Cover versions often suggest a dearth of ideas, little more than noise to fill the space where invention should be. New York punk instigator Patti Smith, however, has made a career out of taking other people's songs and running with them for miles, her extraordinary reworking of Them's Gloria sounding every bit as radical as the original tracks on her landmark 1975 album, Horses.

Her latest work, Twelve, foregoes new material in favour of her take on hits by everyone from Jefferson Airplane to Paul Simon and Tears for Fears. While the album is mostly disappointingly straightforward, in concert almost every song was emblazoned with incendiary improvised poetry that made for a thrilling, freeform show.

At 60, aside from the shaggy grey hair, from the depths of the crowd she looked much the same as she did on the cover of Horses, prowling the stage in black jacket, white shirt and skinny black tie. Her small band, including constant stage companion Lenny Kaye, watched her constantly in a vain attempt to keep up with her digressions, missing their cue even so after a meandering monologue about the British Museum that served as her introduction to White Rabbit.

Nirvana's dangerously overfamiliar Smells Like Teen Spirit was given the most gripping new form, becoming a tense bluegrass ballad that climaxed in poignant new lyrics about a "golden-haired lad", clearly addressed to the late Kurt Cobain. Neil Young's Helpless and The Doors' Soul Kitchen were less inspired, as was the least likely cover of the evening, Tears For Fears' Everybody Wants to Rule the World.

But when it segued into a wall of frenzied guitars and an idealistic closing rant about saving the planet, the raw power of Smith's voice once again made the song, and the room, entirely her own.