Live Review: Lenny Kravitz

                                                                             Photography: Ken Leanfore

22 March 2012

by Poppy Reid

Wednesday March 21
Sydney Entertainment Centre, NSW

Opening with a new track from your ninth album after an 18-year absence is a bold move from any musician; but Lenny Kravitz has the kind of moxie to pull it off.

Come On And Get It saw Kravitz dance up and down his mic stand and high-haired guitarist Craig Ross before the end of his opening comeback, satiating those who came purely for the hits and gritty stage presence.

Computer generated female effigies danced inside the back-screen triangle as trumpet player Ludovic Louis blew us away (sorry) and a limber Ross leaned horizontally to lay across Kravitz’ back during Always On The Run. Ex-pats and US wannabes stood for a conniption fit in second Mama Said track, American Woman. Kravitz grooved his way through it in exactly the way you would want to see the song play out live.

:: View all the live shots from the night here.

Expressing his humility multiple times throughout the show, Kravitz promised he wouldn’t leave it so long next time.

“I had an amazing, amazing life changing trip,” he said. “I went all over the country and met a lot of people… I promise you right now that I will be back in the next,” he hesitated, “couple of years. The next two!”

Sticking to his 1991 sophomore, Kravitz’ voice soared upward in crowd favourite It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over. The guitar solos were amplified while the New Yorker tugged his guitar lead, a fiend for the distortion.

“We just go where the music takes us,” Kravitz said before new track Black and White America saw him channel John Legend. While the song itself wasn’t greatly received, the accompanying images of his family and childhood were. This track opened a slight lull for the night when lesser known songs like Fields Of Joy and Believe took the forefront. Yet even when only a few knew the words the horn section displays and piano solo from long-time member George Lax did well to dizzy the crowd with lightening bolts of static energy.

 

Ending with the same selective explosion as he began with in final tracks Fly Away and Are You Gonna Go My Way, Kravitz and his two guitarists Craig Ross and Gail Ann Dorsey posed front and centre. Kravitz returned minutes later and bowed before us, perhaps in preparation for his 25-minute rendition of Let Love Rule where he spent most the track in the audience. This wasn’t a display of ego and testosterone though, it was a modest thank you for playing host again and not holding a grudge for the prolonged gap in between.