After four years without new material, Lenny Kravitz [ tickets ] brought his "love revolution" to an ample Phoenix crowd Friday (12/15) at US Airways Center.

Dressed in black skinny jeans, a black leather jacket, a scarf and the obligatory sunglasses, Kravitz jammed through a multitude of hits during his 70-minute performance.

Like a conductor, with a slam of his hand he instructed his band to start playing. Kravitz kicked off the show with "Love Revolution," the opening track from his forthcoming album, "It is Time for a Love Revolution," due in stores Feb. 5. The thumping, driving beat carried the message across. He took a turn at an electric keyboard and performed a solo, returned to the front of the stage and, with a herky-jerky body movement, ended the song.

He's one of the few artists who can play new material without watching fans head to the concession stands and restrooms. The new track "Bring It On," which sounds like the love child of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" and "Black Dog," brought forth a spirited response from the crowd.

Of course, the hits are what fans expected. He whipped the microphone stand across the stage and asked, "Where Are We Runnin'?" As the tight, almost impeccable six-piece band played and sang "Ooh Eee Ooh Eee Ooh," an energetic Kravitz ran to stage right and lifted his sunglasses to get a better look at the crowd. The music stopped on a dime, as Kravitz ended each song with the enthusiasm of an encore.

As drummer Franklin Vanderbilt played simple beats, Kravitz held up the show by addressing a marriage proposal shouted to him from the audience. "Is that a real offer? Are you from America?" Kravitz said, while coyly introducing "American Woman," his take on the Guess Who hit.

An American woman to whom he paid tribute was his mother, the late actress Roxie Roker ("The Jeffersons"), with "Always on the Run."

"Back in 1991, things were really crazy," he said. "I was runnin' around a lot. This is a little song I wrote for my mom."

He left some of the lyrics to audience. For "Dig In," he turned to the audience for the chorus, "And once you dig in/You'll find you'll have yourself a good time."

"You sound so good. You sound so great. I love it when you sing," he proclaimed over the audience's vocals.

Kravitz used his hit "Let Love Rule" as a podium for a speech about global troubles.

"Now more than ever, we need to let love rule in our lives," he said to the crowd. "We have so many ... challenges in front of us. You're intelligent people. It gets harder every day."

He cited the Iraq war and environmental issues surrounding us as the negativity that is "kicking our ass."

"One thing we can still control is ourselves and the concept of peace. It's a very esoteric subject. Basically, we're never going to have peace on this planet until we have a global change of consciousness."

He encouraged the audience to love themselves. "That is our universe and we must begin right there," he concluded.

As the band played a funk jam, Kravitz made his way around the arena's main floor, shaking and slapping hands with his fans.

Kravitz performed in Phoenix as part of a Mix 96.9 radio holiday show. Emerson Hart, former Tonic frontman, opened the three-and-a-half-hour show with a strong set that included Tonic's "If You Could Only See" as well as Hart's heartbreaking solo piece "I Wish the Best For You."

But it took Finger Eleven's song "Paralyzer," from the Canadian band's album "Them Vs. You Vs. Me," to energize the crowd. Toward the end of the song, Finger Eleven mashed "Paralyzer" with Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out," Led Zeppelin's "Trampled Underfoot," Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall"--all songs that "Paralyzer" resembles-- and seamlessly back to "Paralyzer" to end the set.

Dolores O'Riordan, former lead singer of The Cranberries, was listed as an opener but she pulled out due to illness.