Nick Oliveri's pseudonym when playing with veteran punk-rockers Dwarves has always seemed so appropriate - Rex Everything.

As a member of the vastly influential Kyuss and the mainstream-subverting Queens Of The Stone Age his reputation preceded him, with tales of violence, drug abuse and general bad behaviour circling.

After setting up their own gear, his band skulked on stage to the sound of air-raid sirens, before the chugging howl of new album opener Like A Bomb set the scene. However, the latest incarnation of Mondo Generator somehow seemed not to gel. The members hardly interacted, nor seemed comfortable with one another.

Despite the usual bloodcurdling array of screams and howls, nasty Nick himself seemed subdued too, though playing to a nearly-empty pub so soon after leaving one of the biggest bands on the planet must be quite a shock.

The songs were as strong as ever - the slo-mo thrash of Shawnette and the pummelling Life Of Sin raged and seethed, while Oliveri's downbeat rasp on Queens' favourite Auto Pilot boded well for the upcoming acoustic album.

However, the slightly plodding delivery sorely lacked the aggressive drive of Oliveri's previous backing band, Winnebago Deal, and the set-closer, a blistering, deafening version of 13th Floor, served only to remind how the rest of the night could have been.

Some flashes of brilliance then, but the self-mythologising lyrics of songs such as I Never Sleep jarred with the pleasant, polite fellow on stage, and like a toothless Tasmanian Devil, Oliveri, made all the right noises but lacked bite.