TORONTO - To steal from the classic Dusty Springfield hit, Nick Cave sounded like the son of a preacher man Wednesday night at Toronto's Kool Haus.

The only difference being between Cave, 51, and most televangelists is that few would begin their sermon by discussing dragons roaming shopping malls so as to literally devour you as was the case on the show opening Night Of The Lotus Eaters.

But throughout large portions of the nearly two-hour show before quite a full house, Nick Cave and his longtime group The Bad Seeds offered up plenty of their own brand of fire and brimstone.

The slender, wiry and enthusiastic Cave, looking like a cross between a used car salesman and an extra from the Martin Scorsese film Mean Streets, is touring behind his latest album Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! And it was the groovy title track that set the stage for more of Cave's fiery but poetic rants as he paced the stage and pontificated to those in the front.

Following the early rock and roll hues colouring the fine, fevered Tupelo from 1985's album The Firstborn Is Dead, Cave and crew decided to slow the show down with the tender The Weeping Song. A few songs later, Cave improved on this with the gorgeous, charming Love Letter, a number that quickly tugs at the heartstrings while resembling the work of a singer-songwriter like Ron Sexsmith.

He also returned to the same feel when a fan's placard looking for The Ship Song was seen. While not on the set list originally, the group nailed the song almost as strongly as The Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat, which Johnny Cash covered, had Cave working himself into a frenzied state as the intensity constantly grew.

With multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis to Cave's left and often hunched over an elfin electric guitar, the group forged on with Midnight Man, another track from the new record that was one of the exceptions: it was okay but not spectacular.

It didn't seem to matter to fans though, some of whom Cave directly connected with, including "Jennifer, the keeper of the towel" who would toss it to the singer for him to wipe sweat from his face. Cave quickly said he would hunt her down if she were to auction off the item on eBay.

Cave, now 14 studio albums deep with The Bad Seeds, thrives on work. Aside from his recent musical side project Grinderman, Cave is also penning his second novel entitled The Death of Bunny Munro and will curate the inaugural Australian version of All Tomorrow's Parties, a popular alternative rock festival which originated in Britain.

One hopes that the other work won't interfere with future albums as Cave still has so much to offer judging by the raving We Call Upon The Author which name-dropped Hemingway for good measure.

Known for his signature piece Stagger Lee, Cave and The Bad Seeds rounded out the main set with Papa Won't Leave You, Henry which melded country, blues, soul and rock without any one style coming out as the dominant one.

But as is the case most nights, the only dominant one was Nick Cave.