Kravitz’s unshakable dependability cuts both ways. On the plus side, you know exactly what you are walking into entering Kravitz’s universe. The band will be hot and the set list will unfold with familiar hits and songs that are so easily assimilated they feel familiar even if you have never heard them before. But that airtight perfection also stifles anything you would recognize as spontaneous glee.
Kravitz took the stage on a wave of swagger, cranking through the new “Come on Get It,’’ vintage “Always on the Run,’’ and muscled-up Guess Who cover “American Woman.’’ The opening captured the concert’s overall flourish and comfort.
The title track to Kravitz’s new album is a hopeful meditation on race and draws from his own experiences growing up the child of a black mother and white father. The song was a powerful centerpiece for the show, though the flow of mid-tempo tunes and ballads that followed stalled that momentum.
Yet the quality of the players and spectacle of the stage show held together the concert. The great bassist Gail Ann Dorsey is the newest addition to Kravitz’s band, which also included a three-piece horn section, drums, keys, and longtime collaborator and guitar ace Craig Ross. Elaborately choreographed lights and video augmented the action.
And of course Kravitz himself remains a captivating figure, dressed in cosmic hipster finery and full of tales about globetrotting through world capitals and untamed jungles (really, Lenny claimed he emerged from a jungle just the day before coming to Boston to play a big rock show). Yet there was no mistaking Kravitz’s work as calculated showmanship.
Opener Raphael Saadiq offered a vibrant display of soul, blues, and R&B.
