KROQ Show Is Thin on Christmas

Jesus was born more than 2,000 years ago, and the Maccabees reclaimed their temple more than 160 years before that.

So forgive the overall neglect of those events during Saturday’s first night of the annual KROQ-FM (106.7) Almost Acoustic Christmas weekend at the Universal Amphitheatre.

But Sept. 11 was just three months ago. So it’s less forgivable that the momentous tragedies of that day had little overt impact Saturday, lost along with the season’s celebrations of miracles, light and hope amid narcissistic self-absorption and cynical music marketing strategies in an environment where tradition goes back only as far as the last SoundScan and Arbitron figures.

With moody nu-metal-heads Staind, cut-up punks Blink-182 and hip-hop-rock sensation Linkin Park topping the bill, this was a night of chunk-style rock, heavy on pummeling guitars and various shades of grrrrr, skewed toward the younger end of the KROQ audience.

Only three of the acts performed any Christmas-oriented material, just one made any effort to honor post-Sept. 11 patriotism, and Staind’s somber singer Aaron Lewis couldn’t even drop his pose long enough to wish the fans happy holidays.

In the light of the season and the shadow of terrorism and war, though, the middle three of the evening’s nine sets stood out.

After Alien Ant Farm, Puddle of Mudd and Sum 41 blithely rocked in their respectively neo-prog, neo-grunge and neo-punk ways, San Diego quartet P.O.D. went about putting the Christ back in Christmas. The band is having huge success with its unlikely mix of pulverizing guitar rock, breast-beating tones and Christian themes, and on Saturday singer Sonny Sandoval’s heavenward gazes were as prominent as his tattoos and dreadlocks. The two sides of the equation didn’t always mesh, but neither the group’s chops nor commitment was ever in doubt.

And in “Alive,” a particularly Christian paean that has gotten a bona fide Sept. 11-derived boost to hitdom, P.O.D. has actually achieved something in which the inspiration can be appreciated by even nonbelievers.

Speaking of which, whoever scheduled Bad Religion to follow P.O.D. either has a twisted sense of irony or is totally oblivious. Yet BR’s secular sense of commitment is just as deep as the preceding band’s religious fervor. It even directly acknowledged Christmas, albeit with “Frosty the Snowman,” before moving on to the fiery, smart and often compelling social critiques that as early as the mid-’80s made it one of the lynchpins of L.A. punk.

The set, marking the return of co-founder Brett Gurewitz after seven years away, was also highlighted by a song that has taken on added meaning in light of recent events-- “Sorrow,” in which singer Greg Graffin projects a world of peace, a punk echo of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” fitting as Saturday was the 21st anniversary of Lennon’s murder.

System of a Down then offered the night’s most ambitious and distinctive performance, drawing on the band’s Armenian heritage for powerful, complex material exploring cultural displacement and the power of diligence, community and, yes, love. Arguably, the L.A. quartet is stepping into a contemporary social-conscience void left by Rage Against the Machine--without Rage’s sometimes burdensome dogma and doctrine and with an implicit spiritual tone from elements of the beautifully sad traditional Armenian melodies woven into the music.

Staind, which was reviewed in these pages recently, provided solipsistic sludge by comparison. Lewis seems to feel the anguish he expresses very deeply. But there’s no poetry in his pain.

In another jarring segue, Blink-182 put the X back in Xmas and the Ha back in Hanukkah. A fixture at recent years’ KROQ shows, frontmen Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge tickled the crowd with their absurdist potty-mouthed banter, but that’s the Trojan horse conveying songs full of rich and resonant portraits of teens in states ranging from basic confusion to suicidal depression.

Linkin Park, another L.A. outfit that was reviewed recently, capped the night with a genuinely grateful manner and energetic performance that helped compensate for its material being more monochromatic than its well-crafted hybrid ought to be.