Meltdown visit #2 was to see the majestic Patti Smith. We were a bit unsure what to expect this evening as there were conflicting reports of what the line-up would be but we sat out the support act and took our places for Herself.

The lights went down and there she was in her standard Patti costume.... long jacket, pale shirt, skinny jeans and boots "They are worth more than me". She was accompanied not by the hoped-for Lenny Kaye, Jay Dee Daugherty and Tony Shananhan but by Tom Uttley (not Ugly as I thought she said) from Portishead and a drummer whose name I didn't catch. She said she was happy to be back - Patti curated an excellent Meltdown in 2005 - and launched into an unaccompanied version of her mighty poem "Piss Factory", 35 years old and just as blistering.

After that all bets were off as she admitted that in the true nature of Meltdown she would be doing things unknown to her with people she hadn't even met! She gave us a two-hour show - part-gig/part-recital - singing a couple of lesser known songs from her back catalogue and quite a few poems with a musical backing. The only songs I knew in the entire set were "Wander I Go" and "Wing" - neither of which would make her Greatest Hits cd - and she closed with "My Blakean Year". Now an improvised set isn't the best thing to sit through when you realise halfway through that you need a wee and you are stuck in the middle of the row but if anyone can keep you hooked it's Patti. She was joined occasionally by daughter Jesse - very fine pianist - and Red Hot Chilli Pepper guitarist Flea and to close the first 'section' she was joined on stage by The Master Musicians of Jajouka for a long number which sounded like having your head in a beehive while Patti picked up her Clarinet - always a worrying sign - and Flea rocked out. It bordered on insanity but toppled over into hypnotic.

She was later joined by the Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra - aka 6 Canadian electric string musicians - who honked and sawed away behind her poems in memory of Mother Theresa and a topical one about the green flag-waving protests in Iran which segued into the chorus of "People Have The Power".

As usual she was caustic but charming to the punters who hollered their inane thoughts at her including an obviously pointed comment towards the end of the show "Do you do requests?" She threw us some welcome bones for the obligatory encore - huge powerful versions of "Pissing In A River" and "Ghost Dance".

Occasionally maddening but she is never less than mesmerising.