You know, for example, that there are certain things you can be guaranteed of hearing on a Blues Explosion album; maniacal guitar work, compression on the drums that could blow the walls off a dam, and Jon Spencer yelling "Blues Explosion!" in his faux-hillbilly-meets-Elvis delivery. However, tracks like 'Talk About The Blues', 'Wail' and 'Bernie' are as far apart musically as you can get while strictly adhering to shit-kicking blues as your starting point.

The trio's live shows have a certain predicatablity as well. You can be sure that a JSBX (or rather BX) performance will showcase the following; Jon Spencer leaping, writhing and leering into the microphone like a man with a live salmon loose in his trousers, Russel Simmins punishing his drum kit like the Wild Man of Borneo, and Judah Bauer standing off to one side of the stage playing lead, with the expression of a man who's seen this all done before, and better. And all of this is going to be delivered flawlessly - any glitches are likely to be technical (like tonight when Spencer's mic proved to be completely useless)

You're also guaranteed that, for all the familiar elements a Blues Explosion concert contains, the band deliver on their commitment to every audience. Sure, I've seen this show before, but it never seems forced or phoney. It never seems like the trio are simply going through the motions. In fact, every Blues Explosion concert kicks off with the energy and excitement of a band playing their first gig, determined to level the venue they're playing in.

In a weird way, this giddy enthusiasm combined with their sound makes Spencer and Company seem more current than ever. They've been around long enough now to be considered elder statesmen of the current crop of retro-rock, although watching them blaze through tracks like 'Chicken Dog', 'She Said' and 'Damage', I sometimes get the feeling that if the band had adopted a red and white dress code in 1995, then Jack and Meg White might've been out of a job.

It's a testament to this fact, that the Blues Explosion never open with some crappy 20th-tier act to make the punters all the more grateful by the time they hit the stage. In the past I've seen them come on behind relatively young up-and-comers like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The International Noise Conspiracy and (tonight) Martina Toply-Bird, yet Spencer and company have never left me thinking they should've been anywhere other than the top of the bill.

So yeah, you know what you're getting with the Blues Explosion - an exceptionally talented outfit that are going to play their goddam hearts out and do everything but bleed for the cause. And if that doesn't appeal to you than I have to ask why.