Kravitz Weighed Down by Retro Overkill

Lenny Kravitz has internalized ‘70s style so completely that he can no longer discern the thin line that separates homage from appropriation. On his latest album, “5,” Kravitz seems to be drawing ideas from an empty well--rather than attempt to artfully conceal his secondhand musical quotations, he simply lets the seams show. At the Greek Theatre on Thursday, Kravitz was fearlessly derivative as he stomped through a set that was heavy on funk-rock bombast.

For Kravitz, potent imagery is as crucial as the music itself--his stage set featured a silver-ball drum riser that looked like something a young Elton John might have used, and his band members, with their low-slung guitars and lanky frames, came off like ‘70s rock-dude archetypes.

The bulk of Kravitz’s set was devoted to material whose forceful grooves borrowed liberally from Sly and the Family Stone. Such songs as “Freedom Train” and “Mama Said” trailed off into monotonous, one-chord vamps, while his ballads trafficked in overwrought sentimentality. Kravitz does know how to craft a majestic riff, however--”Rock and Roll Is Dead” and “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” provided cheap air-guitar thrills.

Still, for all of his platitudinous between-song patter about music being a positive life-force, Kravitz was too hung up on thrift-store artifice to really make an emotional impact.