Lenny Kravitz puts on a night of love in Auckland

It’s been 36 years since his debut album, Let Love Rule, but Lenny Kravitz finally made it to New Zealand.

It was love at first sight.

The crowd in Spark Arena in Auckland on Saturday were there to celebrate the man who has spent longer as a rock icon than some in his band have been alive.

The crowd rejoiced, they danced, they sang. “We love you Lenny,” shouted the man in his 50s, maybe 60s, a row down.

This was like a date night for couples, mostly over 50, at Spark. They carried the memory of Kravitz when he was young and a hitmaker. They carried the memory of when they had his records and played them at parties.

And by just his second song, 'Dig in', off the self-referentially titled Lenny, couples were up dancing. Or at least the one in the couple who dances, was up and gyrating. The one in the couple who doesn’t dance was moving their shoulders and clapping. By the third song, 'TK421' (a chant along number best known for its music video of a naked Kravitz, his parts covered only by household items) the house was clapping along.

“Why did I wait so long to come,” shouted Kravitz.

Indeed.

At his best, in that nine years or so starting in 1989, he pulled off a couple of big hits.They had hot riffs, the propulsive tchk-tchk-tchk of the rhythm guitar to keep things moving, a funky bass, and lyrics simple enough to single along to even if not particularly memorable.

So many years we've tried

To keep our love alive

But baby, it ain't over 'til it's over

After that the hits pretty much stopped. It’s been 25 years, a generation, since his last American top 10 song, 'Again' (which reached #4). But Lenny Kravitz the rock god lived on. He perfected the image. He dated the most beautiful women, produced the most beautiful children, took up acting, played on every rock programme he was invited to, wrote a rather sweet autobiography about growing up in a bi-racial family between New York and LA and found the gym. Every day.

It takes discipline to look this good as a rock god at 61. As his autobiography, Let Love Rule, shows Kravitz knows the music business is a business and to succeed you have to work harder even while trying to make it look natural. So there’s a touch of Dorian Gray about Kravitz; as we his fans have got older, paunchier, saggier, eschewing the gym, he has worked harder, hit the weights, eaten only the healthiest foods and looks, well, fit.

Kravitz’s stomach is a thing of wonder. He has what the Guardian called an eight pack, you could play like a xylophone.

At Spark the eight pack wonder of the world was there only in glimpses. He wore a camisole though we were shown a pre-recorded video of it on the screen at one point.

By this stage of his career, fewer people are probably coming to see Lenny perform his music, as just to see Lenny perform.

He doesn’t so much dance as saunter to the ends of the stage, to acknowledge the crowds. The camera broadcasts his every step to giant screens.

There's a lot of Lenny in a Lenny Kravitz show.

And why not. When as a young man he tried to persuade his father to back his band, his Dad told him there were 11 people on stage but only one had the drive and charisma to make it. It's still true.

Even when announcing his band of fine musicians, the camera stays on his face, cutting away only at the end to acknowledge the band member. There’s Jas Kayser on drums, a jazz and Afro-beats drummer, whose beats sound huge, looking like she has stepped out from Prince’s finest bands. On lead guitar is Craig Ross, who has played with Kravitz since 1991, providing the rock licks and looking like a cross between Joey Ramone and Slash (who coincidentally knew Kravitz as a teen at Beverly Hills High).

For all Kravitz’s hard work the night does sag a bit through the middle as we work through the latest songs off the most recent album, Blue Electric Light, like 'Honey' and 'Paralyzed', but not disastrously. Kravitz has funky instincts; he might be a rocker but his first musical loves were funk, soul and jazz. The bass keeps Spark going.

Recently, some of Kravitz’s lesser songs can sound like they have been put together from the constituent parts of rock, but here at full decibel, orchestrated by Kravitz, they roll along.

And there’s always Kravitz-watching.

He has the look; tight jeans, dreads, bug-eyed sunnies, leather jacket and bling. Like Iggy Pop, he has never come across a shirt he couldn’t ignore. It’s the perfect Lenny Kravitz rock god outfit; it looks thrown together but is carefully chosen to be so instantly recognisable you could wear it to a Halloween party and be known straight away.

Finally, it is into those handful of hits, 'Fly Away', 'American Woman', the Guess Who cover with the unforgettable hook and best forgotten lyrics, and a crunching 'Are You Gonna Go My Way'.

At the end, Kravitz and the band launch into an extended 'Let Love Rule', his first single, from 1989. He leaves the stage, through the mosh pit, touching the outstretched hands of fans, then carries on around the entire perimeter of the Arena floor. The crowd is drawn to where he is. They want to touch the man. It takes an age to make it back to the stage.

We’ll be back, he tells the crowd.

At the current rate he would be 97. Who knows if he would still be the rock god. But, maybe, with a bit of hard work, discipline and a tight band he still could be. You wouldn’t count Lenny Kravitz out.