Like Santa, Coldplay and Beck deliver

This has been the most exciting year for adventurous rock ‘n’ roll in nearly a decade, so you’d think alt-rock titan KROQ-FM’s annual Almost Acoustic Christmas benefit concert Sunday would have been a four-star celebration -- a hearty ho-ho-ho-ho on the Santa scale.

But the show at the Universal Amphitheatre came close to being simply a ho-ho-ho-hum.

The main reason is that several of the acts that brightened KROQ’s (106.7) playlist during the year, including the White Stripes and Hives, weren’t on hand, creating a serious void.

Despite the hip-hop charm of the always dependable Jurassic 5 and the punk-edged punch of the evolving Vines early in the six-hour concert, the energy level was so low by the two-thirds point that you felt that only a Heimlich maneuver could pump some life into this baby.

Fortunately, Beck and Coldplay were in the house.

It’s been a busy two weeks around town for Beck. First, he and Flaming Lips lead singer Wayne Coyne helped bring some holiday cheer to KCRW-FM’s holiday concert on Nov. 23 at Universal by singing such oddities as Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe.”

Then the singer-songwriter returned to Universal two nights later for his own spectacular concert with the Flaming Lips, mixing heartbreak tunes from his excellent new album, “Sea Change,” with some of his more experimental early work.

In a 45-minute set Sunday backed by the Lips, Beck gave us a mini-version of the Nov. 25 concert, showcasing three songs from “Sea Change,” but mainly offering the earlier work, including the old KROQ favorite “Loser.” It was a dazzling display of energy and imagination that represented the best instincts of both KROQ and pop music generally.

But Beck wasn’t done. Before exiting, he and the Lips actually tried to live up to the spirit of the Acoustic Christmas title by bringing out a dozen folks in Santa Claus suits and animal costumes while they led the audience in “White Christmas.”

To keep the merriment going, Beck then invited some of the evening’s cast, including Coldplay’s Chris Martin and Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba, to sing Band Aid’s 1985 charity song “Do They Know It’s Christmas.”

You’d think such lively holiday exercises would be a staple in the parade of year-end, radio station-sponsored concerts, but they are, sadly, the exception.

Artists could show the audience another side of their musical personality by playing an unexpected song by another act (as the Vines did to good effect Sunday with a soulful rendition of OutKast’s “Ms. Jackson”) or (imagine this) actually playing a holiday song a la Beck.

Rather than let the energy level sag after Beck, Martin and his mates in the English rock group Coldplay put on an eye-opening set that showed how much they have grown as performers since their engaging but understated L.A. debut early last year at the Mayan.

At the time, the band members were modest and reserved, as if not wanting to distract from the thoughtful and personal nature of their tales of love and longing. But Martin showed a confidence and command Sunday that reminded you of the early days of U2, when that Irish band reached out to the audience with captivating fervor. Martin also earned bonus points Sunday by closing with a solo rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

Things would have been a whole lot merrier Sunday (and Saturday, the first of the two Acoustic Christmas nights) if the other acts had shown as much spirit as Beck and Coldplay. Good Charlotte played with the precision that comes from doing more than 300 shows over the last two years, but the East Coast band’s brand of punk is so pop-flavored that it has little to do with the legacy of the Sex Pistols and Black Flag.

Dashboard Confessional’s sensitive, soul-searching exercises are compelling on record, but they felt far less urgent or unique in the 6,000-seat amphitheater. When Carrabba plays solo, as he did Sunday, rather than with his band, he needs to find a way to vary his delivery so that everything isn’t at the same emotional level.

The audience seemed to adore Jack Johnson, but the singer-songwriter’s music, with its light blues and reggae touches, was so undemanding that you wonder how it ever made its way onto KROQ’s playlist, unless everyone’s caught up in his surfer-as-musician back story.

And, then, there was comedian Jimmy Fallon, whose hyperactive rock-star routine and spoofs of artist-audience bonding aren’t ready for prime time. They lacked any real focus or wit.

Almost everything was forgiven during the magic of the 90-minute Beck/Coldplay stretch, but that goodwill was shattered by a performance by Creed that seemed jinxed from the start. Singer Scott Stapp wasn’t 30 seconds into his huff-and-puff rock-star posturing before he realized his microphone wasn’t working. The band had to take a five-minute break to get things worked out.

For all its life-affirming, spiritual tinges, Creed’s hard-rock style is so overbaked that the five minutes of silence proved to be the highlight of the set. After a half hour, I gave myself an early Christmas present. I headed home.