It takes a minute to realise that the man with the unruly hair, baggy T-shirt and grin isn't the guitar tech, but Shawn Lee, the star of the show. He may not look pampered and preened, but he knows what he's capable of. "I'm the enchanted wizard of rhythm," he announces, throwing his head back with a cackle to rival Janis Joplin's.

As he slowly builds the vibrant blues of Kill Somebody you can see what he means. Savouring each note, body moving in time, he infuses dark stories of Jack Daniels and working girls with a joyful exuberance, loving every minute. Robert Johnson never looked like this.

But this is a blues-jazz fusion for the dance generation. Floating sees the strong beats of drummer Joe Cooper emphasising Lee's fantastic voice, one minute a fragile falsetto, the next a husky, chocolatey drawl. He's from Wichita, Kansas, but has a lot in common with Minneapolis boy Prince in versatility and the desire to push boundaries.

If you thought the blues was a forgotten genre, something that is an inspiration for today's artists rather than an ongoing musical force, Lee will prove you wrong. In a forceful rasp he declares: "I'm still floating, although you try to drown me in bullshit."

While he's on stage he conveys a happy-go-lucky image - chatting to the audience, admitting that an impressively held note wasn't as easy as it looked. Even so, it's a defiant performance. Dodge sees Lee throwing his head back, tongue out, shaking his hair furiously like Ozzy Osbourne, while Eight Million Ways to Die is a seaside waltz of a song, spinning and turning loveliness, but revealing something nasty behind the faded glamour. Introducing Happiness, from upcoming album Monkey Boy, Lee comments: "It's not a song about death per se, but it could be if you want it to," before the bossa nova beats get funky and Lee sings of fleeting contentment.

But after darkness comes light, with Lee offering a copy of the new album to anyone who can name the four songs on his I Can't Save You EP released earlier this year, a request greeted with embarrassed silence. Finally he's reduced to asking if anyone can name the second song of the set. As someone down the front shouts it out and then admits to reading it from the set-list, hilarity sets in. "Well, you can kiss my ass," Lee laughs, proving that the blues can be fun after all.