Under a new name but with trusted lieutenants from his backing group, the Bad Seeds, Nick Cave generated the sort of buzz usually reserved for fashionable young bands last night.

In fact, it's more than 25 years since Cave emerged from Australia's punk scene. But he was never tempted to draw on his old songs at this one-off Grinderman gig.

"This is a different band," he said, dismissing one request.

Cave may be nearly 50, but he appeared positively youthful after his support act, the bearded, dungaree-wearing Seasick Steve. Although apparently in his sixties, Steve won a "breakthrough" Mojo magazine award this week, and his scorching blues was a revelation. If you're going to Glastonbury, don't miss him on the Pyramid stage on Saturday morning.

Cave's Grinderman debut missed out on a Mojo, losing to Damon Albarn's The Good, The Bad and The Queen. So Cave dedicated Love Bomb to Albarn, grumbling: "We were robbed." He's got a point, and this performance underlined the band's garage-rock prowess as well as his dark, witty lyrics.

There was a raw urgency to the blaring Get It On, with Cave lurching around, singing about some mythical, priapic rock star in the manner of an Old Testament preacher.

Of course, in the wrong hands, garage rock can be unremarkable. But with such a good - and, indeed, hairy - band, this was an intuitive performance rather just a well-rehearsed racket.

There was also experimentation on Electric Alice, and a duet with their other support band, Seventies synthpunks Suicide.

But the highlight was No Pussy Blues, the most entertaining portrayal of a fading lothario since Alan Clark's diaries - although Cave is actually happily married.

Backed by a guitar howl, he sang about the bruising of repeated sexual rejection, lamenting his paunch and thinning hair.

It may not be entirely autobiographical, but Cave's clearly been thinking about getting old. His song-writing is more potent than ever, though.