Live: 102.7 Kiss FM Jingle Ball in Anaheim

A few minutes after the rapper David Banner sauntered onstage at the 102.7 Kiss FM Jingle Ball in Anaheim on Saturday night, he plucked an adorable little girl from the audience, hoisted her onto his shoulders and ran through an ethnic roll call of the crowd. “What I love about Jingle Ball is that it brings so many different races together,” Banner said. “Where are my Native American brothers and sisters in the house? Where the black folks at? White people, make some noise!”

Banner’s banter invited everyone into the big tent of pop fandom (and, per his hit “Get Like Me,” adulation of well-appointed Chevys). Jingle Ball had a similar, if even more sweeping goal: four hours of rapid-fire blasts to the pleasure cells where teenagers store their favorite hooks from drive-time radio. The particulars of genre, fashion and culture all succumb to a simple metric: Does a single sound good while ripping doughnuts in the high-school parking lot? If yes, then Chris Brown’s fleet-footed R&B dance moves, Tokio Hotel’s Sonic the Emo Hedgehog haircuts and Katy Perry’s bi-curious electro pop are all welcome.

There’s no room for dawdling, however, as Jingle Ball’s format (each artists plays two to five singles, then politely exits) makes a big entrance essential. So it seemed entirely appropriate that Perry would emerge onstage from a giant banana in a particularly racy Mrs. Claus outfit, or that Jesse McCartney would preface his set with a video montage of himself posing in a variety of expensive sunglasses, or that Chris Brown would descend headfirst from the rafters dangled by invisible wires.

In a weird inversion of pop radio’s merits, however, a strong and ubiquitous single wasn’t enough to stand out in the Jingle Ball roundtable. The British singer Estelle can claim two of the most consistently fun pop tunes today –- the Kanye West-assisted “American Boy” and the lovers-rock reggae hit “Come Over,” but an uncertain mix hobbled both. Any live vocal contributions by Akon or the Pussycat Dolls (whose burlesque dances are bested by locals at Jumbo’s Clown Room any given night) were flagrantly outnumbered by backing tracks, though Akon did compensate with an inspired bit of crowd-surfing.

Fortunately, the guard changed so fast there was barely time to stew in opposition. Some artists did even better live than on the radio -- “Get Like Me” misuses Banner’s fierce Southern bark in service of consumption porn, but a bit of thug bravado was most welcome after Tokio Hotel’s glittery elf-core. McCartney’s “Leavin’ ” is a highly suspect invitation to join the young singer on his hypothetical private jet, but his incandescent grin and unexpected vocal range made a good argument for boy band-era precision onstage.

Any mere mention of the name Chris Brown from the show’s hosts sent the young, female and generally besotted audience into screaming fits. Brown’s headlining set was, in kind, less a performance of music than a celebration of Chris Brown-ness, a flaming nebula of charisma that made whatever snippet of song he tackled largely beside the point. Brown is probably the best dancer in pop music today (a hugely underrated skill), and he turned over a big portion of his set to a gang of nimble kids who joined him in several dance-offs that surely left phantom pains in the joints of all adults in the room. Hits like “No Air” and “Kiss Kiss” were perfectly competent windows-down confections, but each were subsumed in the sheer wattage of Brown’s star power. So goes Jingle Ball as a whole -- a good song will get you on the radio, but you have to rise above the playlist to stay there.

-- August Brown

Photos: Banner with fan Alexis Wilkins; the Pussycat Dolls; Chris Brown by Christina House / For The Times

Comments

[Amanda Kaulitz]

Last night was full of really good performances!
But i must say, tokio hotel was the BEST over all!
I just love those boys with all of my heart hehe.

Katy Perry did an amzing job too, i thought the banana thing was hilarous.
And the pussycat dolls did a good job as well..but the bouncing splits move was questionable,

[Riley]

The Jingle Ball village was off the hook with the performance by Boa! She was incredible! Thank you, KIIS FM!

[Nick]

Really
What a pity
I shouldn't have missed it ...

[dajahajones]

chrisbrown is so sexy