One of the great tricks at an artist's disposal is sleight of hand to conceal the unexpected.

Lou Reed proved to be a master as he delivered his greatest hits on the back of a bill promising he would not be showing his wild side.

The audience was anticipating his reworkings of classic tales by Edgar Allen Poe, which, however innovative and worthy, is not exactly for the faint-hearted.

Instead, the father of US punk played classics such as Candy Says, How Do You Think It Feels? and the rarely-heard The Bed.

The audience didn't seem disappointed and some fans shouted out requests. "Should I play them all at once?" Reed answered drily.

The billing may explain why there were empty seats in the house and this was a pity because songs as mind-bending as Venus In Furs and Walk On the Wild Side deserve a full house.

But even in the context of this set of brilliant songs, The Raven - Reed's visceral revision of Poe's best-known work - is something of a showstopper.

All in black and gently rapping, this witty, terrifying and paranoid work gives Reed the scope to re-enter Velvet Underground territory by using music as an accompaniment to grim story-telling as in The Gift.

He is also the poet of New York's untouchables who sets gruesome snippets of conversation from society's fringes to music as demonstrated in Dirty Blvd and Perfect Day.

On several songs, Reed was accompanied by a Tai Chi master. Although fans of Channel 4's Banzai may have wanted to place a bet as to when he appeared, his liquid movements proved a hypnotic addition.

Reed's band, too, was out of the top drawer, in addition to singer Antony's androgynous vocal tremor, there was guitar and keyboard from Mike Rathke, cello from Jane Scarpantoni and the mercurial Fernando Saunders on everything else: Bass, drums, lead guitar and vocals.

This was the night Reed proved he is still full of surprises.

Review by Paul Keith: paul.keith@theargus.co.uk