinary for coming from his frail figure (a car accident at the age of 18 left Chesnutt a paraplegic). Then halfway through the song, the band falls in with a vast, churning slab of orchestral rock. Three guitars, upright bass and violin make for a staggering wave of sound, reminiscent of Godspeed but anchored enough by Chesnutt's songwriting so as not to slip into that band's slightly jejune quasi-classical meanderings.

During the two-hour set, there are more such thrilling explosions, along with some very lovely orchestral country, frequent tinges of funereal Mardi-Gras swing, and even a Nina Simone cover. The lack of crowd is a passion killer tonight, but creatively, Chesnutt is at his peak.