It's hard to fell anything but reverence for a woman who, at 58, can still fit into skin-tight drain-pipe jeans.

And, with a ripped black pair caught up into calf-length boots and topped with a battered jacket, Patti Smith looked every inch the androgynous icon who stared disdainfully out, 30 years ago, from the cover of her debut album, Horses.

This was, in fact, supposed to be an evening devoted to this art-punk classic - a special reprise of a performance given during Smith's recent curatorship of the Meltdown Festival.

But, having opened with a spoken version of her defiant first single, Piss Factory, which she ended by hurling the lyric book at the drum kit and crying "Watch me now!", Smith proceeded to snarl, spit and unspool her way through a careerspanning set which included tributes to Dylan and Elvis and the confession that she'd become a convert to "the English custom of having beans on toast for breakfast - I'm just explaining in case you feel a breeze blowing your way."

We were treated to a prowling, passionate version of Free Money, the reggae-tinged Redondo Beach (during which she danced like Boy George) and an amalgamation of Gloria and Horses, Smith's tongue lustily rolling out improvised lyrics in time to the band's rhythmic chords.

But for the most part, she favoured those later classics (Because The Night, People Have The Power) where Horses' compelling clash between low art (punk) and high art (poetry) makes way for an easy marriage of fist-waving rock and hippyish incantations.

So what happened? Was the Horses thing always wishful thinking on the Dome's part or did Smith simply decide, last minute, that, nah, she'd rather do some stuff which would allow her to get out her oboe? I'd love to say it didn't matter - Smith was warm, witty and in superb voice and at least three people within ear shot declared it their "best gig ever".

But when what you were expecting was a performance of one of the most seminal albums of all time and what you got was largely a stadium rock concert - well, there's a little wonder, a little awe going spare.