Beck, Flaming Lips, Coldplay, And Jack Johnson Get Into Christmas Spirit

12/09/2002 5:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Mark Armstrong

(12/9/02, 5 p.m. ET) -- Beck, Coldplay, and Jack Johnson were in the holiday spirit for Sunday's (December 8) Almost Acoustic Christmas Concert at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.

Beck and his recent tour mates/backing band, the Flaming Lips, delivered a double-shot holiday treat at the end of their set. The Lips brought out their usual gaggle of people dressed in fuzzy animal costumes along with Santa Claus, too, all tossing fake plastic snow into the crowd, while Beck and Lips leader Wayne Coyne traded lines on "White Christmas."

The holiday classic followed with a song Beck told the audience, "you'll know if you were born before 1985," as he launched into Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas" joined by Coldplay's Chris Martin and Johnson.

Coldplay's own appearance ended with Martin, solo on piano, making a few mistakes while singing "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," saying it was the attempt that counted, not the song. Earlier, he tossed in a coda for Shania Twain's "That Don't Impress Me Much" at the end of the band's "Trouble," having introduced the number as one that would have been a giant hit, had Twain recorded it.

Johnson led off his set in a seasonal state of mind as well, with an acoustic, semi-jazzy rendition of "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" and later offered up reggae bits of Bob Marley's "Stir It Up" and "Trenchtown Rock."

Topping the bill as show-closer was Creed, which suffered a misfire due to vocal monitor problems during its first number. During some downtime to fix the trouble, the restless audience began to chant "Coldplay," then Creed started all over again with singer Scott Stapp visibly angry about the situation.

Also appearing were the Vines, Good Charlotte, Dashboard Confessional, Saturday Night Live's Jimmy Fallon with a band, and rappers Jurassic 5.

The concert was the second of two Almost Acoustic Christmas events presented by Los Angeles alternative rock station KROQ. Night one included the live debuts of Billy Corgan's post-Smashing Pumpkins band, Zwan; and Audioslave, featuring ex-Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell and former members of Rage Against The Machine.

-- Darryl Morden, Los Angeles

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