Roast is a smorgasbord

It would be one crazy iPod that would go straight from super-sensitive Dashboard Confessional to horror-rock (and film) auteur Rob Zombie. It would certainly be an abrupt segue for a radio station to make.

But it was particularly jarring coming as it did Saturday at the annual KROQ-FM (106.7) Weenie Roast y Fiesta concert at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine. The show -- topped by a dynamic set from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and including a winning acoustic solo set by “surprise” guest Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters -- was marked by several intriguing shifts of style, though none so much as this one.

Dashboard Confessional, whose front man, Chris Carrabba, is a pacesetter in the earnestly emotional branch of rock known as emo, was fine in the middle of a daylong bill, serious fans singing along to every word.

Zombie obliterated whatever feelings were left hanging in the air after Dashboard, hitting the stage with his band done up in death-skull motifs and huge stacks of Marshall amps. Zombie belittled emo fans (unfortunately, using an offensive epithet for gays in the process) and threatened personally to take care of anyone he saw chatting on a phone or using a BlackBerry.

“Go home and go on your MySpace page and talk all about it,” he snarled, mockingly. “But for now, experience it.”

It wasn’t just his words that demanded attention. It was his performance. With over-the-top metal raging behind him, he was a classic rock star, scruffy long hair flying as he prowled and scowled around the stage and into the audience with nearly all in the more than 15,000 in the sold-out amphitheater on their feet.

It’s hard to say who to feel more sorry for: Dashboard or Angels & Airwaves, which had to follow Zombie. And A&A; leader Tom DeLonge wasn’t just competing with the predecessor on stage but with his own past as a member of longtime KROQ favorite Blink-182.

While his former band was known for its juvenile patter and antics (if underappreciated for strong songs), the new group is all about meaning, shooting for U2-ish grandeur in sound and thematic threads drawing on the post-9/11 world of war. But he’d do well to let fans embrace it on their own rather than force the issue, as he did Saturday, albeit with good intentions.

The only bigger disconnect might have been if second-billed Matisyahu had followed Zombie. In full Hasidic garb (beard, long coat and broad-brimmed hat over a yarmulke), the Reggae Rebbe offered his unlikely hit mix of Jewish sermonizing and Jamaican beats. It was a good match with an earlier reggae set from Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, who blended dancehall styles with several of his father Bob Marley’s socially conscious songs.

The Chili Peppers’ closing set reaffirmed the L.A. quartet’s status among rock’s elite. Songs from the new “Stadium Arcadium” double-CD package added maturity and musical range to the already-impressive repertoire without any loss of the rowdy, punk-funk spirit and showmanship that has been the trademark for more than 20 years.

And guitarist John Frusciante, ever more the marvel with his Hendrix-and-beyond flights, added a lovely, irony-free solo rendition of the Bee Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Love.”

Also on the main stage were the melodic hard-rock and suave swagger of HIM, emo-with-an-edge from Taking Back Sunday, the forgettable Panic at the Disco and the icily dark, new-wave retro of L.A.’s She Wants Revenge.

The most promising (and certainly more exciting) young band of the day was Australian trio Wolfmother, on the earlier “second stage” in the adjacent parking lot. The group evoked the inventive power of Led Zeppelin and Cream in both sound and shabbily raucous posturing.

Rob Zombie, likely, would approve.