The evening played out like an ’80s-style TV show, complete with voiceovers, videotaped mock commercials, and two oversized studio cameras on stage to get the point across. Carpenter later emerged in a black bodysuit for a cocktail party segment (with a jazzy rendition of “Feather”) and a sparkly dress for an elegant “Dumb & Poetic,” and the live episode featured end credits in which the tour staff performed was.

Her lyrics are peppered with sexual innuendos – some direct, some implicit – but Carpenter deliberately winks at the whole thing, making it more arrogant than crude. On Thursday, “Bed Chem” saw her briefly writhing in a luxurious bedroom, while the rollicking dance-pop of “Juno” was accompanied by a brief flash of panties after a session of flirting with a Brighton fan named Dakota at the front. She led the mostly youthful, female crowd in a call-and-response conversation that emphasized three words: “companionship,” “horny,” and “friendship.”

But otherwise, the Short n’ Sweet show was a standard pop extravaganza that stayed between the lines, with 11 dancers, a four-piece band, two backup singers and a confetti-strewn finale adding to the action. (Then again, not every standard pop concert includes a lengthy black-and-white clip from 1966 of Leonard Cohen contemplating poetry — as Thursday’s show did — so perhaps there’s something deeper going on here.)

Carpenter is a skilled live performer and serviceable singer, but her true strength lies in the artistry of her songs. These are cleverly crafted pop songs that are more sophisticated than they might seem at first glance, harkening back to bygone golden eras without falling into retro laziness.