P.J. Har­vey can’t weigh a hun­dred pounds, yet the moment she opens her mouth to begin a song, she threat­ens to bring the room down around her in a storm of emo­tional power.

The Eng­lish blues-influenced singer and her musi­cal part­ner John Parish per­formed maybe a dozen pieces March 23 at Los Ange­les’ El Rey The­ater. A good num­ber of the songs were actu­ally poems read set to music; in one song, Har­vey only danced, as there were no vocals. Whether she is entreat­ing in a frail voice, snarling defi­ance, burst­ing with anx­i­ety, or pour­ing out hope, her charisma and act­ing abil­ity are so strong that it is impos­si­ble to divert atten­tion to any­thing else in the room. The band, with whom she per­formed no music from her solo albums, were dressed smartly and unob­tru­sively; they played solidly and well, but ced­ing the spot­light to the lit­tle cyclone in the white dress. Even Parish stayed in the back­ground until the encore, in which — prod­ded by Har­vey, she said — he sang an old song of his.

Her phys­i­cal per­for­mance was every bit as mes­mer­iz­ing as her vocal per­for­mance. Although bound by belts from the col­lar­bone to the knees, turn­ing her white dress into a sort of full-length strait-jacket that left the arms free, she expressed an aston­ish­ing range of feel­ings and state­ments with her body. She jerked her shoul­ders and arms as if a pup­pet­mas­ter were pulling her with invis­i­ble strings; she whipped her body to add force to excla­ma­tions, yelling “I will not!” and yelp­ing like a fero­cious dog; she danced this undu­lat­ing, tango-like thing dur­ing an instru­men­tal piece, riv­et­ing the audience’s atten­tion on her even when she was silent. When the spirit of each song flooded into her, it was impres­sive to see the com­plete­ness and author­ity of the transformation.

After a brief encore, the final touch, the final shred of mas­ter­ful show­man­ship, was her final state­ment to the audi­ence: After gra­ciously thank­ing them for their applause, she  said sim­ply that the band would see the assem­bled again in June. With the per­for­mance she had just given, it’s a sure bet that plenty of peo­ple will be refresh­ing Ticketmaster.com, wait­ing on the edge of their office chairs to find out what she’ll do next.