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Featuring current members of The Bad Seeds, Grinderman is a reconnection with Cave's earlier, less measured and more primal rock'n'roll muse. Gone are the ballads and the lilting piano melodies, replaced by distorted guitars, distorted bass, distorted organ and distorted violin! Oh... and distorted vocals... get the idea? Most of the band sport impressive beards, making them look like the wolfmen they claim to be. With hair akimbo and gaudy chest medallions on display between rakishly unbuttoned shirts, they look like they've just stepped out of a forest in search of sweet, virgin flesh. They sound like it too.

If you're a fan of The Birthday Party and the early Bad Seeds records, this is where you've been hoping Nick Cave would return to. Invoking tunes like 'Tupelo', 'From her to Eternity' and 'Deanna', Grinderman serve up a heady conncoction of nasty, dirty blues-inflected rock'n'roll that blows most of his contemporaries, past and present, out of the water.

It is testament to his popularity that the Barras is sold out. With only 2 albums under their belt, it could well be tough to play a long enough set to please a capacity crowd baying for blood. The stage set was simple... Silver lame backdrop, pink drumkit and instruments set up like any normal rock band. Glamorous yes, but not overtly so. As they manfully strode onto stage, suited and booted as ever, all eyes were on Cave. Strapping on a guitar, an instrument that he can hardly play, they launched into new album opener 'Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man', swiftly followed by the second track on the new LP 'Worm Tamer'. Dispensed at full velocity and taking no prisoners, I realised just how loud and violent this band are in full swing. Having only seen them once before at the Connect festival in Inveraray, it was a far more visceral experience seeing them in the best venue on the planet.

From there on in, technical difficulties were set aside and song after song of sleazy, low-slung, blues howl were kicked out to the increasingly ecstatic audience. The set was heavy with new songs such as 'Heathen Child', the current single, received with wild applause; the superb 'Evil' which saw the band almost unhinge themselves physically; the hilarious 'Kitchenette' and slower, creepier 'What I Know'. As the new album 'Grinderman 2' (naturally!) had only just been released, and the songs therein were less well known, the most rapturous reaction was reserved for debut album numbers such as 'Get it on', 'Honey Bee (let's fly to mars)' and the irrepressable 'No Pussy Blues'... not a song about his cat going astray, may I add! With another slower number 'The man in the moon' and and epic and atmospheric 'Grinderman' to finish in the encore, the wolfmen were gone into the night... where they belong.

As I descended those famous Barrowlands stairs and looked around at friends and music fans of all ages, I realised I wasn't alone in having witnessed an absolute stormer of a gig. There was elation on the faces of every single man, woman and child. The rain couldn't quell our excitement either. As enthusiastic discussion raged about how it was great to see Nick Cave become the twisted, voodoo preacher-man once again - a man possessed, standing front of stage testifying in such a ridiculous manner. The 2000-strong crowd expected a real, physical performance and they got it, that's for sure... From a slim, athletic 53-year-old who let rip with tales of sex and death from the primordial swamp of his imagination.

There are bands a third of his age who couldn't come anywhere close to the energy of a performance like this. Midlife crisis? If I can have a hint of that quantity of fun when I'm having mine... then bring it on.