POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Kravitz Lets Big-Rock Style Come to Fore

Touring relatively cozy theaters gives Lenny Kravitz a chance to boost the intimacy of his music. Given the highly personal, spiritual tone of his current “Circus� album and the recent death of his mother, actress Roxie Roker, he must have a lot of deep feelings to share.

Unfortunately, at the Wiltern Theatre on Saturday, he took pretty much the same big-rock-show approach that he did last time, in 1993, at the much larger Pauley Pavilion.

That said, it’s a solid big-rock show. Kravitz’s and his ace band’s command of rock idioms--though borrowed from, among others, James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, John Lennon and Led Zeppelin--remains impressive nearly seven years after his debut. He also downplayed (though didn’t abandon) the ‘60s-’70s retro fashion that for some people obscured his music.

The show began on a promising note with “The Resurrection,� a song from the new album that explicitly and directly spells out his religious perspective. He only opened up like that two more times--once when he thanked fans for their support after his mother’s death, and again in a solo acoustic encore of “God,� another pledge of Christian faith.

It didn’t help that Kravitz--given to grand, dreadlocks-flipping poses--and band maintained an ultra-serious, stone-faced presence. Of course, his boisterous fans will love whatever he does. Saturday he missed a chance to take that bond to another level.