Hits and Misses

“Hits radio”--what used to be known as Top 40--is a lot like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates. On this democratic, stylistically all-embracing format, you never know quite what you’ll get.

It might be a kid-pop band capable of some legitimate peach-fuzz soul: such as Hanson, objects of extreme puppy love as the crowd favorite at the Rick Dees KIISMas Party, thrown Wednesday night at Knott’s Berry Farm for 10,000 listeners of KIIS-FM (102.7) who scored tickets through the station.

Or it might be a rousing band of British political rabble-rousers, like Chumbawamba, the ensemble of self-proclaimed anarchists who closed the show.

More likely, given the insubstantial or formulaic nature of most singles acts, it will be a bunch of empty calories. Such was the case with Savage Garden, Aqua and Allure, the other acts on the bill.

The three cute, blond and prepubescent Hanson brothers of Tulsa, Okla., gave the chilly evening its squeal factor among the fans packed in Calico Square, the amusement park’s western-themed outdoor agora. Hanson’s three-song acoustic performance was folksy and energetic, although the squeals it drew were more muted than they might have been with the big production sound of the group’s hit album, “Middle of Nowhere.”

Taylor Hanson shook a tambourine with the fervor of a choirboy in a Southern gospel church and sang with husky ardor. Despite the group’s penchant for copying the Jackson 5, Taylor had more affinity for gritty Memphis soul than the sleeker Motown variety. The brothers’ trio harmonies were fine, and they seemed to have a troupers’ ethic, though they have yet to play a formal, extended tour of full-length shows. Kid-pop always puts cuteness and marketing before musical acumen, but Hanson’s solid foundation of soul and heartland rock is far more nourishing than the formulas pumped by the last big puppy-love bonanza band, New Kids on the Block.

The night’s best trio vocals belonged not to Hanson, but to three of the eight Chumbawamba members, who performed what sounded like an old English carol but was in fact an a cappella condemnation of neo-Nazism. It drew an enthusiastic ovation from folks who could easily concur, in this case, about the message and the music’s appeal.

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Some fans grumbled as the 30-minute set went on and still produced no “Tubthumping,” the preternaturally catchy drinking song and all-purpose rallying cry that vaulted this long-running fringe band into the mainstream. But when the hit came at the end, it wasn’t a case of Chumbawamba holding back the pop-flavored dessert until the crowd had swallowed its political vegetables. The entire set worked on musical terms, with a fine, well-arrayed mix of animatedly barking male voices, smooth, hooky female refrains, costumed theatrics (including Alice Nutter waxing irreverent at Christmas season as an antic, red-habited nun) and tight, propulsive playing. When it comes to Brits thumping the tub for underdog radicalism, the rougher-hewn Billy Bragg and Mekons remain better bets than the shinier-sounding Chumbawamba. But who ever thought that a band of radicals, sleek or otherwise, would become chic on hit radio?

Savage Garden and its singer, Darren Hayes, proved to be pretenders to the Australian pop-rock sex-symbol throne left vacant with the suicide of INXS’ Michael Hutchence. Hayes’ voice sounded thin, and his preening and prancing in shiny black leather was forced and not very smoldering. The concluding hit ballad, “Truly Madly Deeply,” found him overshadowed vocally by one of the band’s female backup singers, who remained visually in the background but by rights should have been made a full partner in a duet.

Allure’s pop-soul was nothing distinctive, although the four comely young Mariah Carey proteges from New York City sang capably and mustered a nice, hymnal closer, “All Cried Out.”

With its squeaky, Betty Boop-like lead singer and bald, growling male foil, the Danish synth-pop band Aqua comes off like a lobotomized B-52s or Sugarcubes. If pop critics are condemned to hell for our arrogance, we’ll probably encounter as our punishment an endless loop of Aqua’s album, “Aquarium.” But in a quick, energetic three-song snippet ending with the novelty item “Barbie Girl,” Aqua got the KIISMas Party off to a suitably bouncy beginning.