Lenny Kravitz – Spark Arena: November 15, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)
Lenny Kravitz brought his Blue Electric Light Tour to New Zealand last night. It was the veteran rocker’s first show in Aotearoa in a career that reaches back almost 40 years.
So, spirits were high as the crowd filed in to Auckland’s Spark Arena, most of them showing up early enough to catch opening act Troy Kingi
Troy Kingi
If ever there was an ideal opening act for Lenny Kravitz, it had to be Troy. Troy has admitted that Lenny is one of his heroes and I’m guessing if Lenny catches Troy’s set, the feeling will be mutual.
With a new album just two weeks away…Night Lords is the 9th installment in Kingi’s ambitious 10-10-10 project…he and his band stick to the hits, warming up the crowd with favourites like Aztechknowledgey and Grandma’s Rocket Poem.
The 30-minute set is tight and funky…the crowd is warmed up…another job well-done!
Lenny Kravitz
By the time the lights dim and Lenny’s bandmates take their places, the arena is close to capacity.
There is about two minutes of darkness on stage, the tension rising, then…a squall of feedback, the sound of thunderous drums and and…a blinding explosion as flash bombs are fired and the band kicks in.
Lenny Kravitz has arrived.
Lenny looks and sounds just like I remember him when he first set the world on fire back in 1991.
Now, 34 years later, little has changed in Lenny’s world and that’s for the best.
“Rock & Roll is alive in New Zealand!” Lenny announces…and he ain’t wrong.
The band stops down after the first four songs to allow Kravitz to take in the moment.
“All I can say is, what is wrong with me that it took me my whole life to get here?”
And then…
“I’m in love already…nothing like love at first sight…you’re not gonna be able to get rid of me now, what a blessing it is to be here with you after 37 years!”
Fortunately that love is returned in kind and the night becomes a celebration of, in Lenny’s words, “love, inclusion and harmony”.
The massive band sounds great.
There’s two backing vocalists, a three-piece horn section and the core band of keyboard player George Laks, bass player “Wolf” (Hoonch Choi), drummer Jas Kayser, whose hair is almost bigger than the sound, and long-time guitarist Craig Ross.
The setlist runs the gamut from early hits like 1991’s Always On The Run to more recent tunes like 2001’s Stillness Of The Heart.
And tracks from the recent Blue Electric Light record fit seamlessly into the mix.
Among the highlights were…Believe, from 1993’s Are You Gonna Go My Way, featuring a soaring guitar solo from Ross and a dramatic I’ll Be Waiting, featuring Lenny on piano.
But Lenny wasn’t much for sitting down…he worked the full stage and eventually the entire arena, making his way into the crowd and shaking hands with fans all around the perimeter of the floor level.
And make no mistake…Lenny Kravitz is a rock star in every way.
There were times when it seemed he paused just to admire himself as his image was projected on the impressive set of screens behind him.
The hits came fast and furious at the end…It Ain’t Over, American Woman, Fly Away, Are You Gonna Go My Way.
An encore was demanded and Lenny took a full 25 minutes to work his way through Let Love Rule.
No one was in a hurry to go home, least of all Lenny.
“”I’m Lenny Kravitz and I’m never leaving New Zealand!”
Welcome home, Lenny.
Marty Duda
Photos by Den O’Keeffe
Lenny Kravitz set list:
- Bring It On
- Dig In
- TR421
- Always On The Run
- I Belong To You
- Stillness Of Heart
- Believe
- Honey
- Paralyzed
- Low
- The Chamber
- I’ll Be Waiting
- It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over
- Again
- American Woman
- Fly Away
- Are You Gonna Go My Way
- Let Love Rule
