POP MUSIC REVIEW : Tidings of Anger Rally KROQ’s ‘Acoustic Christmas’

What would an alternative-rock fest be without an alternative?

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Enter L.A.-based firebrands Rage Against the Machine, whose performance Sunday at the Universal Amphitheatre during the second night of KROQ’S “Acoustic Christmas” concert torpedoed the event’s spirit of seasonal cheer.

“We’re not here to celebrate this lie that is Christmas,” singer Zack de la Rocha proclaimed during the group’s signature broadside “Take the Power Back,” immediately establishing a dissident agenda.

Rage came from nowhere to steal the show on last summer’s “Lollapalooza” tour, and they easily won over the crowd Sunday--even as they provoked and to some degree probably puzzled it.

The quartet’s payload of revolutionary rhetoric and confrontational attitude is delivered by a searing blend of funk, metal and rap, and even in the modified acoustic format stipulated by the show, it charged the crowd. The centerpiece of the set was a skit in which de la Rocha and an actress portrayed a man and a woman transformed from lovers into violent, clawing adversaries by an onslaught of Bible verses.

This subversion shouldn’t surprise anyone--least of all the sponsoring radio station, which has already butted heads with Rage over the issue of editing expletives from its music. You might argue that a Yuletide benefit concert was an inappropriate place for such tidings of discomfort, but if you admire the band’s provocative stance at all, you have to accept that there’s no better target for their message than the heart of enemy territory.

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The rest of Sunday’s six-hour show was marked by some revelations of a gentler sort. Alternative-rock heroes of the year Smashing Pumpkins seemed totally at home in the acoustic setting, with a cello adding stabbing punctuation to Billy Corgan’s tormented introspection. In that context, their rendition of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” came in a close second to Saturday’s Tony Bennett triumph as the surprise of the weekend.

Or maybe it was the show-closing Porno for Pyros, making one of the few real adaptations to the acoustic requirement by adding a pianist and a second guitarist to the lineup and putting a lounge-jazz spin on its tribal-trance psychedelia.

Perry Farrell, no stranger to concert confrontation himself, was a warm, embracing presence, especially leading the group through a new song called “Pete’s Dad,” an eccentrically touching account of guitarist Peter DiStefano’s father’s announcement at a Christmas gathering of his recovery from cancer.

Violent Femmes are already a warped-folk band, so they were totally in their element, and Belly offered a fine, aggressive reworking of its often engaging, pop-flavored rock. Blind Melon was highly anticipated by the crowd, but came off flat and wispy as a semi-folk band. US 3, Cracker, Cranberries and Primus rounded out the bill at the show, which benefited organizations aiding the homeless.