Lenny Kravitz delivers funky hits at Electric Factory

Audiences have seen musician and fashion plate Lenny Kravitz through many styles since 1989, tonsorially (the straight hair was weird, we dug the long dreads) and sartorially (love the bellbottoms, please no more fringe).

Yet musically, Kravitz has stayed mostly the same, save for some funky variations.

He's been a cocky rocker and a swaggering, crooning balladeer whose lyrics were plain but passably anthemic. At his start, his sound was like John Lennon-meets-Elvis Costello, and ever since he's done some psychedelic shacking up a la Sly & the Family Hendrix.

When he came to a sold-out Electric Factory last night, Lenny and his crack band winnowed that usual into a hard sound, tighter than his new pre-worn leather jacket.

Kicking-off one's set with a new tune would be risky, if it wasn't as ruggedly crunching as Kravitz's "Bring It On." It may've been a case of different day, same bombast. But with a noisy saxophonist as part of the chunky groove and lyrics like "It's getting heavy / But I'm ready" the risk made for a satisfyingly punkish start.

While his acoustic guitar-fueled "If You Want It" seemed overly faceless and generic, Kravitz turned a new piano-pumping ballad, "I'll Be Waiting" into something weirdly precious, with lines like "I wanna be with you until we're old." With Valentine's Day coming, who isn't a sucker for saccharine? Even the banal call-to-l'amour that was "Love Revolution" had enough foot-stomping charge to make you overlook the lyrics.

That mix of new songs was laced with some of his hits. And on them, Kravitz showed how he could use even the tiniest of his charms to make his big moments seem intimate. He lowered his voice an octave to talk out the line "to be natural" through the chug-a-lug funk of "Always on the Run," pumped his plodding, bluesy "Mr. Cab Driver" with quickly unfurling squiggles of Hendrixian guitar, and turned "Let Love Rule" into more of a gospel groove than a Beatles rip-off, with its humming, somber organ fills.

The verdict's still out on his new, shorter 'do. But Kravitz's sounds, old and new, were mighty decent.